Announcing Netscape 9

Site Admin Joined: Jan 1, 2003 Posts: 6426

Contrary to popular belief as being posted elsewhere, "Netscape" is NOT a thing of the past. Netscape, is owned by AOL but that's where it stops so to speak. Netscape has it's own programming staff and engineering sections devoted to ONLY programming and updating Netscape.

Netscape 9 is NOT AOL "bloat" nor does it contain anything AOL bloat-wise. Netscape 9 has its own features and other functionality directed at it's own netscape.com website, etc.

Elite Poster Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 417

Why does AOL continue to maintain Netscape? I'm sure they have their own version for their internet service. Just curious?

BTW Bill Gates used to walk our halls trying to get us to put Dos on our workstations rather than Unix (circa 1982).

Outstanding Contributor Joined: Feb 11, 2003 Posts: 4175

AOL had gotten rid of the Netscape staff, and outsourced the development of NS8.x. Correct me if I am wrong.
I will love to see what the new Netscape staff will do with NS9.
As for bloat, I never found it offensive, nor really bloat. But some people cannot tolerate even a link to get AOL stuff.
For those who may not know I was an AOL subscriber for five years. I have not had a computer of my own for quite eight years, and never paid for subscription to Netscape.

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:23 am

Jay, the problem is that popular belief drives the decisions of many (if not most) people. And since AOL took over Netscape and essentially drove it into the ground, most people believe that any attempts to resurrect Netscape will have AOL at the bottom of it. As the preceding poster asks, why does AOL continue to maintain Netscape? What is in it for AOL? The Netscape services that are "tied into" NS 9 make me a bit suspicious. I remember the original Netscape portal. Loved it. Customized my own Start Page. But over time (and particularly following the AOL take-over, it was so loaded with commercialism, ads, and AOL "stuff" that I eventually (like most of my friends and family) dumped it for other less intrusive websites. So, there are reasons for popular belief and I think it is going to take a lot more than simply saying it ain't so to make believers out of most of us who were faithful Netscapers at one time. Crying or Very sad

Elite Poster Joined: Oct 27, 2004 Posts: 417

The only evidence I've seen of AOL in all these years of using Netscape is that I can use their IM and not be a subccriber.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 1, 2003 Posts: 6426

Westside wrote:

... outsourced the development of NS8.x. Correct me if I am wrong

Correct, AOL outsourced Netscape development of 8.x to Mercurial Communicatiions but later decided to once again hire it's own director who then was responsible for hiring the in-house programming and engineering staff that we have now.

Site Admin Joined: Jan 1, 2003 Posts: 6426

JamesD wrote:

The Netscape services that are "tied into" NS 9 make me a bit suspicious

What's "suspicious" about Netscape tying in it's own portal / website, etc.??

JamesD wrote:

Customized my own Start Page

You're speaking of MyNetscape I assume. MyNetscape is undergoing a major overhaul and will be ready in about another month.

JamesD wrote:

why does AOL continue to maintain Netscape? What is in it for AOL?

Revenue and ROI and a paycheck for me!!! Smile

Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:07 pm

Well... I never denied another man his right to gainful employment. I'll reserve judgment since I've too little to go on. It's all just speculation from my end so you understand, I'm sure, that not being in the know (as you are), I"m bound to jump to possible wrong conclusions. We'll see and hopefully it will be a good thing for Netscape, Netscape workers and Netscape lovers. Smile

Elite Poster Joined: Nov 06, 2004 Posts: 499

I may have missed, but when is No. 9 coming out?

Site Admin Joined: Jan 1, 2003 Posts: 6426

JamesD wrote:

I"m bound to jump to possible wrong conclusions

Wrong conclusions are better than no conclusions. I appreciate your candor and thoughts, negative OR positive, doesn't matter .. keeps the adrenaline flowing and at my age ANYthing flowing is a great asset. Smile

Site Admin Joined: Jan 1, 2003 Posts: 6426

Town_Girl wrote:

I may have missed, but when is No. 9 coming out?

Soon, next month or two or .... who knows exactly. Stay tuned to my announcements on the front page of the UFAQ.

Guest

I, too, was quite huffy when NS split from its mail client and I had to get used to using two different machines for what used to be an integrated machine that did both pretty well.

However.

After a fair amount of thrashing about trying to get used to the two-program approach, while I will certainly applaud anyone who eventually puts the two together, I find myself dealing with both of them very, very well.

They are a great pair of programs, and they are as integrated as they need to be, AFAIC. When I click on a link in a piece of mail, I get NS 8.x opening up with the link there. When I try to email a page from the browser, I get a TBird piece of email that is treated more or less as I would have expected, if they were integrated.

SO. For whatever reason they are now in twain, it suits me quite hunky-dory now that I get it.

You should look at it. It's a good pair. IMHO.

Cadet First Class Joined: Jul 09, 2005 Posts: 110

I should ammend my post a page or 2 back: one of the main reasons I got NS8 was for the look. The other reasons I've kept it are features I've found very useful: the ability to switch between IE and FF modes (Windows Update in NS8 Very Happy

), the Site Controls so that you it can remember view-in-IE-mode sites (I default to FF-mode otherwise), and that fact that it is based on FF means that I can add extensions to it too (without too much hassle).

I'd be glad to hear if in upcoming announcements, that NS9 will keep such features, or vastly improve upon them. Jay, so it's an annoucement every Tuesday until the release? Do you happen to know how many Tuesdays that will be?

[EDIT]: Ah, I see someone has already asked about a release date. Nevermind that part then Rolling Eyes

Outstanding Contributor Joined: Feb 11, 2003 Posts: 4175

Every one has different reasons for liking a browsers. As for me, I don't like what is given, so I changed the theme to the Aluminum Alloy from Sailfish.
As for the dual engine, it is easily obtained in Firefox, etc. by means of the IE Tab extention. Site controls are not so important to me, as I use almosr exclusively the Firefox mode.
As for adding extentions, very few are compatible with NS8.x, even with the Mr Tech Local Install extention present. In fact, I cannot even update that extention, which allows me to by-pass the incompatibility of several extentions. And, what about the Spyware protection? Once again, I lost permissions to do a scan.
I hope that NS9 will work better than NS8, period.

Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:25 am

What gecko ver is in NS9 ??
1.8x or 1.9x (stil alpha stage) ?

In 8.1.2 gecko is outdated... 20060912 (1.7.5)