15 years...

[beanboy89]

I was having a discussion with some people about the evolution and history of web browsers, and it led me into creating this:


Click for large version.

Left to right: Netscape 4.0 (1997); Mozilla 1.0.2 (2002); SeaMonkey 2.13 (2012).

It's really interesting how each browser is a descendant of the previous. Using Netscape 4.x as a base, Mozilla was created, and then SeaMonkey is in essence a direct continuation of Mozilla. It's really fascinating to compare what's changed and what's remained the same in 15 years of software development.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0

[James]

It's a great lineage and for some the SM suite remains the best of the best. But in my view this look back shows the dated nature of SM. A browser suite is simply a dated design as Opera has painfully discovered and as SM knows full well. Both suites have a miniscule following and that is not likely to grow. Separating the email component from the browser was a bold move but all the main browsers have done this with great success.

In my view, Netscape 4.5 will always remain the apex of the suite. I loved that piece of software and I bought it. For the longest time I kept the CD with the original dustcover for it. I also bought the Netscape book to accompany it. If only... if only MS had not delivered the death blow to NS. And Oh how I hated to see AOL get their paws on it and kill off NS 9.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Antony]

Amazing. Thanks for the collection, Billy.

Unlike most of you guys, my family got the internet connection (slow dial-up) in late November (or early December) 1996. That was just a few days before my university entrance exam (yes, Antony is old). The browser that came with ISP was a copy of Netscape 3. Not long after, there were Netscape 4 betas, and I just liked it.

When I was in undergraduate, Netscape Communicator was the main browser in university's computers (running OS 8 or 9). Netscape worked very well.

I got my first Mac in 2003, and one year later, I fully switched to Mac. Netscape (and Mozilla) did not work well on OS X, and Apple's Mail.app worked smoothly on OS X and I paid less attention to Mozilla/SeaMonkey's Mail component or Thunderbird.

Apart from email client taking out of the browser suite, the newsgroup is sort of dying. (Perhaps, Mr Jay Garcia is still maintaining some.)

Speaking about Mr Jay Garcia, I believe I shall salute to Mr Jay Garcia for maintaining the nice UFAQ.org since 1998.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.15

[James]

Yes, I give Jay credit for maintaining his site (not quite as nice as this one) BUT it's dying, no doubt about it. I think that the day of large forums with literally dozens and dozens of posts each day on the topic of computers is pretty much past. I still like to come here and chat with you all and occasionally have a problem discussed but I will admit that there are fewer and fewer issues that I find I need help with. It seems to me that our browsers have gotten so good and the problems and glitches resolved so quickly that the concept of a forum to find solutions is beginning to fade. Now... I've also been a member of Opera's forum community for many years (almost as long as here). That forum is still quite strong for two reasons: Opera is loaded with problems AND they have a very strong non-Opera discussion/argument section that keeps people coming (and fighting). I don't go into that section since I don't like arguments and I find myself using Opera less and less these days. These days I just want something that works almost all the time and that something is Firefox and Thunderbird.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Fulvio]

My ISP set me up with Netscape 2.x, in 1996. I went to NS3, soon thereafter. With the debacle of Netscape 6, I looked around, and found the Mozilla browser. At that time, I began testing multiple browser. And, then the split of browser and e-mail came, and the advent of Firefox and Thunderbird. I started having issues with or about Firefox 3. That's when I took a look at Seamonkey, about five years ago. I liked the fact that Seamonkey was based on a parallel Firefox. Thunderbird was pretty much the mail portion of Seamonkey.
I don't recall when, but I think that it was about two years ago that I decided to make Seamonkey my default.
Yes, it may be old-fashioned, but it does the job without getting stratospheric version number.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:14.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/14.0

[Antony]

Not as early as Jay Garcia's UFAQ.org, but for SillyDog701, "Netscape Browser Archive" section started in mid 1999, and sillydog.org domain name was acquired in early 2001.

Many forums are dying, not just here. I guess most people want Facebook and Twitter instead.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1 AlexaToolbar/alxf-2.15

[James]

Many forums are dying, not just here. I guess most people want Facebook and Twitter instead.

True. And it's not just computer forums, although they're probably suffering the most. I think you've hit part of the answer, Antony: Facebook in particular has gone a long way to killing off many forums. In addition, many people today are bored by the internet. Instead, they're gaming (my son rarely goes online except to play some War game against his buddies), they're watching Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime, they're vlogging or following someone on a vlog... but forums? Sure, there will always be forums and forum members but what I've seen is folks becoming members only to have a specific question answered. Once they have that answer, they're gone... for good. Regular, contributing members are few and far between. You can have a membership of a few thousand and yet have only a dozen or at the most two dozen regular, contributing members. To re-iterate, I think it's because forums are somewhat "yesterday's news"... it's an older format that many in the younger generation just don't find appealing. Today the flavor is Facebook and Twitter. How long that will last is anybody's guess but that is where the action is.

As for computer forums... who really cares that much? Seriously... I work with several others all of whom have Facebook accounts and none of whom are members of forums or care much about browsers or email. Geeze... email? Email is so yesterday. It's texting all the way with these people. And as I mentioned earlier, most folks just don't seem to care that much about their browsers because for the most part they just work... period... that is as long as you're using IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. Opera has its issues as I mentioned before. Frankly I don't see how or why it continues except in the mobile platform.

Well... I've rambled enough. My wife wants to watch a movie on Netflix so that's enough for tonight. Have a good one.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Antony]

In addition, many people today are bored by the internet. Instead, they're gaming (my son rarely goes online except to play some War game against his buddies), they're watching Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime, they're vlogging or following someone on a vlog... but forums?
...

And as I mentioned earlier, most folks just don't seem to care that much about their browsers because for the most part they just work... period... that is as long as you're using IE, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. Opera has its issues as I mentioned before. Frankly I don't see how or why it continues except in the mobile platform.

I agree and internet is pretty much essential to many people's daily lives.
Forums and newsgroups are yesteryear's technologies. Most popular websites are very interactive, as long as using a modern browser. It does not even need to be the latest as some may insist on chasing. Most modern browsers give same or similar experience, which is a good thing in my opinion and I know Mozilla guy disagrees (see my other post).
Gaming, watching streaming videos, tweeting, facebook-ing and even getting the latest traffic update does not really need a browser (nor a computer). The key thing is: do you have internet connection, and better make sure it's fast and sufficient download quota (since most of us don't live in Don's beautiful Boston with plenty of free wifi (according to him) and superfast internet connection). The second thing is a cool and modern internet-capable device, actually lots of cutting-edge gadgets rather. Who cares about the browser engine or the browser used?

Btw, Internet connection is still pretty expensive here in Australia, compared to Don's advanced America.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3

[James]

Poor Don. You slay me, Antony.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Edward]

Netscape Communicator descended from NCSA Mosaic:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... Mosaic.PNG

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/536.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/20.0.1132.47 Safari/536.11

[James]

Ah... those were the days.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Edward]

I once used Mosaic on a Macintosh back then. Looked decent!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686) AppleWebKit/536.11 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/20.0.1132.47 Safari/536.11