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NETSCAPE HISTORY

Netscape was born the child of University of Illinois graduate Marc Andreessen and

Silicon Graphics' Jim lar!" Andreessen had spent some of his time at university

wor!ing on the NSA #National enter for Supercomputing Applications$ Mosaicbrowser and understood full well the potential it offered" %ith lar!'s help& the two

created Mosaic ommunications orporation in April (()& pulling in many former

SGI and NSA employees" *he team then churned out the first point release in

+ctober of that year, Mosaic Netscape release -"(" .y the end of /ecember& the

company underwent a significant transformation& adopting the name Netscape

ommunications and launching Netscape Navigator "-"

*he company launched Netscape Navigator into the mar!et without even a

glimmer of real competition and the browser went on to become the de facto portal

to the web in early ((0" +f course& Microsoft was wor!ing feverishly in the

bac!ground to play catch1up with a browser of its own creation& licensing Mosaic's

tech to build the first iteration of Internet 23plorer"

+n August (th of that year& the then roughly 1year1old Netscape went public with

its initial stoc! offering at 456 per share" .y close of day& the company's valuation

s!yroc!eted to nearly 47 billion" It was around this time that Microsoft was

preparing to release %indows (0 and a separate add1on pac!, %indows (0 8lus9

8ac!& which included Internet 23plorer "- and *8:I8& the protocol needed to use

the web" At last& Microsoft had arrived with its first effort at a Netscape !iller"

Netscape and Internet 23plorer traded releases in loc!step throughout ((0 and

((;& but by the time Internet 23plorer version 7"- was released& Microsoft had

fully caught up and was able to match Netscape feature1for1feature" In an attemptto differentiate from its I2 rival and grow its user base& Netscape too! a stab at the

enterprise crowd and launched the Netscape ommunicator )"- bundle in late

((;"

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ommunicator added in a Usenet client& web editor& e1mail app and even an

address boo!< in short& it =uite handily defined the very early days of sales1 and

management1driven bloatware" *he move& however& failed to gain much traction

with the suit1and1tie set"

Netscape continued to develop both Netscape Navigator 7"- and ommunicator

)"-& but the looming threat of Internet 23plorer& with version 7 bundled into

%indows (0 service release 5& still lingered heavily in the bac!ground" *he rivalry

was compounded even further when Microsoft's browser team apparently dropped

its massive I2 logo off at Netscape's campus the night of Internet 23plorer )'s

launch" *he Netscape crew understandably too! issue with the slight and toppled

the giant I2 logo over& placing its Mo>illa dragon mascot atop it and holding a sign

that read ?Netscape @5 Microsoft 6"?

In January ((6& Netscape announced its intention to release the source code for

Netscape ommunicator to the public< a move that gave rise to the Mo>illa

+rgani>ation" Unfortunately for Netscape& this also had the effect of stalling

development on its browser platform through much of that year& essentially giving

Microsoft the lead it needed" And that summer& Internet 23plorer finally overtoo!

Netscape as the most used browser& a mantle Netscape was never able to win

bac!"

*he company& however& was far from being completely wiped out, A+ recogni>ed

some value in the struggling company and purchased it in November ((6 for a

whopping 4)"5 billion" *he ac=uisition did nothing to spur development efforts

though& and it wouldn't be until April of 5--- that preview versions of Netscape ;&

based on Mo>illa code& saw the light of day" A further two years later& Netscape @

was released& serving as the last maBor build version to come from that source

code"

Not long after& A+ shuttered the Netscape department and laid off most of the

staff in 5--7& opting instead to continue development in1house with Mo>illa's

Cirefo3 as its code base" *he once proud web app was also re1branded as

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Netscape .rowser and A+ eventually outsourced successive releases to

Mercurial ommunications& a anadian software developer" Mercurial babysat and

pushed out versions 6 through 6" of the Netscape .rowser between 5--0 and

5--@ to a public that largely didn't care any longer" And& in a sad final gasp& A+

cobbled together a dev team to push out Netscape Navigator (& its first internally

built browser effort since version @" Its release would signal the end of Netscape

the browser& as A+ pulled the plug on it in Cebruary of 5--6"

%hile Netscape didn't stand the test of time =uite li!e its chief rival Internet

23plorer has& its open1source transition into Mo>illa did eventually birth Cirefo3 11 a

browser success story in and of itself" .ut Netscape's precipitous rise and fall in

those early internet days wasn't without lasting effects, Its brief stint at the top and

tense rivalry with Microsoft laid much of the groundwor! for innovation in the

browsing space"

QUESTIONS

Who founded it?

Marc Andreessen and Jim lar!

Why it failed?

%ith the launch of %indows (0 and a web browser of its own #Internet

23plorer$ in August ((0& Microsoft began an effort to challenge Netscape"

Cor =uite a while& Internet 23plorer played catch1up to Netscape's continual

pushing of the browsing technological envelope& but with one maBor

advantage, unli!e Netscape& Internet 23plorer was free of charge" Netscape

version 5"- introduced a bevy of must1have brea!through features #frames&Java& Javascript and 8lug1ins$ which helped distance it from the pac!& even

DwithD its attendant price tag" Mid1((0 to late1((; was a very busy time for

both browsers< it seemed li!e every wee! one company or the other was

releasing a new beta or final version to the public& each seemingly trying to

one1up the other"

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.ut slowly& Internet 23plorer gained mar!et share ground" .y the fourth

generations of both browsers& Internet 23plorer had caught up technologically

with Netscape's browser" As time went on& Netscape's mar!et share diminished

from its once1towering percentages" 2ven with the tantali>ing promise for

authors of finally having a wide1distribution browser that completely adheres to

the official language standards for E*M& SS& /+M and 2MAScript& the

mar!et1share that Netscape once held has mostly evaporated #by many

accounts its mar!et share is now down below 5-F"$ Its initial release of

Netscape ;"- was considered slow and buggy& and adoption was slow to occur"

Now that Mo>illa has finally reached what it considers to be a significant

milestone in its development process #"- 1 which Netscape @"- is based on$&

perhaps those mar!et share usage numbers will increase again"""certainly the

latest releases are very stable& much faster and support an ever1growing variety

of standards and features" It doesn't loo! li!e Netscape will be much of a

mar!etshare threat to anyone anymore" As already mentioned& the real wor!

goes on with the Mo>illa proBect now& but it is uncertain how this open source

proBect will fare and progress now that its corporate parent has loosened its

ties" *he all1in1one suite approach that Mo>illa has pursued up to its "-

milestone has been changing" *he new stand1alone browser #Cirebird$ and

email client #*hunderbird$ proBects attempt to trim down the mass that any

application suite tends to carry with it" %ill ?diet Mo>illa? attract a bigger

audience *ime will& of course& tell"

*he Netscape browser& once a solid product& became crash1prone and buggy

Whee ae they no!?