North Coast Connections

Early Internet users will tell you that Navigator was the dominant tool in the 1990's and only surpassed in 1998 when Microsoft not only packaged their Internet Explorer with all versions of the Windows operating system, but even hard coded the bugger so you were unable to get rid of it off of your desktop ... something for which they were sued and eventually relented by allowing users to choose their preferred browser. Nonetheless, MS' IE remains the dominant browser today (82% of world market), followed by the open source browser Firefox (13.5% of world share).

Netscape was formed in the early 1990's by the legendary Marc Andreessen, and the Navigator browser was made available for Microsoft, Linux, Apple and Unix operating systems. In fact, its "Mozilla" user agent (the code name given to the original test version of Navigator) eventually became the generic term for open source browsers.

As a Mac-head in my early computing years, Netscape was like a brother to me. The Navigator browser received its fair share of criticism for failing to keep up with improved features and usability, but its familiar look and feel was at one time almost synonymous with the Internet itself. Of course, selective memory erases all the pain of early computing and web use: 2400 baud dial-up modems, operating systems that moved at glacier speed, hardware that only the rich could afford, and software that was buggy and clumsy, just to name a few. Sill it was our brave new world and our traveling companions will not soon be forgotten.

I still only rarely use the MS Internet Explorer today. I much prefer Firefox, and take some solace in the fact that most hackers still concentrate primarily on messing with your computer using the Internet Explorer software as a front door. I'll miss the old Navigator, and mark its passing with fond nostalgia.

So lift a glass to health, happiness and prosperity in the new year ... and to absent friends !!

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com