Netscape Navigator 9

Last updated
Netscape Navigator 9.0
Developer(s) Netscape Communications
AOL
Initial releaseOctober 15, 2007
Final release
9.0.0.6 [1]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 20 February 2008
Preview release
9.0rc1 [2]   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 1 October 2007
Written in C++
Operating system Linux, macOS, Windows
Type Web browser
License Proprietary

Netscape Navigator 9 is a discontinued web browser that was produced by the Netscape Communications division of parent AOL, first announced on January 23, 2007. It was the ninth major release of the Netscape line of browsers. After AOL outsourced the development of Netscape Browser 8 to Mercurial Communications in 2004, Netscape Navigator 9 marked the first Netscape browser to be produced in-house since the Netscape 7 suite. [3] It also saw the return of the classic Navigator name, which was previously used during Netscape's heyday between versions 1.0 and 4.08 in the 1990s. [4] Netscape Navigator 9 is based on Mozilla Firefox 2.0.

Contents

The program's first beta was released on June 5, 2007, [5] with the Beta 2 on July 12, [6] and Beta 3 on August 16. [7] After a release candidate, the final release was issued on October 15, 2007.

On December 28, 2007, Netscape developers announced that AOL would discontinue their web browser on February 1, 2008. [8] On January 28, 2008, Netscape revised this date to March 1, 2008, and offered support for migration to Flock and Mozilla Firefox. [9] It was the last web browser of the Netscape series.

Features

New features

The Beta releases of Netscape Navigator 9 included enhanced newsfeed support and were more integrated with the Netscape.com Internet portal, [10] including enhanced methods of discussion, submission and voting of Web pages. [11] However, starting with Netscape Navigator 9 beta 3, the Netscape.com integration was optional, and certain aspects of integration could be manually enabled or disabled, [12] with integration being totally removed in Navigator 9.0rc1 as the portal relaunched as Propeller. [13]

The user interface of the program was also updated, and the theme was also later released for use on Mozilla Firefox. [14]

Like Netscape version 8.x, Navigator 9 was based upon the Mozilla Firefox, this time version 2.0, and should have had full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of which Netscape was providing. [15] Netscape also released some of its features as extensions for Firefox, including the Site Mail Notifier and Friends' Activity Sidebar Archived 2007-01-06 at the Wayback Machine , the Digg Tracker Archived 2007-08-24 at the Wayback Machine , as well as Netstripe Archived 2007-05-04 at the Wayback Machine , the new default theme for Netscape 9.

The browser also included URL self-correction, which corrected common URL misspellings, [16] [17] an improved FTP listing interface [18] and a dedicated News menu with integration to the Netscape.com news portal. [19] A quick "link pad" was also included so Web pages could quickly be added to the pad for later viewing without adding to the bookmark lists. [20] Navigator 9 also sees the browser return to multi-platform support across Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. [21] Netscape's signature splash screen also reappeared in the release candidate of the final program.

Removed features

Unlike Netscape 8, the browser did not use Internet Explorer's Trident layout engine as an alternative engine option. Netscape Navigator did not include any newsgroup, instant messaging or Email clients as Netscape 6 and 7 did. Netscape did, however, plan to produce a companion email client to complement the Navigator, confirmed as Netscape Messenger 9. [22] [23] While that software was in development, Netscape advised its users to use the Netscape 7 series of suites, which includes an email client, alongside Navigator 9 for browsing purposes. [20]

Decorative features

Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 8:20 in Netscape 9 Netscape9 bookofmozilla.png
Screenshot of The Book of Mozilla, 8:20 in Netscape 9

A new verse 8:20 of the Easter egg The Book of Mozilla was written for the release of Netscape 9, consisting of "And thus the Creator looked upon the beast reborn and saw that it was good". This could have reference either to the re-development of Netscape in-house once again, or the Mozilla Foundation and its contributors. [24]

Based on user feedback, Netscape decided to return the splash screen to Navigator 9. On September 10, 2007, Netscape decided to give their design team a break and let users submit their own idea for how the splash screen should look. The winning image would be used as the splash screen in the final 9.0 release of Navigator, and the designer would be listed in the browser credits. [25]

Many designs were submitted. [26] In the end, Mario Herbert was chosen the winner and his design used as the final Navigator 9 splash screen. [27]

Response

CNET Download.com claimed Navigator 9 had some "neat" components, contained many "tricks we love" and was "more than a backup browser"; which it previously used to describe Browser 8. Most of the bundled features from version 8 have been removed. [28]

