Netscape Still Isnt Dead—Yet

Written By
Jim Rapoza
Jim Rapoza
Published: Jun 18, 2001
Updated: Feb 2, 2021
1 minute read
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BROWSERS

Like the old man in the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the Netscape browser has been proclaimed dead many times, only to quietly respond, “Im not dead yet.”

The latest news pushing the browser to an early grave came from Netscape itself, when company officials said that in six months you wont look at Netscape as a browser company. Now, in fairness, the comment by Netscape President Jim Bankoff was more about Netscapes repositioning as an AOL Time Warner portal than a declaration of its death. But it was clear that the browser will become somewhat of an unwanted stepchild.

In eWeek Labs opinion, this is probably a good thing. The Netscape browser is already falling behind its open-source twin, the Mozilla browser, in flexibility and features.

As in the Monty Python movie, it may take someone clubbing the Netscape browser over the head to finally put it out of its misery. But even if it finally dies, the open-source Mozilla browser will continue to carry on the legacy of the original Netscape browser.

Jim Rapoza

Jim Rapoza, Chief Technology Analyst, eWEEK.For nearly fifteen years, Jim Rapoza has evaluated products and technologies in almost every technology category for eWEEK. Mr Rapoza's current technology focus is on all categories of emerging information technology though he continues to focus on core technology areas that include: content management systems, portal applications, Web publishing tools and security. Mr. Rapoza has coordinated several evaluations at enterprise organizations, including USA Today and The Prudential, to measure the capability of products and services under real-world conditions and against real-world criteria. Jim Rapoza's award-winning weekly column, Tech Directions, delves into all areas of technologies and the challenges of managing and deploying technology today.

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