AOL’s focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be. Given AOL’s current business focus and the success the Mozilla Foundation has had in developing critically-acclaimed products, we feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox.
Of course Netscape has been dying for years, but it’s still a shame. For me (and millions of others) it was the program that introduced me to this internet lark, and I can vividly remember what I thought when I first used it: “The internet is rubbish! And brilliant!”