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SillyDog701's Netscape Version Guide

This is a summary of what is supported or what feature is available in each (major) version of Netscape, also, some related news (press release) are provided at end of this document.

You can get latest or old versions of Netscape browser at Browser Archive.

Netscape 9 (announced: January 2007)
Netscape 9Netscape Navigator 9.0 (final) has just released, we will update this page shortly. Please stay tuned.
Betas and Release Candidates of Netscape 9 are available now.
(for more information, please see Netscape 9 section at SillyDog701's Netscape Browser Archive.


Netscape 8.1.3 (April 2007)
Netscape 8.1.2 (September 2006)
Netscape 8.1 (January 2006)
Netscape 8.1new feature12 February, 2006 (based on Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7)
* new Spyware & Adware Protection.
* Dynamic Security Center.
* Profile Manager.
* Enhanced RSS support.
* New Options panel.
* UI enhancements.
* Performance improvements.

System Requirement:

Windows 98, Me, 2000, or XP, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP1 installed
233 MHz processor (1GHz processor recommended), 64MB RAM, 35MB hard drive space.

Netscape 8.1 released
Netscape 8.1 themes listing

Netscape 8 (May 2005)
Netscape 8new feature
(based on Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3, NS 8.0.4 is based on Firefox 1.0.6)
* can display webpages with MSIE rendering engine.
* Site Controls.
* Multi-Bar.
* Form fill/passcard.
* Live Content.
* Improvements tabbed browsing.

System Requirement:

Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 SP1 installed
233 MHz processor (1GHz processor recommended), 64MB RAM, 35MB hard drive space.

> Netscape 8 pre-Beta
> Netscape Prototype 2
> Netscape Prototype Review programme

Netscape 7.2 (August 2004)
Netscape 7.2new feature
(based on Mozilla Application Suite 1.7.2)
* can display saved passwords in Password Manager.
* vCard support in Netscape Mail.
* improved Palm Sync.
* Table Editing controls in Composer.
* Improvements in browser rendering speed and application start-up.
* Improvements in standards support.
* Netscape Toolbar (Windows only)
> more information

System Requirement:

Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 26MB of free HD space
Mac OS X 10.1.x (Mac OS X 10.2.x later recommended), PowerPC 400 MHz or G3 or G4, 64MB of RAM, 60MB of free HD space, QuickTime
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 26MB of HD and Linux kernel - 2.2.14 with following library (or compatible) are required: glibc 2.1, XFree86 3.3.x, GTK 1.2.0.
> Netscape 7.2 Release Notes
> Netscape 7.0 FAQ
> Netscape 7.2 user report/feedback
Netscape 7.1 (June 2003)
Netscape 7.0new feature
(based on Mozilla Application Suite 1.4)
* Web Services via JavaScript APIs.
* Support for Windows Media Player Active X control
* Support for Internationalised Domain Names (non-ASCII characters)
* image resizing (can be disabled)
* Improved Stability and Performance
* Improved Mail notification and filtering

support P3P (Privacy Preference Project), New corporate features in Netscape Mail including S/MIME, Shared folders for IMAP, Secure LDAP, and Offline LDAP
> more information

System Requirement:

Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 52MB of free HD space
Mac OS X 10.1, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3 or G4, 64MB of RAM, 72MB of free HD space, QuickTime
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 52MB of HD and Linux kernel - 2.2.14 with following library (or compatible) are required: glibc 2.1, XFree86 3.3.x, GTK 1.2.0.
> Netscape 7.1 Release Notes
> Netscape 7.0 FAQ
> Netscape 7.1 user report/feedback
Netscape 7.0 (August 2002)
Netscape 7.0
Netscape 7.0 PR1
new feature
(designed to allow consumers to get the most from their time online.)
* Tabbed browsing, pop-up ad blocker (7.01), click-to-search, bookmark keywords, full screen mode, print preview, update notification, download manager
* Mail notification, mail labels, return receipts
* Save whole web pages, get map (address book)
support P3P (Privacy Preference Project), New corporate features in Netscape Mail including S/MIME, Shared folders for IMAP, Secure LDAP, and Offline LDAP
> more information

