Netscape Navigator 9
Encyclopedia
Netscape Navigator 9 is a web browser
produced by the Netscape Communications
division of parent AOL
, first announced on January 23, 2007. After AOL outsourced the development of Netscape Browser 8
to Mercurial Communications
in 2004, Netscape Navigator 9 marked the first Netscape browser to be produced in-house since Netscape 7.
It also saw the return of the classic Navigator
name, which was previously used between Netscape versions 1.0 and 4.08.
The program's first beta was released on June 5, 2007, with the Beta 2 on July 12, and Beta 3 on August 16. After a release candidate, the final release was issued on October 15, 2007.
On December 28, 2007, Netscape developers announced that AOL would discontinue their web browser on February 1, 2008. On January 28, 2008, Netscape revised this date to March 1, 2008, and offered support for migration to Flock
and Mozilla Firefox
.
.
The user interface
of the program has also been updated, and the theme was also later released for use on Mozilla Firefox.
Like Netscape version 8.x, Navigator 9 is based upon the Mozilla Firefox
, this time version 2.0, and should have full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of which Netscape is providing. Netscape has also been releasing some of its features as extensions for Firefox, including the Site Mail Notifier and Friends' Activity Sidebar, the Digg Tracker, as well as Netstripe, the new default theme for Netscape 9.
The browser also includes URL
self-correction, which corrects common URL misspellings,
an improved FTP listing interface and a dedicated News menu with integration to the Netscape.com news portal. A quick "link pad" has also been included so web pages can quickly be added to the pad for later viewing without adding to the bookmark lists.
Navigator 9 also sees the browser return to multi-platform support across Windows
, Linux
and Mac OS X
. Netscape's signature splash screen also reappeared in the release candidate of the final program.
's Trident layout engine
as an alternative engine option, alongside various other additional features.
Netscape Navigator did not include an email
and newsgroups client or an instant messaging
client as Netscape 6 and 7 did. Netscape did, however, plan to produce a companion email client to complement the Navigator, confirmed as Netscape Messenger 9
. While that software was in production, Netscape advised its users to use the Netscape 7 series of suites
, which includes an email client, alongside Navigator 9 for browsing purposes.
A new verse 8:20 of the Easter egg The Book of Mozilla was written for the release of Netscape 9, consisting of "And thus the Creator looked upon the beast reborn and saw that it was good". This could have reference either to the re-development of Netscape in-house once again, or the Mozilla Foundation
and its contributors.
claims Navigator 9 has some "neat" components, contains many "tricks we love" and is "more than a backup browser"; which they previously used to describe Browser 8. Most of the bundled features from version 8 have been removed.
Macintosh
Linux
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
produced by the Netscape Communications
Netscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
division of parent AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, first announced on January 23, 2007. After AOL outsourced the development of Netscape Browser 8
Netscape Browser
Netscape Browser is the name of a proprietary Windows web browser published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications. It is the eighth major release in name of the Netscape series of browsers, originally produced by the defunct Netscape Communications Corporation.While Netscape Browser's...
to Mercurial Communications
Mercurial Communications
Mercurial Communications was a Canadian company that developed the Netscape 8.0 Browser for Netscape, a division of AOL. Netscape offered the browser to AOL but they declined in favour of AOL's Microsoft Internet Explorer-based browser...
in 2004, Netscape Navigator 9 marked the first Netscape browser to be produced in-house since Netscape 7.
It also saw the return of the classic Navigator
Netscape Navigator
Netscape Navigator was a proprietary web browser that was popular in the 1990s. It was the flagship product of the Netscape Communications Corporation and the dominant web browser in terms of usage share, although by 2002 its usage had almost disappeared...
name, which was previously used between Netscape versions 1.0 and 4.08.
The program's first beta was released on June 5, 2007, with the Beta 2 on July 12, and Beta 3 on August 16. After a release candidate, the final release was issued on October 15, 2007.
On December 28, 2007, Netscape developers announced that AOL would discontinue their web browser on February 1, 2008. On January 28, 2008, Netscape revised this date to March 1, 2008, and offered support for migration to Flock
Flock (web browser)
Flock was a web browser that specialized in providing social networking and Web 2.0 facilities built into its user interface.Earlier versions of Flock used the Gecko HTML rendering engine by Mozilla....
and Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
.
