Hello everyone! After a well deserved break, I’m back and blogging once again. Ok, so it wasn’t a break so much as it was a whole heck of a lot of work squeezed between three holidays, but you get the point.
Unfortunately, this post comes in the wake of a tragedy of sorts. It is with great sadness that I pass along a piece of news that will make many a seasoned Web developer weep. Last week, Tom Drapeau, a former principal software engineer and now the director of Propeller Social News for AOL, Announced the end of life for Netscape Navigator in his blog.
Think what you will of Netscape Navigator. Lord knows it’s had its ups and downs. It’s been highly regarded as a vehicle for Web innovation, And more than a few Web designers have cursed its existence over the years too (NS4.x, your memories haunt me to this day). But Netscape is an institution, and its passing comes with much sorrow.
That being said, I know I’m not the only one who has a less-than-favorable opinion of AOL (I have personal reasons), and one could argue AOL’s purchase of Netscape eight years ago is really when the browser began to die. Honestly, it’s been a long time since I’ve cared about Netscape and its browser, but that doens’t mean it doesn’t have a place in my heart. Sure, Netscape has been dead for years, but its name has always lived on as a symbol of the Internet in its infancy through today. Sadly, not through tomorrow.
R.I.P. Netscape. You’ll be glad to know your legacy is thriving in Firefox. You will be missed.
About Paul Hirsch
Paul Hirsch is a moderator on WebHostingTalk.com, the largest Web hosting community on the Internet, and he is a founder and Core Team member of the International Web Developers Network (IWDN). He is co-owner of Studio1337, a Web design and development company located in Akron/Canton, Ohio, West. Hartford, Conn. and Teesside, U.K. Paul received his bachelors degree from Kent State University in Electronic Media Production, with minors in Computer Information Systems and Sociology. He earned a masters degree in Media Management from Kent as well. Through his theWHIR blog, he will offer perspectives on developments in design technology for the people who create what Web hosts host.
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