SillyDog701

[DJGM]

There's an interesting article posted on MozillaNews.org regarding the
present and future situation with Mozilla, Gecko and Netscape. I was
going to cut and paste the article here, but I've decided not to as it
would infringe the copyright, and it is quite a long article, so I've
linked to it here instead, so you can all judge for yourself . . .

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[Edward]

Since it's not coming from an official AOLTW source, it's purely speculation on the part of one person.

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[DJGM]

As the writer of the article himself said . . .

. . . some juicy tidbits, and interesting speculation . . .

. . . which is exactly what it is. Eitherway, IMO, a very interesting article . . .

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[Edward]

It's worth repeating.

AOL spent billions to acquire Netscape. I still do not believe they would have spent all that money, only to shut Netscape down afterwards. It's not very good business sense.

However, the idea of a Netscape-branded ISP is interesting. In the UK, there was a Netscape-branded ISP a few years back, I found this BBC article regarding the service, and this article regarding AOL discontinuing it.

Netscape Online was a free service.

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[Antony]

So what happened to Netscape Online (UK) now?

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[Fulvio]

It's worth repeating.

AOL spent billions to acquire Netscape. I still do not believe they would have spent all that money, only to shut Netscape down afterwards. It's not very good business sense.

However, the idea of a Netscape-branded ISP is interesting. In the UK, there was a Netscape-branded ISP a few years back, I found this BBC article regarding the service, and this article regarding AOL discontinuing it.

Netscape Online was a free service.

AOL does not know what it is doing, but somewhere along the way the thought was to break away from the need to have the IE engine. THere has been an attempt to use the Gecko engine in AOL, not too successful, and that engine is in Compuserve and MAC AOL. I did not read the article yet, so I may be repeating myself.

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[DJGM]

Netscape Online no longer exists. It's gone, it's shut down, deader than the
deadest dodo! Ideally, when unmetered internet access became popular in
the UK, during 1999-2000, and the fact that AOL were about to launch their
own, unmetered, online access service, it was decided that as a business
model, as well as a service, the viability of the Netscape Online ISP, was
eroding pretty rapidly. Basically, it offered just a metered, subscription
free, internet access, that was charged at local call rates. The only area
in which it was making any real money for AOL UK, was the advertising
space that was sold on the netscapeonline.co.uk website.

They didn't want to re-launch the Netscape Online ISP, as an unmetered
subscription based internet access service, as this would've gone against
the reason why it had been setup in the first place, and also interfere
with the plans for the launch of AOL's own unmetered service. So,
eventually, they decided to phase out the Netscape Online ISP.

A few months before the service was shut down, a letter was sent to all
registered users of Netscape Online, (myself included) that it would be
closing down in June 2001. The letter also invited all Netscape Online
members to join AOL UK's new unmetered online access service,
and to get the first 3 months subscription to the service, free.

Since then, the Netscape Online ISP in the UK is history, but I think it
would make sense for AOL to perhaps offer a watered down, and low
cost, Netscape branded version, of the main AOL service. This would
perhaps attract internet users to the Netscape brand, and would help
increase the overall usage of Netscape browsers, therefore helping
net users to quit their dangerous addiction to Internet Explorer!

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[Antony]

What was the relationship between Netscape Online ISP (UK) and Netscape Communications Inc in the early days?

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[DJGM]

There wasn't any. The Netscape Online ISP was created by AOL UK in 1999,
to rival to other established, subscription free ISP's such as Freeserve, and
to partially help boost the usage of Netscape Communicator, in the UK.
Nearly all other UK ISP's were distributing IE with their software.

During the early days of Netscape Communications Corporation, in the four
yearsleading up to Netscape's acquisition by AOL, the Netscape Online ISP
didn't exist. The only relation the Netscape Online ISP had with Netscape
itself was the name and the branding. There was no corporate relation.

As previously explained, the NS Online ISP was shut down two years later.

