Many people are familiar with
computer case modifications, thanks to the
photogenic nature of mods. On the software side, most operating systems feature some potential for customization, though this is often limited to tweaking the colors and sounds. For some, this isn't enough. Enter "
skinning," the casual term for interface customization. To a degree, the
history of the media player Winamp (YT, 7:03;
transcript with pictures) mirrors the history of skinning. From a version 0.2, a visually dull app in June 1997, to easy user customization in version 2 in September 1998, and the complexly customizable Winamp3 in August 2002.
Wired captured something of the excitement at its peak in an article from 2000, before computing began shifting to more closed devices. Now approaching a
post-WIMP (windows, icons, menus and a pointer) era, where skinning is done with
alternative launchers. But for those still using traditional computers of one sort or another, it's not too late to modify your interface.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 17, 2012 -
70 comments
Microsoft has agreed to purchase a big chunk of AOL's intellectual property for a big chunk of cash.
Left unremarked in most business news coverage is a little matter of history: A closure of sorts for the fiercest -- and possibly the most expensive -- tech rivalry of the dotcom era.
Microsoft will own Netscape.
[more inside]
posted by ardgedee
on Apr 9, 2012 -
59 comments
When releasing the Mozilla source code, Netscape's lawyers insisted that the code first be sanitized. In particular, "any text containing vulgar or offensive words or expressions; any text that might be slanderous or libelous to individuals and/or institutions," had to be removed.
Here is a sample of what it looked like before that occurred.
posted by Obscure Reference
on Sep 22, 2010 -
46 comments
Revolution OS [1h25m Google Video]
is a 2001 documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. It features several interviews with prominent hackers and entrepreneurs (and hackers-cum-entrepreneurs), including Richard Stallman, Michael Tiemann, Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin, Eric S. Raymond, Bruce Perens, Frank Hecker and Brian Behlendorf. [more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Mar 11, 2010 -
68 comments
Imminent job openings at CNN... Open the link and right click the picture of Bush and wife, click "Save Picture/Image" and look at the filename!
In the words of a certain Denis Leary, "He's an asshole, asshole, asshole-e-o-oe-oh".
I suggest someone mirrors this ASAP!
posted by metaxa
on Nov 4, 2004 -
14 comments
Netscape market share at an all time low? Not according to Heise Online, a major news site here in Germany. In their very substantial weblogs, Microsoft went from 66,9% down to 65% from March to August of this year, while Netscape/Mozilla rose from 21,3 % to 22,6 and Opera from 7,8% to 8,4%.
(Warning: Link in German, but you will understand the tables at the end of the article easily).
posted by vowe
on Aug 28, 2002 -
18 comments
Behold Oddpost! Like they say, it really is "indubitably the most astounding web-based email application on earth." I was skeptical, but their drag-and-drop interface is so clean and functional that comparing it to Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail is like comparing a Frank Lloyd Wright house to a birdcage made of Tinkertoys. All DHTML, so it requires IE 5+ on Windows. Netscape, Opera, Mac, and Linux users are out of luck. (Welcome to
the effects of market share.)
posted by monkey-mind
on Apr 6, 2002 -
45 comments
Perhaps AOL isn't that bad. I've never liked
AOL, but this recent
article makes me want to give the company a big hug. Finally, people are stepping up to the
Microsoft juggernaut and deciding to use other means to deliever content and run their own machines. AOL is trying to cut costs by migrating from UNIX and Windows to a
Linux environment on the server-side. On the client side, they will apparently be pushing the use of
Mozilla instead of their previous default browser, Internet Explorer. This has the potential to impact the web enormously, as AOL's 30 million subscribers will soon be using Mozilla as their browser. Web designers will have to start sticking to
w3c specs instead of using MSIE-specific coding, which will hopefully force Microsoft to follow the specs more closely. Begun this browser war has. (via
/.)
posted by Hammerikaner
on Mar 11, 2002 -
43 comments
Netscape Phones Home Yet another major software vendor snoops on users. Netscape, the former darling of the anti-Microsoft movement, captures search terms that users enter on third party sites if users have set the search tab in the sidebar to load a site other than Netscape's own search engine and sends information back to Netscape. Can you trust your own system anymore?
posted by srboisvert
on Mar 9, 2002 -
6 comments
AOL's Netscape sues Microsoft for damage done to its Netscape Internet browser by violations of antitrust law found in a separate government case against the software giant. "I don't see this case as primarily about money. I see it as primarily about injunctive relief,'' said Steve Salop, a Georgetown University law professor.
