I had the pleasure of launching the Netscape ISP, a pretty good use of the brand that became the fastest growing ISP in 2005. But nothing is immune to the "leadership" at AOL, so all good things that they touch will undoubtedly come to an end.

Thanks for the security warning. I would have continued using Netscape for irrational, sentimental brand loyalty. I realize its creators cried their way to the bank a long time ago. R.I.P. I'll always have my Netscape t-shirt.

I used Netscape very early, but grew increasingly frustrated as the years went by.
I reluctantly started using IE after Netscape 6 proved to be unusable.
I am now quite happy with Firefox.

NETSCAPE LOGS OFF
I nominate this headline for 'Saddest Headline of Fast Forward Year'.
Just reading it really gripped me painfully.
There was a while a bit back when the only browser for me was Netscape, and now it looks like I'm going to be there at it's demise.
Goodbye, Netscape, and thanks for helping a technophobe make easy sense of the Interweb.
(And it's a permanent transfer to Firefox for me.)

I remember being ticked off at web pages that said "best viewed in Netscape Navigator" or some such, because I was very happy using OS/2's built-in browser, WebExplorer (whose excellent browsing history "map" has yet to be equalled). I eventually had to move to Navigator/Communicator because IBM stopped development on WE. I stuck with Netscape products after my transition to Windows, but after awhile couldn't take the incompatibilities and instability. So it was on to IE for a bit until Firefox came along to save the day.

I started browsing in 1994 using Mozilla (as well as several other now defunct browsers). I LOVED Netscape and was convinced that IE would never equal it. Well I got that wrong. I stopped using Netscape when it went from slick and cutting edge, to a feature-bloated monstrosity. I'm a die hard Firefox user now. Goodbye Netscape, thanks for the memories.

Ha. I had the exact same browser-use history as Mr. Pegoraro. The same sequence of experiences; left each for the exact same reasons. Love the Firefox (now). Does that make me anywhere near as cool as Rob? ;-)

I would recommend to all Netscape die hards to check out a nifty suite called "Sea Monkey." It is released by Mozilla, the same folks that are responsible for the Firefox browser.

It is a stable, open source project suite that offers users a browser, mail and IRC program in one package. I think its browser is very similar to the original Netscape and I use it quite often.

I remember being an early fan of Netscape, but when they decided to turn it into a Telnet Client along with other bloatware I moved to IE 2.0 and I've never gone back. I love the debate about FF3 being x% faster than IE, Opera, Webkit, et. al., but from behind my Quad Core CPU nothing can compare to a multithreaded IE; especially a single-threaded FF. Netscape spent too much time worrying about Microsoft without actually trying to innovate. The one thing MS did right from the start was realize that browsing was for consumers and that the browser was an appliance that had to maintain a certain level of pragmatic simplicity. Netscape tried to create the kitchen sink of web protocol front-ends and in the process lost focus on the heart of the Internet; browsing.

yaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooo!

prayers can be answered

Ditto on the same browser history as Mr. Pegoraro. God knows how much time I wasted at work trying to get Mosaic for Windows 3.1 to work with that crappy FTP Software (horrible company name by the way) DOS TCP/IP stack that my employer at the time decided to go with.

Countless hours in DOS running memmaker and tuning my config.sys and autoexec.bat to boot just enough TSRs to get on the net, but still leave enough memory for Mosaic.

The first version of Netscape after Andreessen started Netscape was horrible compared to Mosaic, but it eventually recovered. As others have noted, it soon ballooned into a huge POS and I had no resort but to go with IE at the time.

I was pretty devoted to IE for some time until the spyware/malware problem with IE mushroomed into a real threat -- there was a time that I was actually afraid to use IE and would scold my wife for using it on her machine, since I would have to be the one to clean up the mess when her machine got saturated with spyware (somehow it never did though).

Ever since then, I've been a devoted Firefox user and have been pretty happy ever since.

Jeff G.

