In December, America Online announced that it would stop supporting the Netscape Navigator browser next month. Many who have been following Netscape’s path since AOL purchased the company in 1998 feel that such a decision should have been made years ago. However, a few diehard Navigator supporters are disappointed about the browser’s demise. Regardless, everyone agrees that this marks the end of an era.

According to many, Netscape has shaped the way we view the Internet today. Asa Dotzler, director of community development at the Mozilla Corporation said in an interview with the Wheel that “Netscape was able to turn a technology into a product, making the Internet interesting and easy and bringing it from the realm of scientists into the mainstream.”

Netscape began in the early 1990s when programmer Marc Andreessen developed the first web browser, Mosaic. In 1994, Andreessen started the Mosaic Communications Corporationand released the Mosaic Netscape browser. Soon after, the company changed the name of the browser to Netscape Navigator and its own name to Netscape. The company went public in 1995 and the firm saw steady gains until 1997.

Netscape first ran into trouble when Microsoft bundled the Internet Explorer browser with Windows 95, a tactic that would lead to the firm being found guilty of violating anti-trust laws. Netscape couldn’t compete with Microsoft’s bundled web browser and Internet Explorer (IE) slowly gained dominance. As Dotzler said, “Microsoft was found guilty, but they were able to cement their position on the desktop. Most people go with what is readily available.”

In 1998 AOL purchased Netscape in a stock swap valued at $4.2 billion. Most saw the acquisition as a way for AOL to gain leverage against Microsoft and ease dependence on IE. However, in 2003 AOL settled a damage suit against Microsoft for $750 million, giving them the right to use Internet Explorer royalty-free for seven years. This made Netscape expendable and in July AOL Time Warner disbanded Netscape, firing programmers and removing the logo from the building, eventually making the decision to stop support.

The Netscape story seems to be a cautionary tale about how quickly a company can go from being on top to almost disappearing. However, Netscape’s legacy continues to thrive indirectly in browsers like Mozilla Firefox. Because Netscape open sourced its code in 1998, independent developers have used Netscape as a base develop their own browsers like Firefox, Flock and Songbird.

Today, Firefox is the largest competitor to Internet Explorer. It has successfully taken market share from Microsoft, its rival since the 2003 creation of the Mozilla Foundation, the organization in charge of maintaining the common-code base of Netscape-based browsers. Firefox has also been able to stay ahead of Internet Explorer by being the first to offer features like tabbed browsing and better security. Dotzler sees Mozilla as the holder of Netscape’s mantle: “Mozilla exists from the desire to have a free and open internet. That was the legacy of Netscape and we’re proud to be advancing that mission.”

In March, an Internet revolutionary will die. But through the work of Mozilla and similar browsers, Netscape’s supporters know that the revolution it spawned will continue.

— Contact Asif Attarwalla.