AOL kills Netscape's future

AOL is stopping Netscape development. Details here:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205204433

Ending support, too:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140903-c,netscape/article.html

 

Thanks. I read about it over at SD701 as well as at Jay's forum. Frankly, while it disgusted me, it didn't come as any real surprise. Another member said we should also start worrying about the future of both SeaMonkey and Thunderbird. Not sure why but that was his concern.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm not about to dump Opera. If in fact his fears are realized, I can jump over to Windows Live Mail which is actually quite a good e-mail client or throw in my full support for Opera (although I've never really taken to their e-mail app).

 

. What future?
I was never interested in Navigator 9, other than a separate source of bookmarks, but I, really, liked the idea of Netscape Messenger.
Yes, there is concern about Thunderbird and Seamonkey. The former will, no longer, be developed by the Mozilla/Firefox people. It may be picked up by someone else, but with the same assurance of being carried on as Netscape.
Seamonkey has been a side project all along, and it may dropped any time.
Just look at the "development" of Seamonkey2.0, which is a suite with many Firefox features. It has been at the same build type, i.e. a1 pre for months.

 

So T-bird may be going the same route? Okay.

And what about the Eudora project? Was that little more than a scam? A pipe-dream? I thought almost from the start that it wouldn't materialize and other than their finally getting it out the door, it all but disappeared. Another bad joke.

So... should T-bird go, what e-mail client would be left (other than Windows Live Mail which I am now beginning to make greater use of)???

 

TB will be usable, no matter what. As for the Eudora project, it is in the same category as Seamonkey, and Eudora8.0 has not budged from b1.
As for Windows Live Mail. what is it? I know, it is the new name given in Vista, to what is Outlook Express in XP, and earlier OS. I have XP, and have no intention to get Vista, even with a new computer, if necessary.
In other words, it does not mean that because a program will not be updated, and, thus supported, that it will self-destruct! (I hope not).

 

I have XP also but when I installed MS Instant Messenger and opened a new hotmail account it gave me an option of installing Windows Live Mail. It's actually pretty cool since it syncs your hotmail account with your pop mail all in one lay-out. Eventually I'll be replacing my computer... probably in a few months... and going to Vista. It's inevitable, Westside. You will too at some point.

As for T-bird still being usable, that's not the point. If it is not updated then there will be security breaches. And I don't want to use something that could be a potential security problem.

 

Just an echo, to say that it is no surprise that Netscape development has been discontinued. The limited budget AOL has given for the project made its competition with IE impossible. Netscape 9 was an improvement on the earlier versions of Netscape, however, I didn't really use any of the versions.

Firefox will still be the front runner of the Mozilla development team, and if the decision is to drop Thunderbird, then so be it. However, as Westside commented, one can continue to use the program whether or not its development continues... which I intend to do. The latest development with Netscape could cause Mozilla to reconsider dropping Thunderbird, at least that is my hope! It will be interesting to see what develops now, on the Mozilla front.

Asa Dotzler's take on the end of Netscape: Firefox and more

 

Ramona,
thanks for the Asa Dotzler's link. I agree nearly 100% with it.
Except that it does not point out the total ineptness of AOL in handling what could have been a valiant fight against Microsoft's dominance. But, that's business, and, AOl messed up there, too.

 

I always found it odd that AOL did not make Netscape its default browser to AOL members. That kind of defeated the purpose of acquiring Netscape in the first place.

I still use Netscape 7.2 Composer for my limited HTML pages.

 

May be I did not make this clear. AOL did try to use Netscape, or actually the Gecko engine to build their AOL suite. This happened at the time that Netscape6.0 came out (rushed by AOL), and, came to an end with the same engine used in Netscape6.1. Users were overwhelmingly against this effort, and the fact that Netscape was pretty crummy killed the effort. I tested this AOL Gecko, and found it better than Netscape. And, the fact that Microsoft gave millions of dollars to AOL settled the matter. And, effectively killed Netscape. There was never any question that the Netscape suite would replace the old AOL suite.

 

One of the best things about NN9 was that it was almost a FF clone. I mean, it did a couple of things differently right out of the box in the tabbed browsing. But, basically it filled a back up need for me somewhat better than SM (browers0.

The back up need is that through my time with FF, and it is becoming less true now, a new iteration of FF might break something I valued. So, I needed a back up, basically a one-iteration back install to use until either they or I could fix what it was that I wanted. SM did this for me until NN9, and actually had something I liked better than in FF. But its saving of bookmarks was and still is clutsy; and using a group of bookmarks together is klutsy. The "k" is one step worse than the "c ". In fact, I have one group I open as a group in FF that I cannot figure out how to open as a group in SM.

Be that as it may, SM browser was the stand in before and it can be again.

But, maybe even better: If one has an install that is fine, then keep a full download of the .exe somewhere to fall back on. The updates are automatic now, or almost automatic, so getting a full .exe is up to the user. Just get it, don't install it, you already have it installed.

If the next update hurts, the get rid of the install, maybe even go through a complete expunge of FF, and go back now to your full .exe of the last iteration that worked for you. You may be a tad back in security; but if your own security stuff is O.K., and you don't do anything stupid, you will be O.K., and your problem will get fixed by Mozilla or by you quickly.

Egad, I do run on!!

>>RSM