N is for Netscape

Whatever happened to Netscape?

In the mid 90s when the web was still young and just beginning to attract a large consumer user base, Netscape's web browser was for a time the most popular. Then Microsoft fought back with its Internet Explorer - cunningly bundled free with its Windows 95 operating system. The so-called browser wars were soon over.

Netscape couldn't compete, and in 1998 put its source code into the open source pot, only later that year to be taken over by AOL (America On Line) one of the other big beasts in the internet jungle.

Eventually the source code was picked up by the Mozilla Foundation or was it Mozilla Org?

Then came Phoenix, Firebird, Firefox and even Seamonkey!

You can try to follow the saga of build-a-browser-to-break-Microsoft's-monopoly on Wiki by searching for these various mythical creatures.

Meanwhile Netscape hasn't gone away. It is now around as Netscape Browser (or version 8) which allows you to view pages as they would be rendered by either Firefox or Internet Explorer.

And don't forget Opera, far away in little Norway, and a very fine browser too.

An extensive list of known browsers can be found here on Wiki.