Why the outrage about the future of Netscape? Netscape is not only "another browser company". Netscape is at the heart of the Mozilla.org open source project. Over 75 programmers and enginneers on Netscape/AOL's payroll work on it (and to this day, continue to work on the upcoming Mozilla 1.4/Netscape 7.1 release) and they have been doing so for the last five years.

Yes, there are many outsiders... a few programmers on IBM's payroll porting mozilla to IBM's own Aix unix and OS/2 operating systems, some folks from HP, and so on. But the core development of the "Gecko engine" is still the labour of love of Netscape programmers, on Netscape's payroll. Netscape and its sister mozilla.org project, as the folks at Webstandards.org say, helped "make the playing field more level".

Well, not for long, it seems.

Everything indicates that the new head of the AOL division wants to pull the plug entirelly on Netscape. Yes, AOL might be assimilated by the Redmond Menace. In exchange for pocket change, AOL seems pleased to surrender the browser market, and about to decide to throw away their biggest assests, their technology investment and technological independence, down the drain. Put in military terms, they are about to destroy their tactical weapons and wave a white flag.

Sources inside the company confirm that while plans to finish current projects (the Netscape 7.1 browser based on Mozilla 1.4) and the "Aol Communicator" email client for "power users" based on Netscape 7 Mail are under way, fear is that it is as far as they will go.

The rumour is that all Netscape Gecko code has been pulled from future versions of the AOL client, and when Netscape 7.1 and AOL Communicator ship in a month or so Gecko will be scrapped entirely. 75 highly skilled people would get the axe, many of them working on the mozilla.org project, with the remaining 10-20% reassigned to other jobs. To top all this, it seems that there has been a "suggestion" from management so that people with @netscape.com email addresses start switching their emails to @aol.com. Does anyone need seed the writing on the wall?

AOL's Active-X menace
The writing has been on the wall for some time, with the AOL division's lack of desire to commit the AOL user base to the Gecko engine over the last 12 months (currently, only the AOL for Mac OS-X and Compuserve 7.0 clients use Gecko instead of IE).

The ability of some companies to shot themselves in the foot never ceases to amaze me. I watched in shock as IBM "de-emphasized" OS/2 and surrendered the desktop OS market to Microsoft around 1996-97. I have the same feeling today. AOL is a company with a great asset: a user-friendly propietary online service with millions of subscribers . Add to it a skilled team of programmers, a standards-based open-source browser engine (mozilla.org), a long-time relationship with one of Microsoft's arch-enemies (Real Networks), and its own "Media Player" and mp3-streaming technology, thanks to Nullsoft.

Most people are unaware of it, but AOL even ported, about 3 years ago, its aol 7.0 client to Linux, that runs into the Gateway Connected Touch Pad internet appliance. I still run one to this day and check my aol mail, browse the web thru the aol interface with the Netscape Gecko engine, and listen to AOL Radio with the devices's built-in Real player for linux. Gateway quickly lost interest in the appliance sector, and scrapped the device. Some users even took the leaked aol client, and ran it over their desktop PC's under RedHat Linux.

This serves as a reminder of how close AOL was to having a real technical edge, and of claiming "total independence" to the Microsoft Empire, and how OS-independent the online service really is (or should I now say "was"?). Imagine the $199 Microtel PCs with LindowsOS and a real Linux-based AOL client with the same feature set as the Windows ones.

Lately, however, AOL's development shifted towards a windows-centric path, sometimes embracing the windows-centric and security-lax Active-X technology instead of more cross-platform alternatives.

While last year they released an experimental AOL 7.0 client that used the Netscape Gecko engine, the "Radio@aol broadband" service was not based on the cross-platform Real Player with its "cd-quality" Real v9 codec, but instead used a propietary mp3-streaming solution by Nullsoft, delivered as an Active-X component. This of course didn't work in the Gecko-based AOL client. Once again, a company shooting themselves in the foot, by painting themselves into a corner as a windows-centric (or windows-activex-based) online service.

Finally, when I beta-tested the "Netscape Online antivirus from McAfee" from the "Netscape Network" a few weeks ago, I noticed it wasn't installing. A quick glance at the beta FAQ page pointed that the anti-virus installer was delivered using an Active-X component, and thus, "Netscape was not supported" (Netscape until this day has taken the very wise approach of not supporting active-x for its security risks). Talk about "strategy", and "vision", a "Netscape Network antivirus that doesn't install on Netscape..

Time Warner embraces "Windows-Everywhere"
It seems Aol Time Warner has never (despite the RedHat buyout rumors) taken the linux community seriously. First SuSE, then others decided to replace their Netscape-branded browser (based on Mozilla but with the addition of an integrated AIM/ICQ client on the browser's sidebar, and other third party software) with the unsupported Mozilla.org binaries. I wrote a story a few weeks ago about the Lindows CEO publicly complaining about Netscape's lack of interest in the Linux market.

Now it's official: over the last few months AOL has been slowly and quietly developing new features based on Active-x, and seems to be slowly abandoning real networks' cross-platform streaming technologies in favor of their own Nullsoft windows-based mp3-streaming technologies and now Windows Media 9 which, guess what? is mostly windows-centric. Add to that the 7-year IE license.

Simply put, that means the chances of AOL ever switching to a competing operating system (or to broaden their subscriber base to include Linux users) are now close to zero. 5 words describe this "windows only" scenario: "Painting themselves into a corner."

Where is the DOJ?
I'm sure the 75+ engineers, developers and netscape stabs whose jobs are on the line won't stand still. I'm sure Steve Case isn't happy, either. I can only wish some company that DO care about standards, Like Sun, SuSE, or IBM, can publicly state their commitment to the mozilla.org project and its core engineers.

Or maybe Steve Case can grab some of his money and re-gain the netscape brand name and human resources from the Parson's "MSAOLTW" vole, as a spin-off venture?

And I'd like to see what the DOJ thinks of America's largest ISP teaming with the world's largest software monopoly to force their windows-centric Media Player technologies and windows-centric browser down the users' throats for the next seven years.

Closing thoughts
I think this decision to assimilate AOL into IE and Windows Media technologies, to throw their technology independence and technical advantages away, marks a sad day for web standards and the future of the software industry. Bill Gates and Co. must be very happy. They are once again free from all enemies and can begin breaking web-standards and slowling turning the web into a "IE-only" propietary "XPerience". Who's gone cry foul? 99% of the net (thanks to AOL subscribers) will run on IE, at least for the next 7 years!

I have had enough. I have closed my CompuServe and AOL accounts after 10 years of use.

I'm going to play with my "Deck of Weasels" card deck. No, not the "patriotic" pro-war ones. I'm talking about my own "Deck of Weasels (in the fight against the Microsoft monopoly)" card deck. On it, The Diamonds are the backstabbing CEOs who hurt the open source movement (or helped the Microsoft monopoly) the most, starting with Time Warner's Richard Parsons, and SCO's CEO Darl "I'll sue the world" McBride is, of course, among the jokers.

Food for thought: why did AOL register the domain name "NESCAPE.COM" (missing "t") on April 2003?

What do you think of all this? Could the mozilla.org project keep steam without the 75+ core gecko engineers and programers from Netscape.com? Are you a die-hard Netscape 7+ user?. Are you pissed at AOLTW's strategy under Parsons?. I'd like to hear from you, mail me here µ