AOL Patent Deal Means Microsoft Now Holds Vestiges of Netscape 129
Posted
by
timothy
from the vestiges-are-the-best-part dept.
from the vestiges-are-the-best-part dept.
inode_buddha writes "It's part of the $1 billion AOL patent deal, and it's something that would have made many minds explode back in the 1990s. It still makes my mind explode today. Marc Andreesen points out that MS now has a significant chunk of the old Netscape. What are the ramifications for Mozilla?"
Nothing. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nothing, if Microsoft is smart. (Score:5, Informative)
With the exception of Opera they are not actually alternate browsers. They are safari with some different buttons at the bottom. Apple does not allow other browsers on the app store.
Opera gets away with it because of that minifying thing they do where they MITM each page.
Re:Nothing, if Microsoft is smart. (Score:5, Informative)
All alternate browsers must use the Safari rendering engine - in short you can get a fancy front end, but not a new backend (like say Firefox's backend, or Opera, etc) Note that Opera's Mini browser gets a pass since most work doesn't occur on the device, but Opera's backend servers. You can't get the "real" Opera browser on the phone.
Unless somethings changed in the last year, I can't port Opera or Firefox or Chrome over, etc
Re:Nothing, if Microsoft is smart. (Score:5, Informative)
Don't remember telling you if you should care or not. Question was asked and I provided the answer. If that offended your fanboyism I apologize.
But while on the topic - We all know how well only having one Web browser (IE6) worked out for everyone. And if you're providing anecdotes - Safari runs like crap on Windows.
Re:Patents shmatents. (Score:5, Informative)
Netscape actually did beat Microsoft in the antitrust case. (Unfortunately it bankrupted them, and forced Netscape to sell-off to AOL.)