System Requirement:

Windows 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 52MB of free HD space
Mac OS 8.6 (9.1 and later recommended), MacOSX, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3 or G4, 64MB of RAM, 72MB of free HD space
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 52MB of HD and Linux kernel - 2.2.14 with following library (or compatible) are required: glibc 2.1, XFree86 3.3.x, GTK 1.2.0.
> Netscape 7.0 Release Notes
> Netscape 7.0 FAQ
> Mark's Netscape 7.0 Help and Tips
> Netscape 7.0 user report/feedback
Netscape 6.2 (November 2001)
Netscape 6.1new feature (over Netscape 6.1)
* Improved Quick Launch for Windows
* Improved Autocomplete, downloading
* New Address Book tab
* Ability to access Netscape Mail within other Windows applications (Simple MAPI)
* Improved stability
* New MacOSX (certified) and Windows XP platforms support.
support improved Quirk mode (Compatibility mode) for better agreement with IE5 and other old design tricks. Quirks mode is intended solely to support already existing content on the web which for practical purposes must support non standards compliant browsers.

System Requirement:

Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or XP, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 26MB of HD
Mac OS 8.6 or later, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3, 64MB of RAM, 36MB of HD
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM
> Netscape 6.2 Release Notes
Netscape 6.1 (August 2001)
Netscape 6.1 new feature (over Netscape 6)
* improved user interface for Navigator, Mail, and Instant Messenger
* new History tab and Bookmark Management features
* one click search from the URL bar
* offline access to Netscape email
* new download interface that lets you know where you downloaded a file and/or lets you launch it from the download dialog
* performance and stability enhancements have also been made in Navigator and Mail.
* New Mac OS X platform support (as preview release).

System Requirement:

Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, or 2000, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM, 26MB of HD
Mac OS 8.6 or later, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3, 64MB of RAM, 36MB of HD
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM
> Netscape 6.1 Release Notes
Netscape 6 (November 2000)
Netscape 6new feature My Sidebar, Customisable, Smaller Download Size, Powerful, Integrated Search, Built-in Instant Messaging, Themes, Privacy Protection, multiple e-mail accounts
support industry's best standard support including full W3C HTML 4, full CSS1 and partial CSS2, JavaScript1.5, XML, RDF, Document Object Model level 1(DOM1), Pluglets (Plug-ins Implemented in Java), Sun Java 2 plug-in. Also has backward compatibility with existing scripts and features of CSS2 positioning, supports DOM2 Events, and the DOM2 CSS Interface
note Netscape 6 does not support Netscape 4's proprietary features, such as <LAYER>, <ILAYER>, <NOLAYER> and associated JavaScript / DOM. (more information about transition websites to W3C standard) <IFRAME> is supported. innerHTML DOM extension is supported from NS6 PR2.
System Requirement:
Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, or 2000, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM
Mac OS 8.6 or later, PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or G3, 64MB of RAM
Red Hat Linux 6.0 or later with X11 R6, Pentium 233 MHz, 64MB of RAM
> Netscape 6 Release Notes
Netscape 5
Netscape 5.0 was based on the 4.x code base that Netscape released in 1998. In 1999, Netscape switched code bases and rewrote the new software based on Gecko, cancelling 5.0 (Mozilla classic) in favour of Netscape 6.
> more information
Netscape Communicator 4.8 (August 2002)

Netscape 4.72 note This is a maintain release with some bug fixes and enhancements.
(quoted from ufaq.org: [T]he ongoing 4.7x work is being done by iPlanet to fix bugs demanded by corporate clients with whom iPlanet has support contracts. Netscape gets to release those versions to end users as a by-product of the iPlanet work.)
System Requirements:
for Windows 32bit: PC with 486 or higher, 16MB RAM
for Macintosh: PowerPC with MacOS 8.1, 16MB RAM
for UNIX: 64MB RAM

