Netscape

In December 1994 a little company called Mosaic Communications released a product which changed the internet forever. This product was called Mosaic Netscape, and before long it became the most popular browser in the world.

By 1995 there really was not a choice when it came to which browser to use - Netscape had it all and the rest of them didn't even come close. Internet Explorer was still a few years out, and even then it was more of a joke than anything else. Really, the only competition to Netscape was this little upstart company called America Online - but that didn't give you much access to the internet.

Well, that's the past and it's gone now. Netscape has fallen to number two, and it drops lower on the list every day. Why? Well, Internet Explorer has the backing of Microsoft, that's why, and Microsoft can dump incredible amounts of manpower and money into their products.

Functionally, there is not all that much difference in the basics between the two programs. They both do an excellent job of allowing you to surf the web, and both have a large array of extra goodies that make it more fun and easier.

There are plenty of reasons to choose Netscape over Internet Explorer though. Perhaps the largest reason is that Netscape does not modify your entire operating system (IE pretty much integrates itself into the bowels of your system like a science fiction parasite), which makes it less likely to corrupt anything.

Personally, I use all of the browsers that I can find. I have Netscape, IE and AOL all installed on my system, and I use all of them. If you are a webmaster this is essential because you need to make sure your pages work in as many browsers as possible.