Did anyone notice that Netscape 8 was released today? Anyone? Yeah, didn’t think so. If it wasn’t for a little blurb I picked up on a message board, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

My question to Netscape is: why? No one cares about you anymore, and version 8 of the browser doesn’t suck any less than the beta that was released a few months ago. It still has too much stuff front-and-center, making the browser a distraction from the content it’s supposed to be serving. Yeah, the feature to view as Firefox or Internet Explorer is nice, but hardly useful for the casual Web surfer. I just don’t see why anyone would rather use Netscape 8 than Firefox.

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.