Netscape Navigator

If you're from my generation you'll remember the first browser war between Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. The fact that Netscape lost this war, along with the fact that Betamax and Video2000 lost the video-tape war against VHS, was one of the early signs for me that the arena of the "free market" favors marketing strategies over product quality.

_{source: Wikimedia Commons}

I was in the Netscape camp, as were most end-users, in that browser war; Netscape Navigator was the superior product by far, there was no contest really. And especially if you wanted to start dabbling with HTML, like I did, Netscape Navigator provided the better platform. And it was by far the most popular browser, so if your page worked in Netscape Navigator, it worked for most users on the internet. Navigator wasn't the first browser though, that distinction goes to "WorldWideWeb," created by Tim Berners Lee, who's also credited for inventing the World Wide Web itself. That browser was capable of... browsing the web. And nothing else. Soon thereafter the first browser with a graphical user interface appeared, called "Mosaic." Netscape Navigator was then developed as a direct competitor for Mosaic.

Netscape was created by one of the co-creators of Mosaic, Marc Andreessen, and Jim Clark, who co-founded SiliconGraphics. These gentlemen were somewhat ahead of their time, as they first had the idea of starting an online gaming service, somewhat like the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network services that exist today. But they decided on creating a web browser that would provide the best end-user experience. This project had the code name "Mozilla," which we now know as the producer of the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email-client. Yes, these applications can trace their roots all the way back to the days of Netscape Navigator.

The downfall of the Netscape browser began in 1995, when Microsoft released Windows 95; Microsoft bundled their own browser, Internet Explorer, with the operating-system. This was essentially a repeat of the marketing strategy that has made Microsoft big in the first place; Gates went to IBM and struck a deal to deliver the MS Dos operating system with each desktop computer. Now that Microsoft has a near monopoly in the market for computer operating systems, the next obvious step is to include as much applications in that operating system as possible in order to wipe out the competition in those markets. And Netscape was to become Bill Gates' first victim. Gates has admitted on several occasions that eradicating Netscape was his intention, and it worked. Although Internet Explorer was an inferior product, the fact that it was included in the operating system pushed more and more users into using it.

Microsoft survived the anti-trust lawsuits against it, although it came close to being separated into several smaller companies. I'll never forget Netscape Navigator, which later became Netscape Communicator with a whole suite of web-applications; it was my vehicle in the early days of the world wide web. The above history is only a quick overview; to take a deeper dive into the rise and fall of Netscape Navigator, and to learn how we still use parts of its code today, watch the below linked video.

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