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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => General Internet News => Topic started by: norm on July 16, 2003, 01:57:39 PM

Title: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: norm on July 16, 2003, 01:57:39 PM
AOL has layed off 50 positions at Netscape, which affects less than 10 percent of Netscape employees. At the same time, AOL has promised 2 million dollars to create the Mozilla Foundation, an incorporated non-profit organization.

Check out the following for more info:
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3422 (http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3422)

Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: zudobug on July 16, 2003, 02:22:06 PM
more info here (http://mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3422) (mozillazine)

This is sad news for the people that were laid off. But I think this might turn out good for mozilla. Just have to wait and see.

I for one am glad it is now free of it's links with A :-o L
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: norm on July 16, 2003, 02:37:15 PM
It's not all bad news though. Now Mozilla is free from AOL with $2m handshake as well. Check it out on mozilla.org (http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-foundation.html) for more info.

Norm  :-D
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: norm on July 16, 2003, 03:39:28 PM
I especially like the quote from The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/31765.html)

Quote
Netscape's death will provoke a thousand arguments, but none will be so useful as utility. Well, maybe and perhaps, browsers don't really matter too much. But the fact that Microsoft's miserable excuse for a web browser - a sorry piece of code that has been untouched by human hand for many years, now - speaks volumes about indulging the wrong kind of people with big responsibilities.
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: amigamad on July 16, 2003, 04:48:56 PM
IT had to happen still mozzila will go on and it might even get as good as opera one day. :-)
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: norm on July 16, 2003, 05:33:58 PM
Yeap Opera (http://www.opera.com/) rocks! Definately my favourite browser at the moment... Tonnes of options & features :-o .

Anyone want to convince Opera to port it to AmigaOS 4.0?  :-D
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: ikir on July 16, 2003, 07:15:17 PM
No comment. A SAD DAY
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: Tomas on July 16, 2003, 07:47:07 PM
Netscape was just a more bloated version of mozilla anyways, lacking some features...

And i hate AOL btw  ;-)
A company that is supposed to make an alternative browser to microsofts IE.. Though their lousy ISP client works only on windoze pcs.... sigh...
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: Tomas on July 16, 2003, 07:49:04 PM
Quote
IT had to happen still mozzila will go on and it might even get as good as opera one day.

I think its allready past opera... not in speed but in functionality. Opera seems to still have some problems  with rendering some sites... though they even are fully compitable with the standard.. It is much faster though.
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: Tomas on July 16, 2003, 07:51:41 PM
Quote
Anyone want to convince Opera to port it to AmigaOS 4.0?

There was actually a plan to port it to AmigaOS once.. But when they figured out that the userbase wasnt that big afterall and AmigaINC going down the drain under management of gateway.... Dunno if that is the reason.. but they suddently changed their mind and stated that no port would be done due to lack of userbase...
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: Ni72ous on July 16, 2003, 08:22:44 PM
@Thomas
Quote
Though their lousy ISP client works only on windoze pcs


And Apple Macs
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: Crispy_Beef on July 16, 2003, 09:27:18 PM
I've been using Mozilla for quite a while now (both Mail and Browser) and find it very nice.  Have recently installed Mozilla Firebird and boy does it fly.

It's only at 0.6 at the moment but for those that just want a browser I can highly recommend it.  :-)
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: DethKnight on July 17, 2003, 07:50:07 AM
Use mozilla nearly always, except when I am in AIAB.
 Opera for me is fast, nice, great, but it gives me font issues
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: DarkHawke on July 17, 2003, 12:15:31 PM
How ironic, given that I've just installed Netscape 7.1!  I'm not sanguine about trusting development to a volunteer force, however enthusiastic they may be.  Unless there's a GREAT deal of coordination, it could lead to the kind of capricious development and oddball, techie-only software that pervades the Linux community.  I've looked at installing Mozilla, but much as wilh Linux as an OS, it looks more like a browser for programmers/hackers/uber tech-heads than ordinary users.  I'm no Mac tenderfoot myself, but I'd rather get new software releases like I just did: I get the notice, I download it, I run the installer, and presuming the programmers did their job right, the damn thing works.  No futzing with an alphabet soup of command line options required.
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: Crispy_Beef on July 17, 2003, 01:41:29 PM
Quote
How ironic, given that I've just installed Netscape 7.1! I'm not sanguine about trusting development to a volunteer force, however enthusiastic they may be



Hmmm, you do know about how Mozilla and Netscape 7.x are connected don't you?  In fact you'd probably have a more stable browser free of all the crap that AOL slapped onto Netscape if you went with Moz.

