Netscape 9 Comes to Mac — Yay?

By Pete Mortensen (11:57 pm, Oct. 15, 2007)

6589_scr.png

Because no one asked for it — it’s Netscape Navigator 9 for Mac! How is this better than Safari, Firefox, Omniweb or Camino, you might ask? Well, it’s got a totally non-OS X compliant interface! And it’s from Netscape! Is anyone planning to upgrade? Can you explain why?

Picture and News Via MacUpdate

Posted by Pete Mortensen in Software | Comment on this article

If you enjoyed this article:
Subscribe via RSS or email, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

Related posts from Cult of Mac

14 comments

    I downloaded it. Hey, at least they changed the throbber back to the old design :) I tried it mostly out of nostalgia.

    Mo, on October 16th, 2007 at 12:41 am

    I’ll upgrade because I’m a web developer and I’ll want to test my sites on NS9 for mac. I have no plans to use it for real.

    Levi Senft, on October 16th, 2007 at 1:39 am

    From trying it out for a little while, I can say that I think Netscape 9 may actually be nicer than Firefox. It seems a bit zippier for one, and it has a few nice additions that Firefox lacks, like auto-completing addresses from your bookmarks, and the “link pad” where you can temporarily store links without bookmarking them.

    Interface wise, it’s no worse (but admittedly no better) than Firefox. That’s not surprising since it’s basically the same browser with a different shell and a few different features.

    Luke Andrews, on October 16th, 2007 at 1:48 am

    [...] atveru Cult Of Mac, lasu un [...]

    MacPasaule » Dienas humors: Netscape 9 for Mac, on October 16th, 2007 at 2:59 am

    I thought I’d give it a whirl, and whaddya know — it’s FF2 with different styled buttons and a couple of added features (and yes, FF has extensions to replicate them, but it’s nice to have them as part of the OOBE). There’s nothing much to get excited about, granted, but there’s no need to be rude about it either. :)

    Mat Hall, on October 16th, 2007 at 5:54 am

    Netscape still makes browsers? I thought they stopped that foolishness when firefox was released.

    razmaspaz, on October 16th, 2007 at 6:44 am

    I never thought it possible, but AOL did more damage (legally) to Netscape than Microsquish was able to (illegally)!

    imajoebob, on October 16th, 2007 at 6:50 am

    I have to say, while I understand the humor in this post, I find it rather stupid in shortsighted. I had nothing to do with the development of this app but it seems stupid to criticize a company, no matter who, for creating new software for the mac and encouraging competition in the industry.

    GooseSensor, on October 16th, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    I do not know why they do this
    netscape is dead, its history
    Now is fireFox…
    If they wish, maybe they can cancel firefox
    and make it just netscape…or cancel netscape and
    make it firefox owned by netscape…

    There is no netscape browser…it used to be good days
    I hate explorer

    King, on October 16th, 2007 at 3:39 pm

    What do you mean by “non-OS X compliant?” No. Really. I don’t understand what you mean.

    Apple threw out the official Human Interface Guidelines years ago. It does run on Mac OS X (i.e. compliant). I don’t get it.

    Yes. This is pretty futile — if that’s what you mean.

    Marc, on October 16th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    [...] Cult of Mac  Ahora Greenpeace dice que el iPhone no es [...]

    Netscape Navigator vuelve (más o menos) a la carga | SomosMac, on October 17th, 2007 at 6:01 am

    Man, this is a fugly GUI! We’re gonna surf like it’s 1996 all over again. Maybe we oughta return to the fugly webpage design of a decade ago as well (just access some long-abandoned fansite on geocities or what not — that oughta be enough)…

    ladyjaye, on October 17th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    you mean something like this:
    http://web.archive.org/web/19961219202222/http://www.apple.com/
    (what apple.com looked like in 1996! lol)

    Andreas, on October 17th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    At first I thought, whatever. But then trying it. Sure loads faster the FireFox for me.

    The interface colors brought back images of IE for Mac…..

    Dave, on October 18th, 2007 at 5:42 am