Netscape Founder Says Web Browsing Innovation Dead

Netscape Founder Says Web Browsing Innovation Dead 895

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @09:53PM from the 640k dept.

mattOzan writes "Marc Andreessen told Reuters today that browser innovation ended five years ago (which would put us at about Navigator 4.5 beta -- what was so innovative about that? The "What's Related" button? Beatnik integration?) "Navigation is an embarrassment. Using bookmarks and back and forth buttons -- we had about eighteen different things we had in mind for the browser." Well, pass me the NDA and tell me what they were!"

Netscape Founder Says Web Browsing Innovation Dead

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sounds like (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @09:55PM (#6345577)

a sore loser to me...

Marc Andreessen is an old man (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @09:56PM (#6345594)

In "internet years." Next thing he'll be saying "When I was a kid, we have 256 colors, and we liked it! And only 216 of them were palette safe and that was even better!"

You mean dead like Stephen King at age 55? (Score:4, Funny)

by rinkjustice ( 24156 ) writes: <rinkjustice@NO_S ... m ['roc' in gap]> on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:02PM (#6345643) Homepage Journal

Now you've got me bummed out again. I guess I'll go read "IT" again.

In Soviet Russia... (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:04PM (#6345666)

web browsing innovation makes Netscape dead!

Ya Ya Ya (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:04PM (#6345667)

"Marc Andreessen told Reuters today that browser innovation ended five years ago."

In the same breath,

"Reuters told Marc Andreessen today that he should have ended five years ago."

What's up Marc?

Keep that wacky shit out of my browser (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:11PM (#6345713)

I don't want any crazy wacky shit in my browser damnit. Give me Lynx or give me kernel OOPS! I don't have time to mess around with graphics candy browsers and desktops. I do all my work in console, because that's how real Unix guru work. I wish they concentrate on make Linux better OS than worry about graphic candy game-ladden mentality. For girls and crap! Who needs them anyway, I'm gonna go finish coding this stuff so I can play D&D. And no I never kissed a girl before (and I'm 31) but so what? I'm root!

Re:Funny how innovation stopped right then (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:18PM (#6345758)

I thought LoudCloud sounded too much like free taco night at a game convention anyway.

Re:Not really... (Score:5, Funny)

by KingAdrock ( 115014 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:35PM (#6345869) Journal

I completely agree.

-any webprogrammer/designer

Tivo functionality for browsers (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:37PM (#6345877)

Now _that_ would turn up some interesting results.

"You visited http://clownsex.org. Perhaps you'd also like...

http://sex.com
http://clonesex.org
http://clownsontop.com
http://clownpenis.fart
http://kuro5hin.org"

It's a good thing he's dead... (Score:5, Funny)

by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:39PM (#6345895) Journal

...because the number of software patents alone in the 1990s would have given him a heart attack.

Re:So what's your next big idea for Mozilla, then? (Score:2, Funny)

by BrainInAJar ( 584756 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:42PM (#6345913)

Great idea.
hover over this. [goatse.cx]

(for the love of god DON'T click it. This is a joke posting, not a goatse troll)

Hi! My name is Clippy! (Score:5, Funny)

by 0x00 ( 224127 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @10:46PM (#6345934)

Your browsing appears inefficent, why not try...

I'd continue but its making me feel ill.

--

othy

God... (Score:5, Funny)

by Kjella ( 173770 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:00PM (#6346018) Homepage

You made me feel like a really really old man now, when I was a kid we didn't have no fancy 256 colors. We had 16 colors on a Commodore 64, and we liked it. Btw, I'm 24.

Kjella

Re:Why IE is stuck where it is? (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:04PM (#6346044)

God dam it man, when will you learn, the correct termage is
You: "shotgun"
M$FanBoy: "Yugh..."

Re:Marc Andreessen is an old man (Score:0, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:08PM (#6346067)

Gah, how the fuck did this get posted under the wrong parent?

Slash sucks.

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:5, Funny)

by jayayeem ( 247877 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:27PM (#6346208)

Don't forget that you could still say 'You can't get a viruse just by reading email.' That's just a hoax.