New features
The Beta releases of Netscape Navigator 9 includes enhanced newsfeed support and was more integrated with the Netscape.com Internet portal, including enhanced methods of discussion, submission and voting of web pages. However as of Netscape Navigator 9 beta 3, the Netscape.com integration is now optional, and certain aspects of integration can be manually enabled or disabled, with integration being totally removed in Navigator 9.0rc1 as the portal relaunched as PropellerPropeller.com
Propeller was a social news aggregator operated by AOL-Netscape. It was similar to Digg; users could vote for which stories are to be included on the front page and could comment on them as well. As of October 1, 2010, Propeller will no longer be active....
.
The user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
of the program has also been updated, and the theme was also later released for use on Mozilla Firefox.
Like Netscape version 8.x, Navigator 9 is based upon the Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
, this time version 2.0, and should have full support of all Firefox add-ons and plugins, some of which Netscape is providing. Netscape has also been releasing some of its features as extensions for Firefox, including the Site Mail Notifier and Friends' Activity Sidebar, the Digg Tracker, as well as Netstripe, the new default theme for Netscape 9.
The browser also includes URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
self-correction, which corrects common URL misspellings,
an improved FTP listing interface and a dedicated News menu with integration to the Netscape.com news portal. A quick "link pad" has also been included so web pages can quickly be added to the pad for later viewing without adding to the bookmark lists.
Navigator 9 also sees the browser return to multi-platform support across Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Netscape's signature splash screen also reappeared in the release candidate of the final program.
Other features
Unlike Netscape 8, the browser does not use Internet Explorer 6Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 6 is the sixth major revision of Internet Explorer, a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems...
's Trident layout engine
Trident (layout engine)
Trident is the name of the layout engine for the Microsoft Windows version of Internet Explorer.It was first introduced with the release of Internet Explorer version 4.0 in October 1997; it has been steadily upgraded and remains in use today...
as an alternative engine option, alongside various other additional features.
Netscape Navigator did not include an email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and newsgroups client or an instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
client as Netscape 6 and 7 did. Netscape did, however, plan to produce a companion email client to complement the Navigator, confirmed as Netscape Messenger 9
Netscape Messenger 9
Netscape Messenger is a standalone, multiplatform e-mail and news client that was developed by Netscape. Announced on June 11, 2007 as Netscape Mercury, the program was intended to accompany the web browser Netscape Navigator 9, and was based on Mozilla's Thunderbird.The original name Mercury was...
. While that software was in production, Netscape advised its users to use the Netscape 7 series of suites
Internet suite
An Internet suite is an Internet-related software suite. Internet suites usually include a web browser, e-mail client , download manager, HTML editor, and an IRC client....
, which includes an email client, alongside Navigator 9 for browsing purposes.
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
and its contributors.
Response
CNET Download.comDownload.com
Download.com is an Internet download directory website, launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Originally, the domain was download.com.com. The domain download.com attracted at least 113 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study....
claims Navigator 9 has some "neat" components, contains many "tricks we love" and is "more than a backup browser"; which they previously used to describe Browser 8. Most of the bundled features from version 8 have been removed.
System requirements
Windows- 233 MHz processor (500 MHz recommended)
- 64 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
- 50 MB of free disk space (100 MB recommended)
- Microsoft Windows 98Windows 98Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
(Windows XPWindows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
recommended)
Macintosh
- PowerPC G3 processor (PowerPC G4 or Intel recommended)
- 128 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended)
- 75 MB of free disk space (150 MB recommended)
- Mac OS X 10.2.x
Linux
- 233 MHz processor (500 MHz recommended)
- 64 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
- 50 MB of free disk space (100 MB recommended)
- Linux kernel 2.2.14 (with glibc 2.3.2, XFree86-3.3.6, gtk+2.0, fontconfig/xftXftXft, the X FreeType interface library, is a free computer program library written by Keith Packard. As of version 2.1, it is licensed under a quasi-BSD license....
and libstdc++5)
Release history
- Netscape Navigator 9.0b1 – June 5, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0b2 – July 12, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0b3 – August 16, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0rc1 – October 1, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0 – October 15, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.1 – October 22, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.2 – November 1, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.3 – November 2, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.4 – November 27, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.5 – December 10, 2007
- Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6 – February 20, 2008