> Communicator 4.8 Release Notes
Netscape Communicator 4.7 (September 1999)
Netscape 4.72 new feature Netscape Radio, Shop@Netscape Button, Search and Internet Keyword Improvements.
It includes Netscape AIM 3 (Instant Messenger), RealPlayer G2, Winamp (Windows), PalmPilot Synch tools (Windows), and multimedia plug-ins
support Global IME (Windows), Java Plug-in (from 4.78)
note As of version 4.72, the Netscape Calendar client will no longer be included, but is available from iPlanet. In other words, there will be no longer Professional Version of Netscape Communicator.
From version 4.73 all Netscape browsers are available in strong encryption (128-bit).
System Requirements:
for Windows 32bit: PC with 486 or higher, 16MB RAM
for Macintosh: PowerPC with MacOS 7.6.1, 16MB RAM
(Netscape 4.79+ requires MacOS 8.1 or above)
for UNIX: 64MB RAM

> Communicator 4.7 Release Notes
Netscape Communicator 4.6 (May 1999)
new feature Updated AOL Instant Messenger 2.0, Fixes to improve security, including RealPlayer G2, simplified process for obtaining digital certificates, new 56-bit DES ciphers added to both export and US versions (requires new SSL cipher suite server-side), updated NetHelp content and new Internet Keywords for movies, restaurants etc
> Communicator 4.6 Release Notes
Netscape Communicator 4.5 (June 1998, released in same time as 4.06)
Featuring Integrated Messenging, Smart Browsing, What's Related, Internet Messaging, Roaming Access, better quality over 4.05. All new features in Netscape 4.06 are also built in Netscape 4.5.
new support JDK1.1, JavaScript1.3
combined/removed Messenger and Collabra are combined into Messenger; Components no longer included: IBM Host On-Demand, Conference, and Netcaster
note From version 4.5, Netscape Communicator will not run on Windows 3.1 (16 bit) and Macintosh 68K systems.
System Requirements:
for Windows 32bit: PC with 486 or higher, 16MB RAM
for Macintosh: PowerPC with MacOS 7.6.1, 16MB RAM
for UNIX: 64MB RAM

> Communicator 4.5 Release Notes
Netscape Communicator 4.06 (June 1998, released in same time as 4.5)
new feature Smart Browsing's new What's Related icon and Internet Keywords capability, NetWatch menu item supporting PICS for filtering inappropriate content, Macromedia's Flash plug-in, New preference to clear the drop-down location bar history.
support JavaScript1.3
System Requirement:
8 MB RAM for Windows, 64MB RAM for UNIX, MacOS 7.6.1 and 16MB RAM for Macintosh
Netscape Communicator 4.0 (June 1997)
Netscape 4.02 Netscape Communicator suite contains Navigator (WWW browser), Composer (web page authoring tool), Messenger (e-mail client), Collabra (newsgroups reader), Netcaster (web channel) and Conference (multi-user communication)
support HTML 3.2 and Netscape's proprietary dynamic tags, such as <LAYER>, partial CSS-1 (Cascading Style Sheets - Level 1), CSS-P (Cascading Style Sheets - Positioning), and JavaScript1.2 .
New image format, *.png, supported from version 4.04.
VRML 2.0 via the integrated Cosmo Player 1.0 from Silicon Graphics.
System Requirement:
8 MB RAM for Windows, 64MB RAM for UNIX, MacOS 7.5 with 16MB RAM for Macintosh