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[DJGM]

Here's one of comments posted by "Erik" in response to the aforementioned MozillaNews article . . .

Steve Case leaving was a huge blow to the Netscape cause. He
was a major force in support of Netscape and I wasn't happy to
hear that he stepped down (somewhat forcefully, I might add).

The new blood of AOL has no interest in Netscape given their
current situation. Tensions with shareholders are critical right
now and the only thing that matters is coming out of the red.
Money vested to a free web browser isn't part of that equation.

Expect the portal to be sold off and the browser
program, terminated by the end of the year.

Goodbye Netscape. We will miss you. You have
been a wonderful friend over the years.

Would anyone like to join in the thread @ MozillaNews, and add their own comments there?

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[Edward]

If the intent was to discontinue Netscape, I'm sure an official announcement would have been made long ago.

The fact that they released Netscape 7, should be a testament to Netscape's success.

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[Dennis L.]

Steve Case leaving was a huge blow to the Netscape cause. He was a major force in support of Netscape and I wasn't happy to hear that he stepped down (somewhat forcefully, I might add).
The new blood of AOL has no interest in Netscape given their current situation. Tensions with shareholders are critical right now and the only thing that matters is coming out of the red. Money vested to a free web browser isn't part of that equation. Expect the portal to be sold off and the browser program, terminated by the end of the year. Goodbye Netscape. We will miss you. You have been a wonderful friend over the years.

If my business model (AOL) depended on competitors (MS/MSN) to be the only browser source for my customers would be short sided vision in AOL's long term survival. AOL is a value added type ISP. There perfect world involves delivering feature rich content and services at minimum expense. This is best served through a open source browser. It is the only way a level playing field can be established. AOL/Mozilla/Netscape will need to focus on building a browser(s) that is stable, cross platform, easily managed for grandma and General Motors.

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[DJGM]

Another doomsayer has posted a negative message about Netscape's future . . .

The writing is on the wall (actually, it's been there for
some time now): Netscape's days are basically over.
Gecko will remain and that is a good thing.

If you think that it would be crazy for AOLTW to kill off Netscape, don't just post
your comments about it in this thread, go to that thread @ MozillaNews and
refute those doomsayers negative comments towards Netscape's future!

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[Edward]

Looks like the information is already outdated.

According to Netscape DevEdge, the download count is now up to 15 million.

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[DJGM]

The latest (unsurprisingly anonymous) doomsayer has said his/her piece . . .

> AOL spent BILLIONS to acquire Netscape.

The 'Billions' that AOL spent on AOL is somewhat of a misnomer.
AOL didn't exactly cut a check for four billion dollars to buy Netscape,
they did a stock exchange by giving Netscape shareholders aprox. 0.45
shares of AOL per share of Netscape. A shifting of accounting equity is
what it amounted to, not a 'cash sale'.

> I do not see them shutting it down after what they paid for it.

I certainly do. Simply because one acquired a business venture doesn't,
in and of itself, justify pouring more money into it if it isn't paying off.

For example, lets say you bought rights to an oil rig for a million
dollars. Years later, if the oil rig hasn't turned the profit you were
hoping for (and Netscape hasn't) then because you paid a million
dollars for it does not justify wasting more money into drilling.
Especially so, if your entire business is in trouble and you
have stockholders breathing down your neck and up
your ass to turn out a profit, or else.

Maybe the portal can be unloaded for some buckaroonies but I don't
see the browser carrying any value. A company could just as easily
pull a stable release of Mozilla and brand it themselves if that's what
they really wanted to do. The name 'Netscape' in the context of a
web browser, IMO, is more of a liability than an asset. In my
exp-erience, these days Netscape isn't a name people attribute
to quality nor does it represent marketing value outside of those
few people who adore it for whatever strange reason that may be.
Typically those who do are brand-loyality users from the old days.

If you wish to refute this anonymous doom merchant, please do so.

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