Fare Thee Well, Dear Netscape
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008I am both stunned and yet not surprised by the recent announcement that support for Netscape web browsers will officially end on February 1, 2008. While I have always had some version of Netscape installed on my machines, I have never been much of a Netscape user, only opting to use Netscape for testing purposes and just plain curiosity when new versions were launched. However, once I converted to Firefox, I immediately gained a healthy respect for Netscape.
Some see this as a victory for Microsoft, that Internet Explorer has finally killed off it’s long-time nemesis. However, I do not believe it was Microsoft that killed Netscape. Really, with both Netscape and Firefox sharing the same guts, it was Firefox that ultimately killed Netscape. And let’s face it, Netscape was essentially a skinned version of Firefox anyway:
Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions.
Oh well, for now I am quite happy to use Firefox. With Netscape’s demise, I will potentially have one less browser to test against in the near future and the world wide web has a more consolidated alternative to Internet Explorer. Fare thee well, dear Netscape. Go get Firefox today.