SillyDog701

by **Wellander** » Sun 06 Apr, 2003 9:14 pm

Hi,
I want to know if there will be any more versions of netscape communicator the most recent is 4.79 relased in novembe 2001 and there has not been a relaes since then.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.75 [en]C-CCK-MCD BDP81800 (Windows NT 5.0; U)

by **Antony** » Sun 06 Apr, 2003 9:31 pm

Dear Bryan,
The latest version of Netscape Communicator is 4.80, released on August 2002, just a few days before Netscape 7.0.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

by **Wellander** » Sun 06 Apr, 2003 9:50 pm

Hi,
Ok I am sorry that you do noyt bilive me when I said that netscape communicator 4.8 was not offically relased.
And ok.

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.75 [en]C-CCK-MCD BDP81800 (Windows NT 5.0; U)

by **Antony** » Sun 06 Apr, 2003 10:07 pm

I've answered to you this at least twice.

Netscape Communicator 4.80 was released officially.
Netscape Communicator 4.80 was a maintainence release, and was not done by Netscape Communications Corp, but was released by Netscape Communications Corp, released through Netscape channel, and has proper copyright notice. Netscape is still the copyright holder. And I repeat again, Netscape Communicator 4.80 was released officially.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

by **Mandrake** » Sun 06 Apr, 2003 10:42 pm

Actually, iPlanet does the work on Communicator - iPlanet was the netscape/Sun alliance, but that has ended. Iplanet is now a part of Sun Microsystems. So I suppose Sun will dictate whether any more releases of Communicator come out.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.1a) Gecko/20020611

by **DJGM** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 3:16 am

I hope there are no more Communicator releases. IMO, The end of the line
for the antiquated, and technically obsolete NS4.xx series is long overdue.
Now that Netscape 7.x is a rock solid browser product with much better
features than it's ancient 4.xx predecessors, is there really much point
in keeping Communicator? Except maybe if you have quite an old
computer, you don't mind seeing webpages badly displayed, or
you're a web developer, that doesn't mind seeing how badly
the old NS4.xx browsers break your well crafted web pages!

NS4.xx may well have been great alternative to IE in it's time, and was
a great backup browser during the dark days of NS6.0, but IMO, it is
now time to bid a fond farewell to Netscape 4.x, and upgrade to 7.x
if of course, you haven't already done so recently.

Goodbye, Netscape Communicator 4.xx, it was nice knowing you . . .

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-GB; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02

by **Mandrake** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 3:26 am

Ya know what? It is annoying that some of us *paid* to use Communicator back in 1997!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030402

by **Antony** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 3:37 am

Mandrake wrote:Ya know what? It is annoying that some of us *paid* to use Communicator back in 1997!

You will need to blame Microsoft for this. Microsoft was the one cut off Netscape's air.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

by **Mandrake** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 5:04 am

I agree with that Antony, to a degree.

Back in 1998 when Netscape started radily losing market share and revenue (There revenue was about 1bn US a year for Navigator/Communicator at its zenith). There were a few things that MS did:

-Bundling the browser with the OS, such as in NT4 at Win95 was fine, but not allowing it to be easily uninstalled was unreasonable.
-Then when starting with Win98 MS 'intergrated' IE4 into Windows, they crossed the line.
-They wouldn't allow OEMs such as Compaq to remove IE and MSN logos, and instead promote Navigator and AOL (They threatend to remove Compaq's liscence for Win95 if they did not restore the MSN and IE icons, on there Presario range of machines)

But Netscape also didn't help itself out:

They really should have released Communicator 5, IE kept having new features intergrated into it ... and NN/NC stayed the same. A Communicator 5 when 4.5 was released was what Netscape needed. 4.5 only had a few new features, they need more than a few, enough to give them an edge over IE.

