Alas, poor Netscape, we knew it well

The Netscape blog has announced that as of 1 February 2008 all support for their browser (for all versions) will come to an end. That means no more security upgrades from AOL for the browser they bought back in 1998. But is it bad news or good news?

The bottom line is that AOL has pouried money and resources into Netscape since they bought the company, and they’re just not getting enough return from it to make it worth the continued expenditure. That’s a sound business decision. Many users will bemoan the fact that they’re throwing in the towel, especially since Netscape not only grew from the very first web browser ever but also founght so hard against Internet Explorer to give users a choice in how they surf the Wide Wide World of Web.

Luckily Mozilla took up the challenge and has managed to get a nice bit of market share from the behemoth from Redmond. It’s also good news for users’ security, because while Netscape is built upon Firefox code it has often lagged behind Firefox in terms of getting security updates passed along to their users.

For more information on AOL’s announcement you can read

• PC World: AOL to End Support for Netscape Browser
• Bloomberg.com: Netscape to Be Shut Down After Failing to Win Users (Update1)
• In Pursuit of Mysteries: Rest in Peace, Netscape
• Asa Dotzler – Firefox and more: it’s about time. r.i.p. netscape browser