Tech Shout!

AOL has stopped development and active support for the Netscape browser, said the official Netscape blog. Until Feb. 1, 2008, AOL will continue delivering security patches for the current version of Netscape.

On Netscape’s official blog, Tom Drapeau, lead developer for Netscape.com mentioned, even without the support of AOL, netscape.com will be continued as a general use Internet portal after February 1, 2008.

Also there will be no more active product support for Navigator 9 or any other previous version of Netscape Navigator browser including Netscape v1-v4.x, Netscape v6, Netscape v7 Suite, Netscape Browser v8, and Netscape Navigator/Messenger 9.

Mozilla, which owned Netscape and Firefox web browsers, was founded in 2003 with support from AOL. It released successive versions of Firefox, while AOL focused on to develop Netscape on top of the same platform.

While writing about the end of the brand Netscape, Drapeau wrote, “AOL’s focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.”

Drapeau suggests in the blog that people who still want to use netscape should download Mozilla Firefox and add the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions which are available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/56836.