Netscape logo Netscape, the greatest browser of all time, has reached its EOL.

AOL will cease the support of all Netscape products on 1st of February 2008 including the latest Navigator 9. The reins will be handed over to Mozilla Foundation encouraging Netscape users to migrate to Mozilla Firefox.

By November 2007 Netscape's market share had shrank to 0.6% (0.72% in October) mainly due to the Microsoft's antitrust case back in 1998. As a result of the Microsoft lawsuit a large number of layoffs took place during that time and later acquisition by AOL didn't benefit Netscape development either.

In 1998 Mozilla Organization was founded and Netscape started to implement a new core for Netscape 5 that never made it. They used an early Mozilla build for Netscape 6 instead and as we remember it was a cause of many IE conversions. Even the latter porting to Firefox core didn't prevail despite the fact that Netscape introduced enhanced security and support.

Still, Netscape's legacy is tremendous – Gecko layout engine, Open Directory Project, and even Fedora all lead back to Netscape.

The brand of the Netscape browser, the name itself as well as an image, will remain the best browser brand ever and is surely going to be missed by many, especially by those who remember the golden era of Netscape and the big bang of internet in whole. A great loss and what a waste brand-wise.