Compared to BMS mapping in CICS, Netscape was like science fiction come to life when it first came out. Anyone who ever worked with 3270s and 1,920 characters per screen could easily see where the world would be going back then. Almost anyone, that is. A big plus was that there were nowhere near the kinds of security exposures as there are now.

I remember using Netscape for the first time back in 1995 while still in college. It was the only browser our network admin allowed on campus. I still have fond memories of it. Remember the "What's Cool" and "What's New" links? It always had something interesting website to check out.

For a while Netscape used to come with a simple graphical web-site builder. I used it to create my very first web sites -- before I took the time to learn HTML. Good old Netscape. Before the web was really much of a web, I used Cello to move around hypertexed documents online. Then there was Mosaic. How exciting that little spinning globe was! Then Netscape, then IE, and for the past several years Firefox. On a Mac, of course. Every time I have to use Windows I always wind up saying, "I hate this operating system!!" ;-)

Security... NORTON.. my frontline savior... I will continue to use Netscape.. far exceeds IE... its overall setup is pleasing and convenient. And its just simply faster... I plan to download FireFox as a primary backup when and if Netscape no longer serves to my limited expectations..

All these years and all these millions of webpaes later and I will not go down without the diehard mentality I am cursed with... Long Live Antiquated Netscape... 7.2.. I can now reload it and not fear that nasty upgrade message.. N9 blows...

I am also happy to hear all the positive remarks directed at Firefox.. The piece of mind everyone have provided is priceless and removes any and all fears i may have, when and if I switch over...

CYA Netscape.. you are/were the BEST>>> I will hang on as long as humanly possible... this I promise...

It is only very recently that I have been forced to stop using Netscape mail. I will always miss it, and actually feel a little sad about it as I prepare to clear it all off my computer. What brings an even bigger sadness is that AOL exists at all. Recently I spoke to an AOL technician. He said, "You oughta know what it's like to work here!" Apparently it's not a happy place, and so I guess things could be much worse.
I've been using Mozilla...Firefox for browsing since it was young and occasionally send donations to their developers. I do wish Firefox were a little more stable as once in a long while it just disappears with everything on it and never returns.

I wonder if Delta Airlines will get the memo? I too am sad to see Netscape go. But on another note, I guess it will take the actual official death of Netscape to wake up the sleeping IT people at Delta Airlines. The only two browsers supported on their website are IE and Netscape. My emailed questions about supporting FF are met with the explanation that their decision to support only IE and Netscape is "based on the dominant use throughout the industry." How do these clueless large companies stay in business anyway?

Looks like AOL killed the Internet star.

I agree with Jessica. Very sad.

Remember, it was Netscape's IPO that launched the dotcom boom -- and now we've come full circle. This would be a great time to do a retrospective on the history of the Internet.

Firefox is the browser I prefer except when forced to use IE for those #&@ morons who create IE only websites, mostly corporations and users of antiquated technology like Crystal Reports. Forcing someone to use IE is like forcing someone to give their ATM pin number... reason IE is so vunerable is that it is inextricably connected to Windows OS. Our small company of 125 switched to Mac for web and mail since 2000 because of IE & Windows insecurity. We've never looked back.

I fondly remember running Netscape for the first time sometime around 1994/1995 -- wow, the background was grey, and look at the cool horizontal rules! The world has moved on from then, but it certainly revolutionized the way people used the web.

I built my first website for our nonprofit with Netscape Communicator in 1996. It was simple and intuitive and worked well and we distributed tons of information for free. Now we pay a guy $100K a year to update our website and it doesn't work nearly as well. Does technology always go forward?

It is sad to see Netscape hit the dust.

What Microsoft couldn't do with their billions, AOL did it with their minions!

AOL has a rich history of pulling defeat out of the clutches of victory!

Case's dubious legacy lives on!

I remember the day in college when I finally switched from Mosaic to the better and faster browser called Netscape. Though I switched to IE and then to Firefox years ago, I still have fond memories of Netscape and those early years of the internet.

Thanks Netscape for the experience and hours and hours of fun!!