As I mentioned above, I think you'd likle Firebird if you gave it a go.  :-)
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: Tomas on July 18, 2003, 07:33:29 PM
Quote
I've looked at installing Mozilla, but much as wilh Linux as an OS, it looks more like a browser for programmers/hackers/uber tech-heads than ordinary users.

um.. It looks exactly like netscape  :-P Just that mozilla has a few more features..  Netscape is entirely based on on Mozilla...
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: DarkHawke on July 18, 2003, 10:26:01 PM
Quote
Hmmm, you do know about how Mozilla and Netscape 7.x are connected don't you?

Uh, yeah, I thought that was implied in my message, i.e. concern that without the official Netscape team, development would be solely on the backs of whoever wanted to do the development.  Not that that is necessarily a bad situation, but making cash has proven to be a wonderful motive for productivity! :-)

Quote
In fact you'd probably have a more stable browser free of all the crap that AOL slapped onto Netscape if you went with Moz.

Such as?  Okay, there's the IM which I have no need for and the various AOHell ads (severely limited in the 7.1 release, btw), but I don't see anything else other than helper apps, which one can take or leave.

Quote
As I mentioned above, I think you'd likle Firebird if you gave it a go.

Go given.  Ennnh.  I don't notice the much touted speed increase, though the rendering engine does allow for smoother scrolling via mouse wheel.  I like how there's less space allocated to controls, but then again I miss the niceties of having a throbber (sometimes the only way you can tell the browser is working!), being able to print a page by just clicking the icon, and the useful aspect of not needing a separate search box other than the URL box.  These are probably configurable with either the right theme or adding to a config file or something, but if so, then why not just make such configurability a part of the interface?  The themeing, which would otherwise be a compelling reason to switch, is more than a little wonky, and shared codebase or no, NS 7.1 has actually added useful functions that don't exist in Firebird 0.6 (one example: having your homepage come up when NS starts, but not when you open a new window or a tab).  Maybe Firebird surpasses NS 7.1 eventually, but in my humble, it ain't ready for prime-time yet.
Title: Re: AOL kills Netscape
Post by: DarkHawke on July 18, 2003, 10:43:34 PM
@ Norm:

To be fair, the Register's article trashed all three sides:  AOL, Microsoft AND Mozilla.  In my humble, this is the heart of the piece:

Quote
On the one hand, the corrupt suits at AOL failed to appreciate the majesty of the Mozilla code, pulled features (such as blocking pop-up windows which AOL's advertisers loved, but users hated), forked willy-nilly, adding adware where they could, and generally betrayed the Great Project.

On the other hand, when a killer app was needed in haste, the Mozilla team wandered off into Lotus-eating land and spent four years creating esoteric frameworks and note-perfect bug tracking systems that only a nerd could appreciate.

Both these points of view are caricatures, of course.

But techno-utopians tend to get lost in their fabulous daydreams, sometimes. They forget that these browser things are just tools, and browsers are just windows onto the web, so a graceful XUL framework means diddly-squat to the innocent punter. Creating a neat C++ framework when what the world needs a non-Microsoft browser is nothing but a deriliction of duty: a piece of vanity code. What we Brits call pointless "willy waving".
:lol:
Title: Re: AOL lays off Netscape browser team
Post by: DarkHawke on July 19, 2003, 12:02:07 AM
Quote
um.. It looks exactly like netscape

Well shut mah mouth and sho-nuff.  I have no idea what I was looking at before, but de damn ting downloaded and installed as easy as you please, including recognizing and using my NS profile.  Can't say ####e against that!

Quote
Just that mozilla has a few more features.

Well, at least you can get more skins, though at first look it does seem to share the NS flaw of each new version needing an updated skin version as well (WTF?).  Otherwise, NS and Mozilla seem identical.  Seems like there's life after "Netscape" after all.