posted by hitsman
on Jan 22, 2002 -
9 comments
Netscape 4.79 coming soon. Why do they insist on keeping that build alive? Netscape 6.x is finally at a point when it's almost as good as IE 6.0/IE 5 Mac, if not better, so another 4.x release is just very odd. [
Netscape 4.79 FTP folder]
posted by riffola
on Nov 8, 2001 -
49 comments
When last we heard, president of Netscape Jim Bankoff was saying that "six months from now, you won't consider Netscape to be a browser company." Many took that statement, coupled with the lack of acceptance of Netscape 6, to mean that the Netscape browser was dead. But
Wired.com is reporting today that
rumours of Navigator's death have been exaggerated.
posted by tranquileye
on Jun 19, 2001 -
39 comments
My God, how I've loathed them over the years for their heart-stopping mix of hubris, brilliance, clueless, utter lack of any discipline whatsoever and oh, the sheer
arrogance, but after all these years, it's with a distinct sense of ennui that I read that
Netscape is throwing in the towel.
posted by m.polo
on Jun 6, 2001 -
53 comments
Joel 's a little smug when he says "
Netscape Goes Bonkers and I'm very thankful, because Netscape 6.0 has been a terrific illustration of so many of the points I've made in Joel on Software over the last 6 months. Unfortunately, it's usually an illustration of what not to do." Too bad he's right.
posted by lagado
on Nov 20, 2000 -
15 comments
interesting freenet newsbite at wirednews -- but could something so (potentially) powerful really get folded into IE and netscape? i assume this would be something like setting up your browser to launch the app from a freenet:// link ala hotline. or would microsoft and aol actually work to integrate a file sharing app? i tend to doubt it.
posted by subpixel
on Sep 25, 2000 -
1 comment
two words : $|<1|\|Z C0|\|T3ZT !!!. whoo! so 3||3t3, you'll spray your shorts.
In other news, microsoft announces a wallpaper contest. Microsoft commented that they're "fuckin tired of seeing that sky thing, We want all those design kiddies to create us some cool shit, like with that small danish pixel font, aww yea..."
posted by tiaka
on Aug 18, 2000 -
3 comments
AOL's Netscape division is being sued by an NJ photographer over their SmartDownload feature, which allegedly allows surveillance of activity between websites and you. He claims "[SmartDownload] secretly transmits to Netscape the file name and location, along with an identification string unique to that Internet user.''
"...we've never used or accessed any information about SmartDownload users or files..." - AOL
posted by tomorama
on Aug 4, 2000 -
0 comments
Netscape Communicator 4.74 Final has been released. This is reported to be the last in the 4.xx series browsers before Netscape 6 comes. Warning: this time it finally tips the scales at just over 20 megabytes for the Win32 version, wow. It's supposed to be a better Linux implimentation.
posted by Dean_Paxton
on Jul 19, 2000 -
0 comments
A day after a MSIE bug, a Netscape bug. I figured I had to post this here, since the anti-Microsoft crowd always posts about the MSIE bugs, but seems to stay
reeeeeal quiet when a bug is found in their chosen browser. I wish that people would just acknowledge that all software has bugs, and that discovering them is a helpful link in fixing them.
posted by delfuego
on Apr 20, 2000 -
4 comments
Did you know that
math is hard? Apparently this is true for windows applications. Thank you Microsoft, the best truly is yet (if ever) to come.
posted by plinth
on Apr 11, 2000 -
16 comments
Netscape 6 Pre release is Official. . . Looks like Netscape caved in and released the leaked version of Communicator 6. I got it and it's identical to the leaked version posted here earlier. Which is almost identical to Mozilla M14.
BTW, does anyone else have a problem with AOL/Netscape having the entire internet develop it's newest browser through the Mozilla effort while they plan to profit from it? Especially with Mozilla's ardent open source position. Or, is it just me.
posted by Dean_Paxton
on Apr 5, 2000 -
29 comments
Through a random series of events,
Jamie Zawinski (oooh, I'm such a name dropper :) sent me some very old archives of the Mosaic/Netscape sites and their beta browsers. Chuck Lau, the originator of
the Netscape Museum has cleaned up some of them and has just put
October 1994's entire mcom.com site online. Chuck's working on getting the others online (there's at least 5 or 6 more archives of the site at different points in 1994 and early 1995), and will also be putting up a page linking to an archive of the very oldest of Netscape/Mosaic's browsers. The browsers are currently sitting in
dissarray on my workstation here. I tried out
Mosaic 0.4 beta on my windows machine, about the only site that worked in it was
Yahoo's.
posted by mathowie
on Feb 28, 2000 -
6 comments
