Intervista a Cindy Roberts Netscape Communications, Inc.
Di: Luigi Caputo, Fabio Farnesi
Ufficio Stampa: Sandra Ionata


Nota: Al pi∙ presto sarα resa disponibile una traduzione in italiano

1) Recently Netscape has given the availability of the browser's source code (implementing also a special internet site which allows engineers to obtain the updated versions). All this seems to be inspired by the method used to develop Linux system. Thanks to this method in fact, Linux has become one of the most technologically advanced systems. What are the advantages that Netscape has obtained from this operation? What are Netscape's objectives?

Exciting code has been contributed by engineers on the Net through our mozilla.org website. Netscape is currently evaluating these features for inclusion in 5.0. Most notable this is the XML parser from James Clark, the key engineer in the invention of this standard. ColorSync from Apple Computer is another terrific contribution to the free source initiative. The international community has been one of the most active since our announcement early this year. International localizations via the Universal Localization Program and code contributions are extremely active on mozilla.org. For instance, localizations into Catalan and Hawaiian are already complete. A Czech version will be available very soon. We are quite excited by the contribution of Thai language browsing to the source. These broaden Netscape's reach into the international markets.

Netscape's objective is to harness the creativity and enthusiasm of engineers on the net to enrich customers experience of Netscape's client products.

2) Very recently, the agreement between Netscape and Intel for an investment of money in Linux (and in particular Red Hat) has captured the general attention - according to someone, Linux is the only alternative to Windows NT on the Intel platform - is that a true perspective, according to your point of view?

Netscape is seeing huge adoption of Linux by ISPs and ESPs. Recent data shows that Linux is now the fifth most popular OS. Linux versions of Communicator 4.5 are also the most downloaded of the Unix OS from Netscape's web site. Linux is the No. 1 Unix operating system for ISPs and the No. 4 Unix operating system for enterprise customers, according to Datapro. At the recent ISPCon conference in San Jose, California, Netscape co-founder said "Demand for software based on the Linux operating system has mushroomed in the last year and will quickly overtake all other versions of Unix--combined"

We are still supporting NT as it's strategic to us and our customers, but are extending our Linux support because of customer demand on the cross-platform story. We believe that NT will continue to be a successful operating system and will continue to be a strategic platform for Netscape.

3) The Netscape's browser seems to have a hard life due to Internet Explorer - which are Netscape's strategies in order to face Microsoft's competition?

Netscape has just released Communicator 4.5, the first client product with a tight integration with Netscape's Netcenter. By offering customers the best experience on the net through Netcenter integration we believe we will be strong in the market. When customers are given a choice between the two products, all studies show that Netscape is the winner. In a recent Zona study, Netscape shows a 6 percent increase in marketshare in the Enterprise market. Much of this is owing to corporate customers preference over Explorer, 5 to 1.

4) Again regarding the browser--it doesn't seem to support in an excellent way the "DOM" and the "DHTML" standards. Why isn't Netscape supporting these standards?

In future versions of Communicator, Netscape will write code to the most recent specifications of "DOM" and "DHTML". When the 4.0 and 4.5 products were written, these standards were not finalized. Thus we wrote to the current specification at that time. One of our objectives for the free source initiative is to encourage standardization on the Net. This has already seen fruition with the inclusion of the XML parser.


5) Can you tell us something about "XML"? Do you think that this will be the language that will allow to overcome the differences that the 2 browsers are having on HTML? Or do you plan to have wider differentiation with XML? These difference of the 2 browsers are forcing the user to choose one side and are changing the real goal of HTML which is to be a universal language.

Netscape is very committed to XML. You will see in future versions of our products more applications of the XML language in the interface and features of the client. It is our expectation that all users of the XML technology will be in compliance with the standard.

6) We are wondering if the W3C is under discussion because it is evident that it won't be possible to have a real standard. What do you think about this point?

Netscape is very active in the standards bodies. We believe that standards are essential for providing customers a consistent and rich usage of the web.

7) What is Netscape position concerning e-commerce?

Netscape is a strong player in the e-commerce software market. For more information about the products in this area, we offer you the web site http://home.netscape.com/commapps/index.html