Netscape Browser
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| Developer(s) |
Mercurial Communications for AOL, Netscape |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 8.0 (2005) |
| Stable release | 8.1.3 (April 2, 2007) |
| Preview release | none (n/a) |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows (XP, 2000, Me, 98) |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | archive |
Netscape Browser (or Netscape 8) is the eighth major release of the Netscape series of web browsers, now all discontinued. It was published by AOL, but developed by Mercurial Communications, and originally released for Windows on May 19, 2005.
Netscape Browser was the first browser of the Netscape series to be based on Mozilla Firefox, as opposed to Netscape versions 6 and 7 which were based on Mozilla Application Suite. Also, Netscape 6 and 7 were Internet suites whereas Netscape Browser (version 8) was solely a web browser.
As with other recent versions, it incorporates support for AOL Instant Messenger, and other AOL-related features.
Netscape Browser was succeeded by Netscape Navigator 9, which reverted to the Navigator name.
The browser was finally released on May 19, 2005. A minor update known as version 8.0.1 was released a few hours later to incorporate the key security patches added in Firefox 1.0.4.
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature introduced in Netscape Browser is the ability to use either of two layout engines to render websites — either Internet Explorer 6's Trident layout engine or the Gecko engine used by Mozilla and its derivatives. This is used as part of the browser's "Site Controls" system, which allows security settings to be altered on a per-site basis, and is also touted as a defense against phishing and similar attacks, with both blacklists and whitelists built in and automatically updated regularly. This system decides whether a site is "trusted" or "suspect", while only whitelisted sites use the Trident engine by default.
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