Now maybe I was dreaming, but didnt AOL announce they were to abandon the ill-fated browser like 4 years ago or summit?

I still remember using Netscape in about 1997 when I first went online!

Moved across to IE after the release of 5, aint ever left it, although Opera has given it some stern competition for me over the years.



BBC News Report

I first used it in 2000 @ carllet park. cant even remember what it looked like.

i got kicked out the library cos someone put porn on my designated computer!

I used Netscape Navigator 2.0 for a project i create HTML and used Netscape as an offline browser Great little thing it was.. But firefox is still number one.. IE is just there...

Download old versions of the Browser here...

Netscape collection

I am a Firefox user, converted as it is a brill developers tool especially with all the plugin's I am starting to see a rise in percentages of people using it visiting my sites (up to 15% using firefox)

I hate netscape, just never liked using it, always preferred IE.

I remember trying Mozilla Phoenix (what is now Firefox) and I didn't like it one bit at the time.


Firefox is all I've used since about 2005

I didn't know AOL owned it now, but its past its time now, so the right decision

I think AOL bought it around the same time they bought (and screwed) Nullsoft, when they were into buying allsorts of companies just for the sake of it.

I fail to see how Firefox is "number 1"? IE is the number 1 used browser in the world, and Opera tears both FF and IE apart for a lot of things. They hammered their own userbase by charging for so many years though. Safari is traditonally accepted as the very best, most secure, most stable web browser ever concieved, although the Windows version released this year hasnt impressed as much as the original MacOS version.

The only thing I can see that FF is number 1 for is people constantly spamming and ranting on about it on just about every techy forum you go on, 99% of it being because the people dont "like" Microsoft and somehow think that if people use FF instead of IE within Windows, it will hurt them... which I am sorry to say, but it doesnt really bother them.

I've always had problems with IE, so I much prefer to use Firefox as I find it a lot more useful and practical.

Thats why I think firefox is number 1, not because of figures.

As Lee said, IE is just there and for me, it only gets used when MSN opens it to get to hotmail.

Didn't know AOL bought nullsoft either?

I assume Winamp is still going strong?

Same for me, When i use IE some time ago i get the odd error "IE has encountered a problem" or something random like that.
Get near to non of that on firefox. An as joe says it only gets used to check emails wen i log on msn.

Problems with IE

Dont suppose these "problems" occured after you were brainwashed into converting to Firefox did they?

Personally, ive never had any issues with IE7 even when it was in BETA it was more stable then Firefox. IE6 was pretty solid, if a little out of date by the time it was replaced. Firefox on the other hand, has a fair few bugs, the most annoying of which is on my media centre, it will randomly start bugging you to fill out a "user experience questionaire" and then crash, doesnt matter if you choose to do it or tell it you dont want to.

It is also very memory heavy and takes like 3 or 4 seconds to load - not exactly long, but why oh why when both Opera and IE7 can manage to load almost instantaneously?

Of course the biggest bug of the lot is the pro-firefox crowd who go out of their way to spam every forum they can find to get people to shift across. Its not so bad nowadays as they probably realised people will use what they want to use, not what their told to use, but until about 2 years ago it was absurd the amount of "FF spamming" that went on.

I was using ad-supported Opera long before Firefox even came about, so Firefox as being "the" alternative is only to new-age techy wannabe's who got a sniff of Firefox once upon a time, have some sort of hate for Microsoft and instantly though they were onto something that will change peoples lives lol.

AOL bought Nullsoft time ago, probably around 2001 just after Wasabi was launched iirc. And the gits scrwed them over by sacking 90% of the staff, halting development of just about everything including Wasabi and both the shoutcast DSP and DNAS and fooking NSV off completely.

Before AOL bought Nullsoft, they were innovators and developed some of the best programs available on the web.

Now look at it, we are STILL on Shoutcast 1.9x, we should be well on Shoutcast 2.0 which was planned by Nullsoft before AOL bought them.

NSV is pretty much dead and has been for years, its still in the same BETA stage as it was when AOL took over.

Winamp 5 is the biggest joke ever... development? What development, all it is, is a very bloated Winamp 2 with a heavy skin and full of advertising as standard.

Nullsoft effectively died when AOL took over. Hence I still use Winamp 2.91, I actually use 2.22 on my media centre lol.

AOL = ...

No i was using IE 4 or 5 back then n didnt have firefox installed. Then started using opera then that was crap an loading up slow so moved to firefox

I aint being funny but you would have had a hard job in doing that, IE5 was killed off in 2000, and the Phoenix project wasnt even announced until 2003, and Firefox itself didnt come to fruitation until 2004...

You are honestly telling me you used Opera for probably around 2 - 3 years even though it was "crap" and "loading up slow"??

There is a reason that Opera was (and still is in many quarters) known as the "fastest web browser in the world". Some people didnt like the way it rendered images back then, but it was only really developers and programmers etc...

I've never been brainwashed into using Firefox.

I just much prefer to use than IE.

Ever since 7 was released, I've had nothing but problems. It often likes to close itself randomly.

I used to love using DSP and NSV. It's a shame development never continued as Shoutcast used to be amazing software.

i have nothing against any other companies... and to say i didnt like microsoft would just be silly - but yea, i prefer microsoft, despise internet explorer, mainly because i get pop-ups everytime i use it, but even the interface, looks cluttered etc... which is y i like firefox, dont get any of these things annoying me lol... never used safari before, altho it's on me ipod, i imagine it is "slightly" modified to suit the device

IE pips the post of #1 because it is downloaded as per Windows updates. I personally don't know a single person who uses IE.

my gf

same here

It still is. Both formats are still in mass-market use, the majority of my companies profits are (worryingly) made from the sale of Shoutcast DNAS's.

Its just Nullsoft have never recieved the backing from AOL to develop it any further. It could have contained all the features of Steamcast and Icecast had AOL not wrecked Nullsoft.

As for the IE7 interface looking "cluttered" - what a load of codswallop. Ive never even heard that from the most ardent of Firefox fan's. If anything its a breath of fresh air. The Opera interface looks more cluttered to be honest, and that has always been praised for its sleekness.

IE6 was very cluttered. Especially when you added the Google Toolbar/MSN Toolbar for things like pop-up stoppers and tabbed browsing etc... IE7 is very far from it however.