Netscape waits for gamble pay-off
Explorer's expected dominance may have been halted, but will Navigator have a future?
The US press was buzzing last week with allegations that Microsoftator have a future? had tried to carve up the internet client market by purchasing Netscape. For months the Web browser company has been plagued with speculation that it was up for sale. The Microsoft rumour was thus greeted with some cynicism, although such a deal would have given the combined entity free rein in the browser market.
In the traditional custom, Microsoft denied any claims and Netscape remained quiet - but the situation still presents one of those great might-have-beens of the IT industry. It is hard not to wonder whether, leaving ethics aside, Netscape could have benefited from such an agreement. After all, shortly after the alleged conversations took place, Microsoft launched its first all-out offensive in the browser market with Internet Explorer and despite the best efforts of the US antitrust authorities, has forced its competitor to move away from the browser that made its name and put its trust in a wider product range and far more speculative waters.
Even if Microsoft is forced to unbundle Internet Explorer completely from Windows 95 and 98, this is still a make or break year for Netscape.
No longer the feted startup, but a major software house trying to get up with the big boys, it has adopted some dramatic strategies to keep in the race.
Last year, it seemed to be relying chiefly on political alliances with larger allies, notably Oracle, IBM and Sun in the anti-Microsoft, pro-Java network computer movement. This year, it has come up with ideas of its own - but the jury is still out on whether they will make the company a real software major, or merely a company ripe for acquisition by one of its giant allies.
If Microsoft can push its technology to become a de facto standard on the back of Windows' dominance, Netscape hopes to do it in a way it claims is truer to the spirit of the internet - giving away elements for free and encouraging third-party input in future developments.
Netscape executive vice president Mike Homer claimed this week that Navigator's market share had grown slightly since the company started giving it away for free, bucking a sharp trend in internet Explorer's favour.
More radically, Netscape has set up an organisation called Mozilla to create and guide a community of developers working on Navigator source code. Initially, most are Netscape employees, but the company expects a greater number of outsiders to get involved in accelerating improvements to Navigator and thus fighting off internet Explorer. More than 10,000 developers have downloaded the source code from the Mozilla Website since it was launched this month.
Observers are convinced the open source code model will work for Netscape, particularly in the large corporate market where it has been targeted.
The Mozilla model is a common one among internet communities. The most famous open source code example is Linux, a freeware version of Unix, which has proved extremely popular with Net users, and which Netscape co-founder Marc Andreesen has frequently touted as a serious corporate operating system. It has set a precedent for companies giving away a product for free in order to get something back, which will change the face of the software industry, Andreesen told the Massachusetts Software Council recently.
But corporate fears about loss of developmental control, the spread of viruses and bad development practices continue unabated. Such a model could feasibly slow the time to market by introducing too many new features that then have to be reviewed and incorporated.
The breadth of the offerings in Netscape's labs and the extent of its ambitions are impressive. But for a company that still lacks established corporate links, or a high profile outside the browser base, it is taking massive risks in its drive to score against Microsoft. Department of Justice judgments may help its traditional flagship products to compete on a level playing field, but in its other areas, it needs to convince a dauntingly wide range of customers on the basis of merit alone.
Last year, Microsoft employees played a prank on Netscape by leaving a gigantic blue Internet Explorer 'e' by Netscape's front door. The 10-by-12-foot stage prop was from a Microsoft bash to celebrate the latest Explorer's launch. A tag said: 'From the IE team.'
However, Netscape had the last laugh when employees put a 12-foot foam effigy of Mozilla, the green Godzilla-like Netscape mascot, on top of the 'e', and left it outside Microsoft's offices with a placard that read, 'Netscape 72, Microsoft 18', referring to recent market share data.