> Communicator 4.0 Release Notes
Netscape Navigator 3.0 (August 1996).
Netscape 3.04 new feature Three-pane configurability, CoolTalk-an internet phone, Live3D, LiveAudio, LiveVideo, QuickTime support, new HTML layout capabilities. Show recipient in Sent Folder and Outbox, POP3 servers, JavaScript Evaluation in HTML
support HTML 3.2 and extra tags: Frame Border Control, <MULTICOL>, <SPACER>, <S>, <U> and JavaScript1.1: <NOSCRIPT>, SRC attribute
SSL3.0,
> Navigator 3.0 Release Notes
System Requirements:
for Windows 3.1: PC with a 386 or higher processor, 4MB RAM, 3MB HD
for Windows 95/NT:
PC with a 386 or higher processor, 6MB RAM, 6MB HD
for Mac:
Macintosh with a 68020 or higher processor, System 7, or greater, 12MB RAM, 6MB HD,
for Unix:
Unix workstations, 16MB RAM
sound card and speakers for CoolTalk
Netscape Navigator 2.0 (March 1996).
Netscape 2.02 feature Frames, Built-in JavaScript, Support for Java Applets (32bit Windows platform) (Java™ technology from Sun Microsystems, Inc), Plug-ins, integrated Mail and News, Automatic Dithering. Live3D
support FRAME, HTML 3 plus Netscape's enhancements, FONT COLOR tag, <DIV> tag, WRAP attribute in the TEXTAREA tag, Superscripts and Subscripts; animated GIF (GIF-89a)
System Requirements:
386 or higher with 4MB Ram (8 recommended), a VGA Display (Super VGA with 256 colours or higher recommended), and at least 6MB of hard disk space, Windows 3.1x, Windows for Workgroups 3.1x , Windows 95 or Windows NT running the appropriate TCP/IP software

> Navigator 2.0 Release Notes
Netscape 1.0 (December 15, 1994)
feature Drop-down URL Menu, MAPI, Page Headers, Downloading in a Separate Context
support <EMBED> tag on the Windows platform, ALT tags & Loading Image, Japanese character set encodings (JIS (ISO-2022-JP), SJIS (Shift-JIS) and EUC-JP (Extended UNIX Code for Japanese))

System Requirements:

To run the 32bit Navigator, you MUST have a 32-bit TCP/IP stack.
> Netscape Online Handbook (1995)


You can get all new and old Netscape browsers at Netscape Browser Archive.

[ Version Guide | Press Release | Place To Go | Download Netscape | NOW! Buttons ]

Netscape Timeline and Press Release:

Netscape Communications is now a subsidiary of America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Armerica Online is an AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) company.
(Nov 2004) Netscape Browser Review programme.
(Aug 2002) Netscape 7.0 Release and Expanded Netscape Network.
(May 2002) Netscape 7.0 Preview Release and Re-designed Netscape.com unveil.
(Mar 2002) Sun officially concluded its original Alliance agreement with AOL. iPlanet is now a division of Sun and is a core component of the Sun[tm] Open Net Environment (Sun ONE).
(Aug 2001) Netscape 6.1 browser released, gives consumers efficiency, power and safety.
(Jan 2001) AOL-Time Warner merger approved and completed.
(Jan 2001) You've Got Time Warner (News.com)
(Nov 2000) Netscape Launches Groundbreaking Netscape 6 Browser
(May 99) America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape Alliance, has launched www.iplanet.com for all alliance product information.
(Mar 99) AOL Completes Acquisition of Netscape Communications Corp, Netscape stockholders received 0.90 shares of AOL common stock for each share of Netscape common stock.
(Nov 98) America Online and Sun Microsystems Form Strategic Alliance
(Nov 98) America Online to Acquire Netscape Communications in Stock Transaction Valued at $4.2 Billion
(Nov 98) Netscape Tuneup for IE, a product makes IE 4.0 and 5.0 "smarter" by integrating Netscape's popular Smart Browsing services while providing integrated access to Netcenter services such as My Netscape, Netscape WebMail, Netscape Search, Netscape Contact, and Netscape Member Directory.
Netscape Announces Plans to Make Next-Generation Communicator Source Code Available Free on the Net
(Jan 98) Netscape announce to make Communicator 5 source code free; the move will allow the company to harness the creative power of programmers on the Internet and incorporate the best enhancements into future versions of the software.
(Jan 98) Netscape Navigator and Netscape Communicator Standard Edition become free; Netscape Communicator Professional Edition drop to $29 from $79.
(Oct 97) Co-branded real-time instant messaging service called Netscape's AOL Instant Messenger will be included with Netscape browsers.
(Sept 97) New Netscape Netcenter - new free online service
(Mar 96) AOL and Netscape marketing alliance
(Nov 94) Mosaic Communications Corporation changes its name to Netscape Communications Corporation.
(Oct 94) Navigator Offered Free on Internet, personal customers can download the software free, commercial users can purchase supported, licensed copies of Netscape starting from $99.

