Netscape Navigator laid to rest

AOL has released the final update to its 14-year old Netscape Navigator browser.

Netscape Navigator was first launched in 1994 under the name ‘Mosiac Netscape 0.9' and just one year later secured more than 80% of the online browser market. However, Internet Explorer, which was launched by Microsoft in the same year, overtook Netscape in three years. Today, Netscape is said to account for less than 1% of the browser market.

In the firm's official blog, Tom Drapeau, director of AOL's Netscape brand stated: "Users will see the following major upgrade notice, released as Netscape 9.0.0.6. When the upgrade is accepted and run, the following notice will appear, denoting the end of support date and the recommendations of Flock and Firefox."

UAE users however will have to opt for Firefox or another alternative as access to Flock.com was blocked in the country earlier this month.

Drapeau added that Netscape 9.0.0.6 is patch-equivalent with Firefox 2.0.0.12, the browser version Mozilla released earlier this month to fix a number of vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, faithful Netscape 9 users can continue to use the browser by hitting the ‘Remind me Later' button, followed by the ‘Stay with Netscape' button.

At the end of 2007, AOL announced it would stop supporting Netscape on February 1, but decided to give the browser a one-month extension to ensure smooth migration to Firefox and Flock.

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