Yes... Good Times.

Re:Absurd (Score:3, Funny)

by rifftide ( 679288 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:28PM (#6346226)

Andreessen's funny assertion that innovation is dead reminds me of a story I once heard (and whose truth I question, but I digress) about some European country that, towards the end of the 19th century, had a government that voted on closing down its patent offices. Why? Because everything that would ever be invented had already been invented. Of course, we would look back on that and think it is absurd.
Actually, that sounds like a pretty good idea.

luxury - shier luxury! (Score:3, Funny)

by Sanity ( 1431 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:36PM (#6346291) Homepage Journal

16 colors?! I remember back when we had 2 colors, green and black - and by golly we were happy to have those!

Green! you were lucky! (Score:3, Funny)

by geekoid ( 135745 ) writes: <dadinportland&yahoo,com> on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:48PM (#6346363) Homepage Journal

I remember backmin 1970, we had all the color, and sounds sent to us, into our home, for free! Megabits per second streaming seamlessly into our homes.
Granted, it was only one way ;)

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

by hazem ( 472289 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:50PM (#6346373) Journal

Is that a green screen monitor and an orange screen monitor?

Re:luxury - shier luxury! (Score:4, Funny)

by cryptor3 ( 572787 ) writes: on Tuesday July 01, 2003 @11:51PM (#6346379) Journal

ppfft! Back in my day we only had black!
And sometimes not even that!

(Internet Assistant) You appear to be... (Score:5, Funny)

by phorm ( 591458 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:00AM (#6346434) Journal

browsing for porn. Would you like to:
a) View quality free XXX sites
b) Optimize your mouse/keyboard for better one-handed surfing
c) Find out how to clear your cache before mom comes home

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:5, Funny)

by krumms ( 613921 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:20AM (#6346531) Journal

I compare browsing to the mechanics of reading a book: Book -> TOC -> Chapters -> Pages... if ya wanna get fancy, then throw in an index or bib.

With that mindset, viewing web pages are the equivalent to turning pages...

Right, except that if the average web site was a book, a third of the pages would be ripped, another third pissed on and finally a third with page after page of "EnglishScript error on line 4 of page 451. Do you want to debug?"

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

by LittleK ( 640585 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @12:43AM (#6346627)

When I was a kid, all I had was the green and black screen *cough* Apple IIe. I am a mere 18.

Re: Not true. (Score:5, Funny)

by V.P. ( 140368 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:00AM (#6346689)

5 buttons? Pffft. I bought this amazing gadget with 108 (that's one hundrend and eight) buttons on it (and it only set me back $5!)
Technology never ceases to amaze me.

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

by gravygraphics ( 548287 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:08AM (#6346728)

Kids these days. We only had 40 column uppercase. Every line looked like it was screaming at you. Sure the printer could do 80 column and lowercase, but we could only display uppercase. Word processors inverted the character to mean uppercase.
And the keyboard didn't support shift for uppercase (without that motherboard mod) and so you hit ESC before a letter to mean uppercase.
And don't get me started about the upgrade from 16K to 48K. The upgrade came with a sticker to put on your spacebar so you could brag.
And we could read so much faster than our 300 baud modem could download. And the manufacturer had a recall because the modem used phone company tones... as if anyone traded it in for a modem that couldn't be used to disconnect phones. Yes that Apple II+ rocked.
And people that I consider my peers would program on paper with holes. And let me tell you, they LOVED it.
Age 33... crap, I am old.

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:23AM (#6346802)

Um, hello McFly? Mozilla runs on Windoze. (As well as anything can)

Re:Not true. (Score:5, Funny)

by unsinged int ( 561600 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:24AM (#6346807)

You left out the gesture for when the browser crashes.

Re:No Flash = No Homestar Runner = Sad Sad World (Score:5, Funny)

by davejenkins ( 99111 ) writes: <slashdot@da[ ]enkins.com ['vej' in gap]> on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @01:55AM (#6346951) Homepage

BURNINATION to anyone who questions the need for homestar runner!!!!!!

BURNINATION to Marc!!!

