Netscape Browser Rises From the Dead
The Netscape Web browser may not be dead after all. After being written off by industry observers last year, the Netscape Internet software package will be updated by America Online, and could be released as early as next month.
Source: PCWorldThe update appears part to be a broader effort by AOL to revitalize the Netscape brand it acquired in a $4.2 billion deal in 1998.
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Mozilla is not paying AOL for use of code Netscape uses from Mozilla (Mozilla has been Netscape's dev arm for a long time, Netrscape is quite tightly tied to a Mozilla base), and AOL gets it free from Mozilla and adds things to it that folks seem to like, and gets revenue from ads on Netscape.net and its newsletters and AOL tie-in ads. Actually, AOL supported Mozilla dev, and that might be part of what the impetus is, they might as well get residual value out of something that still has a cult following. AND, it is easier to keep Netscape.net going with Netscape around than without it around, and Netscape.net DID gen above-cost revenues for AOL.
The survival of Mozilla.org as a seperate entity might well have convinced AOL that it was better to have it than NOT have it. And the continued dev of Mozilla as a complete browser-- in parallel with Thunderbird and Firefox, as sepaerate module functions and survivial of Mozilla.org with minimal to no funding from AOL itself probably convinced them that the Netscape market niche still existed.
IN FACT, I am reasonably certain that this was a long-term contingency plan. IF Netscape.net revenue suffered after setting Mozilla.org free and cutting the purse strings that fed it dev funding, I think they PLANNED to bring Netscape the browser back. It DID, they ARE.
John D.
Netscape can be Sun Java based. With Windows again getting Sun Java support at low level in near future, there is no reason that Netscape should not run BETTER than it did.
Second, the word I got from Enterprise mags, was not that Netscape had been TERMINATED, rather that it had been suspended. Mozilla can access AOL, you can get AOL on a BYOB basis, it is cheaepr than it has been that way, and AOL is more and more going to BYOB simply because they cannot afford to be an ISP or pseudo-ISP AND A portal-- folks have many cheaper alternatives. One reason Compuserve kinda died was that the bandwidth rates being charged for access exceeded the value most folks thought they were getting. Ditto with AOL in some parts of the country.
Third, Mozilla.org proved that Mozilla can run stably on Windows without integral Java VM support. AND, they improved the integration of the Mozilla product line with Sun Java 2 which is more than ever platform independent.
Fourth, those who used Netscape in the Open Source world did bring some revenue to AOL via NEtscape.net.
Fifth, the Netscape name and the AOL name are intertwined-- Netscape.net turned out to have been a DRAW for AOL.
Sixth, AOL needs a stick to hold up against Microsoft. Microsoft has this way of wanting more and more for each successive version of its product, and I will bet that impacts what Microsoft will want if the AOL broser\software set is IE based for a long time. AND I BET AOL knows this. AND wants an alternative. Having an alternative leaves less required to be tied to a competitor, as Microsoft is also running MSN.
Seventh, since all these pieces fell into place, ending with the Sun\Microsoft settlement, AOL now has a viable place for Netscape again. Netscape dev just got unsuspended.
John D.