I just downloaded the most recent versions of Mozilla and Netsape. My question is this : what is the difference between the two? They look, and behave exactly the same, they even picked up my bookmarks and email settings. So why two different versions?

Thanks!

Netscape bascially takes its code from the Mozilla project - Mozilla is where the programming happens (under a sort of open source model) and then hands this code on to netscape.

Thanks for such a quick reply.

Back to the point, why does this happen? I mean Netscape was the first browser of the WWW era (after Mosaic etc) so why do they take the code from the Mozilla project? Or is the Mozilla project a group of Netscape people? I am really confused here as to why the same people would release two exactly same browsers?

Or am I missing something?

I don't know too much about it, but I do know that yes, the mozilla people are the same programmers as the netscape people. I think that the name got changed when they made their code public, and since netscape has a big name they keep it around.

I don't know though.... people correct me if i'm wrong!!!

its a special thing where open source and proprietory actually gets along, somewhat.

Basically the mozilla.org workers are on the AOL payroll. they and other freelance developers all over the world work on mozilla, web browser and such. netscape then uses that, adds some closed source stuff (AIM/ICQ etc) and bundles it as netscape.

the main reason netscape is still out is because, you guessed it. the name. there have been some die hard netscape fans in the past but if you want u can find some articles about netscapes 'rough' times.

nonetheless i use netscape on my linux partition because of the built in AIM/ICQ. i use mozilla on my windows cos i dont want any AOL crap all over my desktop.

btw, does anybody know why the fonts in netscape/moz (Debian woody) are so big? any workaround?

I'm pretty sure that the mozilla version I just compiled has all that chat stuff. In your XFree86Config file, make the smaller fonts appear first. This MIGHT help... just something to try