Editing Netscape Navigator (section)

===Decline===
{{more citations needed|section|date=December 2020}}
[[File:Netscape-navigator-usage-data.svg|thumb|left|Usage share of Netscape Navigator, 1994–2007]]

With the success of Netscape showing the importance of the web (more people were using the Internet due in part to the ease of using Netscape), Internet browsing began to be seen as a potentially profitable market. Following Netscape's lead, Microsoft started a campaign to enter the web browser software market. Like Netscape before them, Microsoft licensed the Mosaic source code from [[Spyglass, Inc.]] (which in turn licensed code from [[University of Illinois]]). Using this basic code, Microsoft created [[Internet Explorer]] (IE).

The competition between Microsoft and Netscape dominated the [[browser wars]]. Internet Explorer, [[Internet Explorer 1|Version 1.0]] (shipped in the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Microsoft Plus! For [[Windows 95]]<ref name="History of Internet Explorer">{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryIE.mspx|title=Download Web Browser - Internet Explorer|publisher=Microsoft|website=windows.microsoft.com|access-date=5 September 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031002010203/http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryIE.mspx|archive-date=2 October 2003}}</ref>) and IE, [[Internet Explorer 2|Version 2.0]] (the first cross-platform version of the web browser, supporting both [[Windows]] and [[Classic Mac OS|Mac OS]]<ref name="apr96ms">{{cite press release|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=8 September 2014|url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1996/apr96/iemompr.mspx|title=Microsoft Internet Explorer Web Browser Available on All Major Platforms, Offers Broadest International Support|date=30 April 1996|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130830020831/http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1996/apr96/iemompr.aspx|archive-date=30 August 2013}}</ref>) were thought by many to be inferior and primitive when compared to contemporary versions of Netscape Navigator. With the release of [[Internet Explorer 3|IE version 3.0]] (1996) Microsoft was able to catch up with Netscape competitively, with [[Internet Explorer 4|IE Version 4.0]] (1997) further improvement in terms of market share. [[Internet Explorer 5|IE 5.0]] (1999) improved stability and took significant market share from Netscape Navigator for the first time.

There were two versions of Netscape Navigator 3.0, the Standard Edition and the Gold Edition. The latter consisted of the Navigator browser with e-mail, news readers, and a [[WYSIWYG]] web page compositor; however, these extra functions enlarged and slowed the software, rendering it prone to crashing.

This Gold Edition was renamed [[Netscape Communicator]] starting with version 4.0; the name change diluted its name-recognition and confused users. Netscape CEO [[James L. Barksdale]] insisted on the name change because Communicator was a general-purpose ''client'' application, which contained the Navigator ''browser''.

The aging Netscape Communicator 4.x was slower than [[Internet Explorer 5.0]]. Typical web pages had become heavily illustrated, often JavaScript-intensive, and encoded with HTML features designed for specific purposes but now employed as global layout tools (HTML tables, the most obvious example of this, were especially difficult for Communicator to render). The Netscape browser, once a solid product, became [[crash (computing)|crash-prone]] and [[computer bug|buggy]]; for example, some versions re-downloaded an entire web page to re-render it when the browser window was re-sized (a nuisance to dial-up users), and the browser would usually crash when the page contained simple [[Cascading Style Sheets]], as proper support for CSS never made it into Communicator 4.x. At the time that Communicator 4.0 was being developed, Netscape had a competing technology called [[JavaScript Style Sheets]]. Near the end of the development cycle, it became obvious that CSS would prevail, so Netscape quickly implemented a CSS to JSSS converter, which then processed CSS as JSSS (this is why turning JavaScript off also disabled CSS). Moreover, Netscape Communicator's browser interface design appeared dated in comparison to Internet Explorer and interface changes in Microsoft and Apple's operating systems.

By the end of the decade, Netscape's web browser had lost dominance over the Windows platform, and the August 1997 Microsoft financial agreement to invest $150 million in [[Apple Computer]] required that Apple make Internet Explorer the default web browser in new Mac OS distributions. The latest [[Internet Explorer for Mac|IE Mac]] release at that time was Internet Explorer version 3.0 for Macintosh, but Internet Explorer 4 was released later that year.

Microsoft succeeded in having [[Internet service provider|ISPs]] and PC vendors distribute Internet Explorer to their customers instead of Netscape Navigator, mostly due to Microsoft using its leverage from Windows OEM licenses, and partly aided by Microsoft's investment in making IE [[brandable software|brandable]], such that a customized version of IE could be offered. Also, web developers used [[proprietary software|proprietary]], browser-specific extensions in web pages. Both Microsoft and Netscape did this, having added many proprietary HTML tags to their browsers, which forced users to choose between two competing and almost incompatible web browsers.
[[File:Netscape 9.0.0.6 (2025).png|thumb|259x259px|Netscape v. 9.0.0.6 with Google search results of "Wikipedia"]]
In March 1998, Netscape released most of the development [[code base]] for Netscape Communicator under an [[open source license]].<ref name="Freeing the Source: The Story of Mozilla">{{Cite web|url=http://oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/netrev.html|title=Freeing the Source: The Story of Mozilla|access-date=2014-09-08|date=January 1999|first=Jim|last=Hamerly|publisher=[[O'Reilly Media|O'Reilly]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202095909/http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/opensources/book/netrev.html|archive-date=2 December 2014}}</ref> Only pre-alpha versions of [[Netscape 5]] were released before the open source community decided to scrap the Netscape Navigator codebase entirely and build a new web browser around the [[Gecko (software)|Gecko]] [[Browser engine|layout engine]] which Netscape had been developing but which had not yet incorporated. The community-developed open source project was named ''[[Mozilla Application Suite|Mozilla]]'', Netscape Navigator's original [[Code name#Commercial code names in the computer industry|code name]]. [[America Online]] bought Netscape; Netscape programmers took a pre-[[beta test|beta]]-quality form of the Mozilla codebase, gave it a new GUI, and released it as Netscape 6. This did nothing to win back users, who continued to migrate to Internet Explorer. After the release of Netscape 7 and a long public beta test, Mozilla 1.0 was released on June 5, 2002. The same code-base, notably the Gecko layout engine, became the basis of independent applications, including [[Mozilla Firefox|Firefox]] and [[Mozilla Thunderbird|Thunderbird]].

On December 28, 2007, the Netscape developers announced that AOL had canceled development of Netscape Navigator, leaving it unsupported as of March 1, 2008.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7270583.stm BBC NEWS - Technology - Final goodbye for early web icon] BBC News {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303143021/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7270583.stm |date=3 March 2008 }} retrieved 29 February 2008</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/technology/technology-blog/2008/02/curtains-for-netscape.html |work=Canadian Broadcasting Company|title=Curtains for Netscape - Tech Bytes |access-date=2015-06-12 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705110100/http://www.cbc.ca/technology/technology-blog/2008/02/curtains-for-netscape.html |archive-date=5 July 2015}}</ref> Archived and unsupported versions of the browser remain available for download.