Ya, you heard it right. The support for Netscape browsers has been stopped for future. AOL, formerly known as America Online, is one of the most ancient companies to put people on the internet. America's largest Internet Service Provider AOL, during its course of operation, has acquired many small and big companies. The largest acquisition had been that of Netscape Communications Corporation. Ya, Netscape Communications Corporation, leader in web browsing of that time, had developed many useful internet tools, suites, services and softwares. Their most popular product was Netscape Communicator Suite, which promised to change the contemporary web browsing experience. They were in a period of converting Netscape Communicator into an open source software, by the name of Mozilla. Ya the name that you have heard so much, Mozilla, was developed that time. It became more promising to its users.
But suddenly AOL realizes that Netscape was not able to be a success as much expected. AOL's target to get on to the market share, which had been possessed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, was going in vain. By the time Firefox gained its market share and impressed AOL. So now AOL is deciding to stop further development on Netscape and asking its users to switch on to Firefox. Mozilla being a strong foundation by AOL, served its goal and now being used by many developers and web surfers all around the globe.
Now don't think that Netscape Navigator will no more be usable. It is usable and 'browsable' as it was before. They had continued releasing any kind of security patches and updates for their current version of the browser, till February 1, 2008. After that they were to stop active support to Netscape Browser. But I saw a notice that they had closed their support to Netscape Navigator on 1st May, 2008. They are continuously appealing their users to use Firefox instead of Netscape. They are also suggesting to users who are pretty much accustomed with Netscape, to use a Netscape theme on Firefox, which will give them the same environment. The theme can be downloaded here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/56836
Still if you have any questions, they have retained their support forum at: http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&redirCnt=1 anfd another site at: http://www.ufaq.org
The Netscape Browser is still available to be downloaded and used at their official website at: http://www.netscape.com
So you can use it still, but at your own risk. Thats what AOL is telling you. I don't know why they closed support, may be due to their development cease, or due to their full concentration on Mozilla products. I may had said that it may be due to their uncontrollable bug reports from the product, but I think thats not the case is. Cause i had been using this product for more than 2 years and found it accomplishing its job well.
But suddenly AOL realizes that Netscape was not able to be a success as much expected. AOL's target to get on to the market share, which had been possessed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer, was going in vain. By the time Firefox gained its market share and impressed AOL. So now AOL is deciding to stop further development on Netscape and asking its users to switch on to Firefox. Mozilla being a strong foundation by AOL, served its goal and now being used by many developers and web surfers all around the globe.
Now don't think that Netscape Navigator will no more be usable. It is usable and 'browsable' as it was before. They had continued releasing any kind of security patches and updates for their current version of the browser, till February 1, 2008. After that they were to stop active support to Netscape Browser. But I saw a notice that they had closed their support to Netscape Navigator on 1st May, 2008. They are continuously appealing their users to use Firefox instead of Netscape. They are also suggesting to users who are pretty much accustomed with Netscape, to use a Netscape theme on Firefox, which will give them the same environment. The theme can be downloaded here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/56836
Still if you have any questions, they have retained their support forum at: http://community.netscape.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-nscpbrowser&redirCnt=1 anfd another site at: http://www.ufaq.org
The Netscape Browser is still available to be downloaded and used at their official website at: http://www.netscape.com
So you can use it still, but at your own risk. Thats what AOL is telling you. I don't know why they closed support, may be due to their development cease, or due to their full concentration on Mozilla products. I may had said that it may be due to their uncontrollable bug reports from the product, but I think thats not the case is. Cause i had been using this product for more than 2 years and found it accomplishing its job well.
2 comments:
Ya, I have also got the notice when I started the Netscape Browser tomorrow. It says that its no more safe using Netscape browser and I should switch to Firefox.
Should I stop using it ?
Yes sure, its clearly mentioned that you can still use Netscape browser, but if it causes some harm to you, like data loss or security problems which Netscape don't have much, then the company will not be liable for that. I am also using Netscape still.
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