The fact that NN/NC also costed money was fine, but IE was also free - so naturally users wanted a better product if they were paying for it, rather than using a free alternative.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4a) Gecko/20030402

by **Antony** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 5:31 am

Mandrake wrote:There were a few things that MS did:

-Bundling the browser with the OS, such as in NT4 at Win95 was fine, but not allowing it to be easily uninstalled was unreasonable.
-Then when starting with Win98 MS 'intergrated' IE4 into Windows, they crossed the line.
-They wouldn't allow OEMs such as Compaq to remove IE and MSN logos, and instead promote Navigator and AOL (They threatend to remove Compaq's liscence for Win95 if they did not restore the MSN and IE icons, on there Presario range of machines)

...

The fact that NN/NC also costed money was fine, but IE was also free - so naturally users wanted a better product if they were paying for it, rather than using a free alternative.

You missed two main points, since IE is here, why bother to download a 16+MB (broadband is not that popular yet back then) and install it. And IE was faster, thanks to its integration.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

by **Hendikins** » Mon 07 Apr, 2003 5:50 am

DJGM wrote:I hope there are no more Communicator releases.

Hear Hear! Good riddence to 4.x!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030406

by **izanbardprince** » Tue 08 Apr, 2003 2:19 am

Antony wrote:
Mandrake wrote:Ya know what? It is annoying that some of us *paid* to use Communicator back in 1997!
You will need to blame Microsoft for this. Microsoft was the one cut off Netscape's air.

Netscape, prior to 6, was just as much of an evil corporate takeover attempt on the internet as Internet Explorer, not only did Netscape try to make their own ad hoc standards, they actually charged end users to be able to view them (the nerve!!!), I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a free browser, and the W3C to dictate what will be standardized.

And DJGM, I agree, personally I also wish that Netscape would take everything pre-6.2 off their servers, drag them out in the back yard and shoot them to put them out of their misery.

Netscape 4 is the dumbest dirtiest excuse for a browser I've ever seen and it's still a pain in the *** of everyone that has to use it or deal with it.

In all fairness, I don't think many people willingly use it anymore, mostly libraries and net cafe's that are too standardized on it to upgrade, or have ancient systems or lazy admins.

I remember when I was living in Dayton, OH, their libraries and branches all had that monstrosity, crashed right and left, and of course they were running NT 4, and the user hadn't the permission to give it a three figer salute (ctrl-alt-del) when the process hung, those poor poor librarians, I just wish Netscape could make it easier for such organizations to administer 7.x

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02

by **Mandrake** » Tue 08 Apr, 2003 2:54 am

Back then Netscape was an independent company, trying to make money of a product (Navigator and Communicator) What is wrong with that!? It'd be like Microsoft giving away MS Office, not something that is likely to happen.

Of course with Microsoft not relying on revenue from IE, they gave it away. Prior to IE 5.x, NS 4.x was a better browser - but it's margin over IE wasnt enough to justify paying $60 US for it, or $80 US for Professional (I bought Pro back then).

UserAgent: Mozilla/4.08 [en] (WinNT; U)

by **izanbardprince** » Tue 08 Apr, 2003 11:49 am

Mandrake wrote:Back then Netscape was an independent company, trying to make money of a product (Navigator and Communicator) What is wrong with that!? It'd be like Microsoft giving away MS Office, not something that is likely to happen.

Of course with Microsoft not relying on revenue from IE, they gave it away. Prior to IE 5.x, NS 4.x was a better browser - but it's margin over IE wasnt enough to justify paying $60 US for it, or $80 US for Professional (I bought Pro back then).

$60 for Netscape 4?

When IE 5 was out?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEEHHEHEHOHOHOHOHHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even Opera, now, which is a much better browser than Netscape 4 has ever been, only wants $39, maybe if Netscape had charged $20 and spent those 3 years adding something besides Radio and buddy lists, they might have lived to fight another day.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02

by **Antony** » Tue 08 Apr, 2003 7:10 pm

izanbardprince wrote:$60 for Netscape 4?

What's wrong with that?
Netscape although not the first web browser, it was the first easy-to-use, cross platform and graphic browser. It was Netscape who bring the web/internet into everyday's life.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 (CK-SillyDog)

SillyDog701

Will there be any more versions of netscape communicator.

Will there be any more versions of netscape communicator.

Who is online