Netscape completes a decade on the Web
The first public beta of Netscape Navigator was released on this day ten years ago. Netscape has been one of the most significant products in the history of the web and in fact, has created significant web history.
MozillaZine contains some interesting links and CNet News.com covers the decade in interesting stories, from one of which I have taken the liberty of extracting the following timeline.
March 1993
Marc Andreessen announces the Mosaic browser, written in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Illinois and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Mid-1994
Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen found Mosaic Communications (later Netscape).
October 1994
First public beta of the Netscape Browser is released.
November 1994
Mosaic Communications renames itself Netscape Communications after a legal battle.
August 1995
Netscape goes public at $28 a share. It closes that day at $58.25.
August 1995
Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 1.0.
August 1996
Netscape’s lawyers complain to the U.S. Department of Justice about Microsoft.
October 1997
Justice Department charges Microsoft with violating terms of a 1995 consent decree.
January 1998
Netscape creates Mozilla.org and says a new browser will be free and open source.
November 1998
America Online buys Netscape for $4.2 billion.
April 2000
Federal judge says Microsoft abused its monopoly to capture the browser market.
May 2003
AOL agrees to continue using the Internet Explorer browser and settles antitrust claims against Microsoft for $750 million.
July 2003
The Mozilla Foundation is created and AOL spins off Mozilla as an independent foundation.
September 2004
Preview of Mozilla’s Firefox 1.0 is released.