What took so long!
Netscape has been dead ever since we sabotaged it with the winsock.dll back in the 90's! Anybody remember that little genius piece of wet-work! IE has been #1 ever since!

http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

When I bought my first computer, a 1998 Compaq, it came with Netscape 4 pre-installed. I still have that computer, though I don't use it for much more than downloading things from places I won't go with my newer machines. I recently upgraded its hard drive and after doing that I ran the restore disks. Long story short I had to use Netscape 4 to go out online and fetch what i needed to get it running again. That old version of Netscape ran right. IE 5 just showed pages full of gibberish. I'll miss Netscape very much. Lots of fond memories there. I won't use it much on the old Compaq, but its lighthouse icon will always sit there on the desktop, ready to take me where I need to go when I need it again.

Speaking of security: It seems to me that, even if IE isn't a person's default browser, that they should upgrade from IE6 to the more secure IE7.

I have both IE7 and Firefox 2 on my system, but use/prefer IE7.

Compared to IE7, FF2's interface is clunky and old fashioned, and FF2 has memory leak problems. FF2 has had more than it's fair share of security holes/bugs, and is no more secure than IE7.

That said, I keep FF2 installed on my system as an Emergency Backup Browser, and look forward to the release of FF3.

And so, another once-great product sails off to Dead Tech Heaven. I hope that whoever is up there will use my Commodore 64 to browse AltaVista with Netscape for all eternity.

I use Firefox on my Mac. Almost every day at about 3:30-4pm Firefox freezes and I have to force close it. Yet I can go to Safari and everything works just fine. What's up?

anyone else ever use a browser called SlipKnot? Was a graphical browser that could be run over SLIP (as opposed to PPP), if that's all you had. Very primitive, even for 1995.

Heh, SLIP. Now that's what I call a dead protocol.

Anyway, I used Netscape once I had a real Internet connection, but moved to IE for quite awhile once Netscape stagnated around version 4. Tried Mozilla a couple times but it didn't catch on for me until their lightweight browser, "Phoenix", came out.. think I switched to Phoenix v0.3 or 0.4, and have stuck with it since, through all the name changes (Firebird, Mozilla Firebird, Mozilla Firefox).

Loved Firefox also...but had to stop using. For some reason (???one of those Windows updates, he asked out of paranoia), it suddenly reduced processing speed to a slooooooow crawl. Uninstalling and reinstalling (more than once) didn't help. So, I'm using IE under protest...after all, it works. Anyone else have this experience or suggestions ???

No mention of Opera? I'm a recent convert for both Windows and Unix use. (a) It is faster to launch and to show pages than Firefox (much faster), (b) has intergrated email which is at least the equal of Outlook Expresss with a faster launch, and (c) Rob, take note of the "Speed Dial" for new tabs.

Peter Brewster

This will be interesting. I use WalMart connect because I "am rural" with a dial up. Netscape runs the WM site or the other way around. I get on and only use Firefox. We'll see how or if I can get on tomorrow. I am not a fan of Netscape but getting online is better than snailmail....

Netscape was my 1st web browser, and I used it up until the time it got so bloated, it took it twice as long to load as IE. I hated the change to IE. I also hate how software that I love and use for years gets sold to some other company that screws it up and forces me to go hunting for something else to do the job!

Does this mean that 'cometizing' is no longer a word?

At my agency, we are still using Netscape as well as IE. Notably, the Post's ad servers crash Netscape quite a bit.

I ran Netscape on our PCs until last summer. I still have version 8 on my wife's machine. When I had to restore my hard drive last spring, I decided to load Firefox on both units and have IE 7 for those stubborn sites that only run on IE. The security issues with IE are just too troubling. Firefox works much better for me, though Netscape's Bookmark organizer is superior over either IE or Firefox. Microsoft could learn a thing or 5 on bookmark organizing from Netscape.

I blame Microsoft more than AOL for the demise of Netscape. The whole "IE is an integral part of Windows and can't be separated from it" argument was just a bunch of hooey.

All things considered, Netscape remains my personal favorite and I will miss it terribly. Adios, Netscape. It was nice knowing you.

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