December 29th, 2007, 18:20
Web icon set to be discontinued
The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users. Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.
The demise of Navigator was compounded in 2003 when AOL, which bought Netscape in 1998, made redundant most of the staff working on new versions of the browser. Many of the staff moved to the Mozilla Foundation which develops the popular Firefox browser. This browser has a 16% share of the browser market.
Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.
"After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser," wrote Mr Drapeau. "We feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox," he said.
Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates after the date.
Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7163547.stm
The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users. Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.
The demise of Navigator was compounded in 2003 when AOL, which bought Netscape in 1998, made redundant most of the staff working on new versions of the browser. Many of the staff moved to the Mozilla Foundation which develops the popular Firefox browser. This browser has a 16% share of the browser market.
Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.
"After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser," wrote Mr Drapeau. "We feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox," he said.
Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates after the date.
Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7163547.stm