Netscape Navigator : In mid-1994, Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clark collaborated with Marc Andreessen to found Mosaic Communications (later renamed to Netscape Communications.) Andreessen had just graduated from the University of Illinois, where he had been the leader of a certain software project known as "Mosaic". By this time, the Mosaic browser was starting to make splashes outside of the academic circles where it had begun, and both men saw the great potential for web browsing software. Within a brief half-year period, many of the original folk from the NCSA Mosaic project were working for Netscape, and a browser was released to the public.
Netscape quickly became a success, and the overwhelming market share it soon had was due to many factors, not the least of which was its break-neck pace of software releases (a new term was soon coined - "internet time" - which described the incredible pace at which browsers and the web were moving.) It also created and innovated at an incredible pace. New HTML capabilities in the form of "extensions" to the language were introduced. Since these capabilities were often flashier than what other run-of-the-mill browsers could produce, Netscape's browser helped cement their own dominance. By the summer of 1995, it was a good bet that if you were browsing the Internet, you were doing so with a Netscape browser - by some accounts Netscape had as much as an 80%+ market share.
With the launch of Windows 95 and a web browser of its own (Internet Explorer) in August 1995, Microsoft began an effort to challenge Netscape. For quite a while, Internet Explorer played catch-up to Netscape's continual pushing of the browsing technological envelope, but with one major advantage: unlike Netscape, Internet Explorer was free of charge. Netscape version 2.0 introduced a bevy of must-have breakthrough features (frames, Java, Javascript and Plug-ins) which helped distance it from the pack, even *with* its attendant price tag. Mid-1995 to late-1996 was a very busy time for both browsers; it seemed like every week one company or the other was releasing a new beta or final version to the public, each seemingly trying to one-up the other.
But slowly, Internet Explorer gained market share ground. By the fourth generations of both browsers, Internet Explorer had caught up technologically with Netscape's browser. As time went on, Netscape's market share diminished from its once-towering percentages.
In January 1998, Netscape made an announcement that their browser would thereafter be free, and also that the development of the browser would move to an open-source process. This came as wonderful news to many on the Internet. But the time between this announcement, and the actual delivery of Mozilla 1.0 would be a long road (over 4 years.) The process ended up taking much longer than originally anticipated, what with the Netscape/AOL merger and the late-hour decision to integrate an entirely new next-generation HTML rendering engine.
Even with the tantalizing promise for authors of finally having a wide-distribution browser that completely adheres to the official language standards for HTML, CSS, DOM and ECMAScript, the market-share that Netscape once held has mostly evaporated (by many accounts its market share is now down below 20%.) Its initial release of Netscape 6.0 was considered slow and buggy, and adoption was slow to occur. Now that Mozilla has finally reached what it considers to be a significant milestone in its development process (1.0 - which Netscape 7.0 is based on), perhaps those market share usage numbers will increase again...certainly the latest releases are very stable, much faster and support an ever-growing variety of standards and features.
Since work on Mozilla began, the real work and interesting news really happens there. Many people have asked why I also do not include coverage of Mozilla here on this site. The answer is: I already do - from what I can tell there are no significant differences of any kind between the Mozilla code and the corresponding Netscape code with respect to HTML/CSS support. The only difference is that Netscape is based on Mozilla code that is not always the most current. Mozilla support information IS listed here if you know how to interpret it.
It doesn't look like Netscape will be much of a marketshare threat to anyone anymore. As already mentioned, the real work goes on with the Mozilla project now, but it is uncertain how this open source project will fare and progress now that its corporate parent has loosened its ties. The all-in-one suite approach that Mozilla has pursued up to its 1.0 milestone has been changing. The new stand-alone browser (Firebird) and email client (Thunderbird) projects attempt to trim down the mass that any application suite tends to carry with it. Will "diet Mozilla" attract a bigger audience? Time will, of course, tell.
Netscape quickly became a success, and the overwhelming market share it soon had was due to many factors, not the least of which was its break-neck pace of software releases (a new term was soon coined - "internet time" - which described the incredible pace at which browsers and the web were moving.) It also created and innovated at an incredible pace. New HTML capabilities in the form of "extensions" to the language were introduced. Since these capabilities were often flashier than what other run-of-the-mill browsers could produce, Netscape's browser helped cement their own dominance. By the summer of 1995, it was a good bet that if you were browsing the Internet, you were doing so with a Netscape browser - by some accounts Netscape had as much as an 80%+ market share.
With the launch of Windows 95 and a web browser of its own (Internet Explorer) in August 1995, Microsoft began an effort to challenge Netscape. For quite a while, Internet Explorer played catch-up to Netscape's continual pushing of the browsing technological envelope, but with one major advantage: unlike Netscape, Internet Explorer was free of charge. Netscape version 2.0 introduced a bevy of must-have breakthrough features (frames, Java, Javascript and Plug-ins) which helped distance it from the pack, even *with* its attendant price tag. Mid-1995 to late-1996 was a very busy time for both browsers; it seemed like every week one company or the other was releasing a new beta or final version to the public, each seemingly trying to one-up the other.
But slowly, Internet Explorer gained market share ground. By the fourth generations of both browsers, Internet Explorer had caught up technologically with Netscape's browser. As time went on, Netscape's market share diminished from its once-towering percentages.
In January 1998, Netscape made an announcement that their browser would thereafter be free, and also that the development of the browser would move to an open-source process. This came as wonderful news to many on the Internet. But the time between this announcement, and the actual delivery of Mozilla 1.0 would be a long road (over 4 years.) The process ended up taking much longer than originally anticipated, what with the Netscape/AOL merger and the late-hour decision to integrate an entirely new next-generation HTML rendering engine.
Even with the tantalizing promise for authors of finally having a wide-distribution browser that completely adheres to the official language standards for HTML, CSS, DOM and ECMAScript, the market-share that Netscape once held has mostly evaporated (by many accounts its market share is now down below 20%.) Its initial release of Netscape 6.0 was considered slow and buggy, and adoption was slow to occur. Now that Mozilla has finally reached what it considers to be a significant milestone in its development process (1.0 - which Netscape 7.0 is based on), perhaps those market share usage numbers will increase again...certainly the latest releases are very stable, much faster and support an ever-growing variety of standards and features.
Since work on Mozilla began, the real work and interesting news really happens there. Many people have asked why I also do not include coverage of Mozilla here on this site. The answer is: I already do - from what I can tell there are no significant differences of any kind between the Mozilla code and the corresponding Netscape code with respect to HTML/CSS support. The only difference is that Netscape is based on Mozilla code that is not always the most current. Mozilla support information IS listed here if you know how to interpret it.
It doesn't look like Netscape will be much of a marketshare threat to anyone anymore. As already mentioned, the real work goes on with the Mozilla project now, but it is uncertain how this open source project will fare and progress now that its corporate parent has loosened its ties. The all-in-one suite approach that Mozilla has pursued up to its 1.0 milestone has been changing. The new stand-alone browser (Firebird) and email client (Thunderbird) projects attempt to trim down the mass that any application suite tends to carry with it. Will "diet Mozilla" attract a bigger audience? Time will, of course, tell.
