Editing Netscape Communicator (section)

== Editions ==
Netscape Communicator was available in various editions, such as "Professional" and "Complete". The following components were included in Netscape Communicator (different editions had different components and some components were dropped in later editions):

===Features===
*[[Netscape Navigator]]&nbsp;— [[Web browser]]
*[[Netscape Mail & Newsgroups|Netscape Messenger]]&nbsp;— [[e-mail client]] and (in version 4.5 and above) [[news client]]
*[[Netscape Collabra]]&nbsp;— [[news client]] (merged into Messenger in version 4.5)
*[[Netscape Address Book]]&nbsp;— [[address book]]
*[[Netscape Composer]]&nbsp;— [[HTML editor]]
*Netscape Netcaster&nbsp;— [[push technology]] client (dropped in version 4.5)
*Netscape Conference&nbsp;— multi-user communication client (dropped in version 4.5)
*Netscape Calendar&nbsp;— enterprise calendar client (dropped in version 4.72 because Netscape's license to use the underlying technology expired<ref>"[http://sillydog.org/netscape/kb/calendar.php What happened to Netscape Calendar?]". SillyDog701.</ref>)

===Updates===
In October 1998, a major update to the program was released as Netscape 4.5.<ref>{{Cite news| url = http://www.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease688.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000815210905/http://www.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease688.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = 2000-08-15| title = Netscape Communicator 4.5 Ships Today, Making Internet Navigation Easier for Millions of Consumers| work = Netscape.com| location = Mountain View| date = 1998-10-19}}</ref> This included many improvements, mostly to the Messenger e-mail client, which now also took on the features of Collabra. However, some of the less popular components, such as Netcaster, were dropped. A feature called "Roaming Profiles" was added in version 4.5 that synchronized a user's bookmarks, address book and preferences with a remote server, so that a user's home and work browsers could have the same bookmarks.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20070914131539/http://www.acns.colostate.edu/aspx/www.acns/bulls/nsroaming_whatsroaming.html Netscape Roaming Profiles - What is it?]". Colorado State University (via Archive.org).</ref> By the time version 4.5 was released, Netscape had started the [[Mozilla]] [[open-source software|open source]] project and had ceased charging for Communicator.

The term "Navigator" referred to the browser component alone, while "Communicator" referred to the suite as a whole, as established in version 4.0. However, due to user confusion, the names were often used interchangeably. Also, because none of the applications besides Navigator were popular on their own, and because Netscape never produced any other desktop software that approached the popularity of Navigator, people would often refer to both the Communicator suite and the Navigator browser as simply "[[Netscape]]".

The Mozilla Foundation continued to develop the Netscape code base, providing the Mozilla Application Suite as a continuation of Netscape Communicator. The Mozilla Foundation decided in 2006 to discontinue development of the Application Suite. A community-maintained version called [[SeaMonkey]] has come to replace the Application Suite<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lwn.net/Articles/165080/|title=Two discontinued browsers|publisher=LWN.net|date=21 December 2005|access-date=19 August 2012}}</ref> - maintaining such things as browser, integrated POP/IMAP/SMTP style E-mail client, IRC, and other similar features.