“Netscape, a division of America Online, is touting the release
of Netscape 6 as a major milestone and a springboard for future
growth, despite the fact that many analysts and observers long ago
called the so-called browser war in Microsoft’s favor. Netscape 6
marks a radical departure from its predecessors because it was
rewritten independently of the “legacy” code that formed the basis
of Netscape’s Communicator browsers through version 4.76.”
“In addition to its decision to rewrite the browser, Netscape
early in 1998 made a strategic gamble to develop the browser under
the open-source model, in which the underlying source code is
published, volunteers collaborate on the product’s development, and
the results are made available for free and licensed use.”
“On the eve of Tuesday’s launch, Netscape defended both the
programming process and the gestation period. “If you look at how
long it takes to write a software product from start to finish, it
wasn’t such a long time,” said Sol Goldfarb, director of the
browser product marketing team at Netscape. “We’re proud of
how quickly the product came out the doors.”