Javagator Dead, Andreessen Gleeful

Computergram International, July 6, 1998

Fair-weather Java fan Marc Andreessen (CI No 3,180) has confirmed that Javagator is dead. Netscape Communications Corp has given up on the Java version of the Navigator browser, citing the lack of an adequate runtime and the difficulty of developing one inhouse. Netscape killed its Java virtual machine initiative in January (CI No 3,334).

Andreessen is not exactly being gracious about the failure of Javagator, pointing the finger squarely at the inadequacies of the language. In an interview with Computer Reseller News, the Netscape vice-president said: "My joke is that a Java Navigator will have a lot of good attributes: It's slower. It will crash more and have fewer features. So you can do fewer things. It will simplify your life." In another interview, this one with InfoWorld, he said that: "I feel like the robot in 'Lost in Space' - 'Danger, Will Robinson, danger. Java on the client doesn't work, and we at Netscape have done an about-turn on client-side Java in recent months." The news isn't all bad, however. It couldn't be, because otherwise Netscape would have wasted its money buying Java server developer Kiva Software Corp last year. Not very surprisingly, then, Andreessen adds: "But on the server side, Java is taking off quite quickly." If there's an upside to Javagator's demise, it's that the free software community already has a project under way to port open- source Navigator browser Mozilla to Java. As Giao Nguyen, one of the developers working on the Jazilla project, says in a newsgroup posting: "Since Javagator's dead (yay!) there may be a code release for it eventually." The corpse of Netscape's failure may yet fertilize an open source success.