Re:The comments are old (Score:2, Funny)

by LittleBigLui ( 304739 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @02:10AM (#6347005) Homepage Journal

Well, at least journalistic "innovation" is not dead.

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:3, Funny)

by junkgrep ( 266550 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @02:12AM (#6347010)

No Half-Life 2

yeah, and... (Score:2, Funny)

by floydman ( 179924 ) writes: <floydman@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @02:38AM (#6347106)

640 KB is almost enough for anyone

Re:Not really... (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @04:00AM (#6347383)

What does PHP stand for?

Depends on who you ask. Some of us like to say:
Poorly Hung Perl

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:5, Funny)

by GrandCow ( 229565 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @04:39AM (#6347473)

Duke Nukem Forever still a possibility of coming out before the next glacier slides across continental US soil

Re:What?! (Score:3, Funny)

by Just Some Guy ( 3352 ) writes: <kirk+slashdot@strauser.com> on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @10:00AM (#6349041) Homepage Journal
but only if you're stupid enough to click 'yes' on those random installs.
I would have agreed with you until recently. I was fixing my sister's computer (why do I always get stuck supporting Windows? I don't use Windows. Ever.) and got hit with a series of popups from MSIE:
- "[snip a paragraph of text] Would you like to install SpyMatic 1.003? Click "Yes", or "Cancel" if you don't want to take advantage of this FREE! software at this time.". I clicked "No".
- "[snip a paragraph of text] Are you sure? This is a great program! If you're certain that you don't want our software, click "Yes" to confirm that you don't want it installed. Click "No" if you've changed your mind!". I almost clicked "No" the second time; it was only after reading the (very!) fine print that I realized what I would've been agreeing to.
Yeah, there are a lot of idiots out there. I don't think that I'm one of them, but that popup almost caught me anyway.
As a solution, I would recommend that Windows only ran software out of a specific $PATH, and that all parts of that $PATH are only writeable by Administrator. Make the sole method of getting software into that directory to be by popping up a big Mac OS X-like "Please enter your password to install <program>" so that it's impossible to accidentally install something.
Re:The comments are old (Score:4, Funny)

by carlos_benj ( 140796 ) writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @10:26AM (#6349329) Journal

These quotes were made about a week ago.

And we all know what great strides have been made in browser innovation in the past week.....

The out of context statement I might buy, but excusing the comments as old might work if they were two years old, but a week?

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Wednesday July 02, 2003 @05:09PM (#6353173)

Take a look at The Brain for an innovation in browsing.
I can't see shit. Oh, you mean I need Java? Yeah, that's real innovation in browsing in action there....

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

sounds like (Score:3, Funny)

Marc Andreessen is an old man (Score:5, Funny)

You mean dead like Stephen King at age 55? (Score:4, Funny)

In Soviet Russia... (Score:2, Funny)

Ya Ya Ya (Score:3, Funny)

Keep that wacky shit out of my browser (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Funny how innovation stopped right then (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Not really... (Score:5, Funny)

Tivo functionality for browsers (Score:1, Funny)

It's a good thing he's dead... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:So what's your next big idea for Mozilla, then? (Score:2, Funny)

Hi! My name is Clippy! (Score:5, Funny)

God... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Why IE is stuck where it is? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Marc Andreessen is an old man (Score:0, Funny)

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Absurd (Score:3, Funny)

luxury - shier luxury! (Score:3, Funny)

Green! you were lucky! (Score:3, Funny)

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:luxury - shier luxury! (Score:4, Funny)

(Internet Assistant) You appear to be... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

Re: Not true. (Score:5, Funny)

Re:God... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:1, Funny)

Re:Not true. (Score:5, Funny)

Re:No Flash = No Homestar Runner = Sad Sad World (Score:5, Funny)

Re:The comments are old (Score:2, Funny)

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:3, Funny)

yeah, and... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Not really... (Score:1, Funny)

Re:1998 - Good Times (Score:5, Funny)

Re:What?! (Score:3, Funny)

Re:The comments are old (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Whats wrong with current browsers? (Score:1, Funny)

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