Editing Netscape (section)

====Netscape Communicator (versions 4.0–4.8)====
[[Image:OS2 Netscape Communicator 4.61.png|thumb|Netscape Communicator 4.61 for OS/2 Warp]]
{{Main|Netscape Communicator}}

Netscape 4 addressed the problem of Netscape Navigator being used as both the name of the suite and the browser contained within it by renaming the suite to Netscape Communicator. After five preview releases in 1996–1997, Netscape released the final version of Netscape Communicator in June 1997. This version, more or less based on Netscape Navigator 3 Code, updated and added new features. The new suite was successful, despite increasing competition from Internet Explorer (IE) 4.0 and problems with the outdated browser core. IE was slow and unstable on the Mac platform until version 4.5.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BIG-IP version 4.5.12 Release Note |url=https://techdocs.f5.com/kb/en-us/archived_products/big-ip/releasenotes/product/relnotes4_5_12.print.html |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=techdocs.f5.com}}</ref> Despite this, Apple entered into an agreement with Microsoft to make IE the default browser on new Mac OS installations, a further blow to Netscape's prestige.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1997-08-06 |title=Microsoft and Apple Affirm Commitment To Build Next Generation Software for Macintosh |url=https://news.microsoft.com/1997/08/06/microsoft-and-apple-affirm-commitment-to-build-next-generation-software-for-macintosh/ |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Stories |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Microsoft entered into exclusionary agreements with other firms that restricted their ability to promote, support, and distribute non-Microsoft browsers |url=https://www.justice.gov/atr/file/704911/dl?inline |work=justice.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dormehl |first=Luke |date=2016-08-09 |title=Today in Apple history: Mac's default browser company goes public |url=https://www.cultofmac.com/news/today-in-apple-history-macs-default-browser-company-goes-public |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Cult of Mac |language=en-US}}</ref> The Communicator suite was made up of Netscape Navigator, [[Netscape Mail & Newsgroups]], Netscape Address Book and [[Netscape Composer]] (an HTML editor).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Millions more may use Explorer |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/millions-more-may-use-explorer/ |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=CNET |language=en}}</ref>

On January 22, 1998, [[Netscape Communications Corporation]] announced that all future versions of its software would be available free of charge and developed by an [[open-source-software movement|open source]] community, Mozilla.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2008/01/22/january-22-1998-the-beginning-of-mozilla/|title=January 22, 1998 — the Beginning of Mozilla &#124; Mitchell's Blog|access-date=September 12, 2019|archive-date=October 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191001151516/https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2008/01/22/january-22-1998-the-beginning-of-mozilla/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Netscape 5|Netscape Communicator 5.0]] was announced (codenamed "Gromit"). However, its release was greatly delayed, and meanwhile, there were newer versions of Internet Explorer, starting with [[Internet Explorer 4|version 4]]. These had more features than the old Netscape version, including better support of [[HTML]] 4, [[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]], [[Document Object Model|DOM]], and [[ECMAScript]]; eventually, the more advanced [[Internet Explorer 5.0]] became the market leader.

In October 1998, Netscape Communicator 4.5 was released. It featured various functionality improvements, especially in the [[Netscape Mail & Newsgroups|Mail and Newsgroups]] component, but did not update the browser core, whose functionality was essentially identical to that of version 4.08. One month later, [[Netscape Communications Corporation]] was bought by [[AOL]]. In November, work on Netscape 5.0 was canceled in favor of developing a [[Rewrite (programming)|completely new program from scratch]].