System requirements

System requirements
MinimumRecommended
Windows [29]
Operating system Windows 98 Windows XP
CPU233 MHz500 MHz
Memory64 MB256 MB
Free space50 MB100 MB
Mac OS [29]
Operating system Mac OS X 10.2.8 through Mac OS X 10.6.2
CPUPowerPC G3PowerPC G4 or Intel equivalent
Memory128 MB512 MB
Free space75 MB150 MB
Linux [29]
Operating system Linux kernel 2.2.14 (with glibc 2.3.2, XFree86 3.3.6, GTK+ 2.0, fontconfig/xft and libstdc++ 5)
CPU233 MHz500 MHz
Memory64 MB256 MB
Free space50 MB100 MB

Release history

Release history
VersionRelease dateBased on Mozilla Firefox version
9.0b1June 5, 20072.0.0.4
9.0b2July 12, 20072.0.0.4
9.0b3August 16, 20072.0.0.6
9.0rc1October 1, 20072.0.0.7
9.0October 15, 20072.0.0.7
9.0.0.1October 22, 20072.0.0.8
9.0.0.2November 1, 20072.0.0.8
9.0.0.3November 2, 20072.0.0.9
9.0.0.4November 27, 20072.0.0.10
9.0.0.5December 10, 20072.0.0.11
9.0.0.6February 20, 20082.0.0.12

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape Navigator</span> Web browser by Netscape released in 1994

Netscape Navigator is a discontinued proprietary web browser, and the original browser of the Netscape line, from versions 1 to 4.08, and 9.x. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corp and was the dominant web browser in terms of usage share in the 1990s, but by around 2003 its user base had all but disappeared. This was partly because the Netscape Corporation did not sustain Netscape Navigator's technical innovation in the late 1990s.

Netscape Communications Corporation was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California, and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was once dominant but lost to Internet Explorer and other competitors in the so-called first browser war, with its market share falling from more than 90 percent in the mid-1990s to less than one percent in 2006. An early Netscape employee Brendan Eich created the JavaScript programming language, the most widely used language for client-side scripting of web pages and a founding engineer of Netscape Lou Montulli created HTTP cookies. The company also developed SSL which was used for securing online communications before its successor TLS took over.

Gecko is a browser engine developed by Mozilla. It is used in the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird email client, and many other projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape Communicator</span> Discontinued Internet software suite

Netscape Communicator is a discontinued Internet suite produced by Netscape Communications Corporation, and was the fourth major release in the Netscape line of browsers. It was first in beta in 1996 and was released in June 1997. Netscape Communicator addressed the problem of Netscape Navigator 3.x being used as both the name of the suite and the browser contained within it by renaming the suite to Netscape Communicator. It included more groupware features intended to appeal to enterprises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firefox</span> Free and open-source web browser by Mozilla

Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. Firefox is available for Windows 10 or later versions, macOS, and Linux. Its unofficial ports are available for various Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, illumos, and Solaris Unix. It is also available for Android and iOS. However, as with all other iOS web browsers, the iOS version uses the WebKit layout engine instead of Gecko due to platform requirements. An optimized version is also available on the Amazon Fire TV as one of the two main browsers available with Amazon's Silk Browser.

The Mozilla Foundation is an American non-profit organization that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mozilla project. Founded in July 2003, the organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls Mozilla trademarks and copyrights. It owns two taxable subsidiaries: the Mozilla Corporation, which employs many Mozilla developers and coordinates releases of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and MZLA Technologies Corporation, which employs developers to work on the Mozilla Thunderbird email client and coordinate its releases. The Mozilla Foundation was founded by the Netscape-affiliated Mozilla Organization. The organization is currently based in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California, United States.

The Book of Mozilla is a computer Easter egg found in the Netscape, Mozilla, SeaMonkey, Waterfox and Firefox series of web browsers. It is viewed by directing the browser to about:mozilla.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Browser wars</span> Competition between web browsing applications for share of worldwide usage

A browser war is a competition for dominance in the usage share of web browsers. The "first browser war," (1995–2001) consisted of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Browser wars continued with the decline of Internet Explorer's market share and the popularity of other browsers, including Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge and Opera.

This is a comparison of both historical and current web browsers based on developer, engine, platform(s), releases, license, and cost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape Browser</span> Internet browser

Netscape Browser is the eighth major release of the Netscape series of web browsers, now all discontinued. It was published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications, and originally released for Windows on May 19, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape 7</span> Discontinued internet suite

Netscape 7 is a discontinued Internet suite developed by Netscape Communications Corporation, and was the seventh major release of the Netscape series of browsers. It is the successor of Netscape 6, and was developed in-house by AOL. It was released on August 29, 2002 and is based on Mozilla Application Suite 1.0.

Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) is a deprecated application programming interface (API) for web browser plugins, initially developed for Netscape Navigator 2.0 in 1995 and subsequently adopted by other browsers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozilla Application Suite</span> Discontinued Internet suite

The Mozilla Application Suite is a discontinued cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It was based on the source code of Netscape Communicator. The development was spearheaded by the Mozilla Organization from 1998 to 2003, and by the Mozilla Foundation from 2003 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flock (web browser)</span> Discontinued web browser integrating social networking and Web 2.0 features

Flock is a discontinued web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface. Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla. Version 2.6.2, released on January 27, 2011, was the last version based on Mozilla Firefox. Starting with version 3, Flock was based on Chromium and so used the WebKit rendering engine. Flock was available as a free download, and supported Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and, at one time, Linux as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape (web browser)</span> Family of web browsers

The Netscape web browser is the general name for a series of web browsers formerly produced by Netscape Communications Corporation, which eventually became a subsidiary of AOL. The original browser was once the dominant browser in terms of usage share, but as a result of the first browser war, it lost virtually all of its share to Internet Explorer due to Microsoft's anti-competitive bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netscape Mail & Newsgroups</span>

Netscape Mail and Newsgroups, commonly known as just Netscape Mail, was an email and news client produced by Netscape Communications Corporation as part of the Netscape series of suites between versions 2.0 to 7.2. In the 2.x and 3.x series, it was bundled with the web browser. In the 4.x series, it was rewritten as two separate programs known as Netscape Messenger and Netscape Collabra.

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. It further provides for the capture or input of information which may be returned to the presenting system, then stored or processed as necessary. The method of accessing a particular page or content is achieved by entering its address, known as a Uniform Resource Identifier or URI. This may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users easily to navigate their browsers to related resources. A web browser can also be defined as an application software or program designed to enable users to access, retrieve and view documents and other resources on the Internet.

Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.

The project that became Firefox today began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b. Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface markup language. The use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of extensions and themes. The development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns, and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions. The use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other browsers, including other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms. Many of these projects started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.

References

  1. ↑ "MozInfo701: the final Netscape, Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6". 21 February 2008. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008.
  2. ↑ "MozInfo701: Navigator 9 Release Candidate 1 available". 2 October 2007. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007.
  3. ↑ Netscape announces cross-platform Netscape 9 to be developed in-house - Mozillazine Retrieved on February 5, 2007
  4. ↑ Netscape 9 - 1 May 2007 announcement Archived 10 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 05-02-2007
  5. ↑ Netscape 9.0b1 released Archived 2009-01-09 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 06-05-2007
  6. ↑ Netscape Navigator 9.0b2 releases Archived 2009-01-12 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 07-13-2007
  7. ↑ Netscape Community - messages #9441.1 [ permanent dead link ] Retrieved on 08-16-2007
  8. ↑ "The Netscape Blog". Netscape, AOL. Archived from the original on 2013-11-05..
  9. ↑ "The Netscape Blog". Netscape, AOL. Archived from the original on 2013-10-14.
  10. ↑ Netscape 9 - 23 January 2007 announcement Archived 27 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on January 24, 2007
  11. ↑ Netscape 9 - 20 February 2007 Announcement Archived 9 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on February 20, 2007
  12. ↑ Netscape Navigator 9.0b3 released [ permanent dead link ] Retrieved on 08-17-2007
  13. ↑ Netscape Community - Navigator 9.0rc3 Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 10-02-2007.
  14. ↑ Netscape 9 - 10 February 2007 announcement Archived 16 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 02-11-2007
  15. ↑ Netscape 9 - 6 February 2007 announcement Archived 15 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on February 6, 2007
  16. ↑ Netscape 9 - 13 February 2007 announcement Archived 12 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 6, 2007
  17. ↑ "What's New in Netscape Navigator? :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser". Netscape Communications, AOL. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  18. ↑ Netscape 9 - 30 January 2007 announcement Archived 28 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 6, 2007
  19. ↑ Netscape 9 - 6 March 2007 announcement Archived 12 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 6, 2007
  20. 1 2 Netscape Navigator features Archived 2008-04-20 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 6, 2007
  21. ↑ Netscape 9 - 30 Jan 20m07 announcement Archived 2008-05-28 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on January 30, 2007
  22. ↑ Netscape Navigator FAQ Archived 2008-04-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 6, 2007
  23. ↑ Netscape Mercury/Messenger 9 requests at Netscape Community Support Archived 2009-01-12 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on June 12, 2007
  24. ↑ about:mozilla typed in the address bar of Netscape 9 Beta
  25. ↑ Navigator Splash Screen Design Contest Archived 2013-10-16 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on October 26, 2012
  26. ↑ Navigator 9 Splash Screen Design Contest: The Entries Archived 2010-12-30 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on October 26, 2012
  27. ↑ And the winner is... Retrieved on October 26, 2012
  28. ↑ Download.com review of Netscape Navigator 9 [ permanent dead link ] Retrieved on June 9, 2007
  29. 1 2 3 "System Requirements :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser". AOL. Archived from the original on 2007-10-21. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
Preceded by
Netscape Browser (8)		Netscape Navigator 9
(final)		Succeeded by
development ceased
replaced by Mozilla Firefox
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.