[ Version Guide | Press Release | Place To Go | Netscape Browser Archive | NOW! Buttons ]


Snow Patrol

Place to go:

> Mozilla and Netscape information and resource centre - MozInfo701.
> Download latest Netscape browsers at Latest Netscape - Netscape Browser Archive.
> Download latest and old (archived) Netscape browsers at Netscape Browser Archive.
> Book of Mozilla, the inside chapter for the book for mozilla.
> To learn how to use Netscape more efficiently, check Netscape Communicator Tips.
> Buttons used to promote Netscape, Netscape NOW! Buttons.
> SillyDog701's Netscape Knowledge Base Centre.
> Have questions about Netscape? Feel free to ask in our friendly SillyDog701 Message Centre.
> Need a hand in installing Netscape 6? Netscape 6 Installation Guide is available.
> Looking for Netscape Communicator with Calendar? (SillyDog701).

Netscape Timeline:


* 2007
October
Netscape 9.0 (final) released (16 October 2007)
Netscape 9.0 RC1 released (1 October 2007)
April
Netscape 8.1.3 (2 April 2007)
January
Netscape 9 announced (23 January 2007)
* 2006
September
Netscape 8.1.2 released (27 September 2006)
Janurary
Netscape 8.1 released (25 Janurary 2006)

* 2005
October
Netscape 8.0.4 released (19 October 2005)

August
Netscape 8.0.3.3 released (8 August 2005)

July
Netscape 8.0.3.1 pulled (29 July 2005)

Netscape 8.0.3.1 repleased (25 July 2005)

June
Netscape 8.0.2 repleased (Windows only)

May
Netscape 8.0.1 repleased (same day as Netscape 8.0)

May
Netscape 8.0 repleased (Windows only)

March
Netscape 8 Beta available to public (Windows only)

February
Netscape 8 pre-Beta available to Prototype Reviewers, with a new theme.

January
Netscape Prototype 2 basec on Firefox 1.0 available to Prototype Reviewers

* 2004
November
Netscape Prototype based on Firefox 0.9.4 available to Prototype Reviewers

new Netscape browser prototype review programme

August
Netscape 7.2

March
New Netscape 7.xx from latest Mozilla code? (SD701 thread)

* 2003
July
AOL lay off Netscape Developers (SD701 thread)

June
Netscape 7.1 released

May
Microsoft is paying $750 million to AOL Time Warner as part of a wide-ranging settlement

Feburary
Netscape 7.02 released

* 2002
December
Netscape 7.01 releasesd

August
Netscape 7.0 released
Netscape 4.8 released

May
Netscape 6.2.3 released

March
Netscape 6.2.2 released

* 2001
December
Netscape 6.2.1 released

October
Netscape 6.2 released

August
Netscape 6.1 released

Feburary
Netscape 6.01 released

* 2000
November
Netscape 6.0 released

* 1999

* 1998
November
America Online acquires Netscape Communication for $4.2b

* 1997
April
Netscape Netcaster introduced

* 1996
July
Netscape ONE

Feburary
Navigator 2.0 released

* 1995
December
Netscape and Sun Microsystems announces JavaScript

June
Netscape Navigator Personal Edition (first retail product)

May
Licenses Sun's Java programming language

April
signed Product Distribution and Technology Exchange Agreement with Sun

* 1994
December
Navigator, Commerce Server, Communications Server

November
Company renamed to Netscape Communications

October
first public Navigator beta

April
Mosaic Communications found by Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen



Related Sections:

* Netscape Browser Archive
* Browser Version Guide
* Message Centre
* MozInfo701
* Relationship between Netscape and Mozilla

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