Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released 30 years ago today

[jwz@mastodon.social]

Netscape Navigator 2.0 was released 30 years ago today.

This version introduced a number of new features:

• Plugins! This was the first time a web page could make sound, via RealAudio.
• Incremental display of progressive JPEGs on slow dialup connections.
• Animated GIFs that were actually useful.
• HTML frames.
• JavaScript! That wasn't my fault, but you still have my apologies.
• And of course my baby, the first release of Netscape Mail and News:

https://jwz.org/b/ykvY

[dhess@mastodon.drewhess.social]

@jwz If you could send yourself back in time, knowing how the web and marca turned out, would you sabotage it?

[jwz@mastodon.social]

@dhess Sort-of covered in Previously: https://jwz.org/b/ykbD

[nfoonf@chaos.social]

@jwz did you have to code the support for audio files and stuff yourself or was there a already a library infrastructure for doing this around back then? I imagine it was a nightmare to get anything above the most basic stuff going, because all these libs and stuff didn’t exist, back then or was way more simple.

[jwz@mastodon.social]

@Nfoonf The plugin architecture was basically: "Here's a rectangle for you to draw in with no memory safety, go hog wild". There was no infrastructure for any of this. Plugins were OS-specific, so it's a credit to RealAudio that they took our lead and did the work on Linux instead of being Windows- and Mac-only.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@jwz ☝️ To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Netscape Navigator 2.0 here is my copy I bought around 1995 when it was still a paid product. I ran the browser under Windows 95.

Shortly after snapping this photo in 2017 I tossed the product in the trash, which I regret. I took the photo as I got a sense the artifact had some historical significance, but I wasn't into retrocomputing yet and didn't realize the importance of preserving such material.

#retrocomputing #netscape #browser

[144mb@mastodon.social]

@amoroso @jwz

I bought a copy at the time as well, but I no longer have the box.

I also bought a copy of Applixware.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@144mb Do you still have Netscape's disks or something else of the product?

[144mb@mastodon.social]

@amoroso

About all I can share that shows some authenticity of my post is I do happen to have a digital picture I took that shows my homebrew computer with my Applixware book binding also shown. This was the correct time period. Thinking back, I don't remember having diskettes or a package. I think I just downloaded it and paid for a license. I used to have the paper. My memory is it was $49 US for the Netscape license. In a few years that was all over.

[amoroso@oldbytes.space]

@144mb Cool. Yes, that was the price range I remember.