The browser that opened the web to ordinary people, then was crushed by Internet Explorer, the one Microsoft gave away free with Windows.
Born
1994 CE
Died
2008 CE
Lived
14 years
Dead for
18 yrs
At its peak
~80% browser market share at 1995-96 peak
Cause of death
Replaced
Replaced by
Mozilla Firefox (built from Netscape's open-sourced code) and Microsoft Internet Explorer
The Obituary
Netscape Navigator made the World Wide Web usable for millions. Released in late 1994 by a team including Marc Andreessen, it loaded pages while they were still downloading and supported images, forms, and early scripting, turning the web from an academic curiosity into a mass medium. By 1995 it ran on roughly four in five computers online. Then Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer free with Windows, and the “browser wars” ended in Netscape’s collapse. Its code was open-sourced as Mozilla in 1998 and lives on in Mozilla Firefox; AOL bought the company and finally ended Navigator support on March 1, 2008.
Worth remembering
At its 1995-96 peak Navigator held roughly 80% of the browser market.
Netscape's 1995 IPO, with no profits, helped ignite the dot-com boom.
Gallery
Screenshot of Netscape Navigator 3 displaying a web pageCC0A boxed retail copy of Netscape Navigator on display at the Computer History MuseumMarcin Wichary from San Francisco, Calif. · CC BY 2.0
Watch
Netscape Navigator 1.0 in 1994 — Web Design Museum
Sources
Netscape Navigator released 1994; support ended March 1, 2008 Wikipedia
Netscape's code became the Mozilla project in 1998 Wikipedia
Netscape Navigator held about 80% of the browser market in 1996 before Microsoft's free bundling of Internet Explorer ended its dominance. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Netscape's 1994 browser release helped commercialize the web and triggered the 1990s browser wars. Computer History Museum
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
