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Marc Andreesen
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NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS sits like a giant "surfer" high atop the crest of the huge wave that is the Internet. The development of the Netscape Browser is, without a doubt, the single greatest contributing element to bring the World Wide Web to where it is today, which is, the powerful communications tool which has become an integral part of our personal and professional lives. The Netscape Browser was the brainchild of Marc Andreesen and was brought to life by a team of committed engineers under the Father like guidance of Jim Clark. In 1990 Marc Andreesen was an undergraduate student studying computer science at The University of Illinois. He also worked at the university's National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA). The NCSA and other institutions of its kind have been around since
the mid 1980s. They were heavily funded by the government and existed largely because
of the government's belief in developing a huge computer infrastructure to aid in
scientific research. It was here that the original idea for the Mosaic browser, which
would later be totally rebuilt and eventually become the Netscape Browser, was born. Around this time, the once-great supercomputers were dying out and being replaced by much smaller and more cost-effective microprocessor technology. This change was also the driving force behind networking, as it became necessary to link all of these smaller desktop computers together. In addition to these things the desktop graphical user interface was becoming easy to use and making computers accessible to more people. Andreesen was inspired by all of these and came up with the idea to build a graphical user interface that would allow a point and click method for navigating the Internet. He recruited one of his co-workers, Eric Bina, and together they went to work. The pair worked day and night. Sometimes 3 or 4 days at a time, stopping only to refuel on Marc's cookies and milk and Eric's Skittles and Mountain Dew, until finally they had put a face on the Web. In February of 1993, Mosaic was born and released over the Internet. Mosaic was a much more friendly software application than had been developed for this type of application in the past. It supported all of the html tags of the day including the new <img>, which would allow designers to place graphics on their websites for the first time. Needles to say it caught on pretty quickly with the Internet community. Unfortunately, because of government cutbacks, universities and research centers were starting to come under a lot of pressure to become more self-supporting. As the popularity of Mosaic increased the university administration began to take notice and focus more of its attention on the burgeoning potential cash cow that had been created by its students and staff. Mosaic and the small team that had created it had gained a lot of notoriety. Because of all of this attention the university knew that they couldn't just stake their claim on the project, even though they had every legal right to. They had to do it slowly, without focussing to much attention on what they were trying to do. In an attempt to gain control over Mosaic the university began to integrate its own people into the Mosaic team. The plan was to water down the staff in order to make it appear that Mosaic was a school project and not the creation of a tightly knit team of engineers. By this time Andreesen was set to graduate. Because of the political nightmare that had been created by the university he decided to walk away from the Mosaic project. It was in California after graduation that Andreesen met Jim Clark. Clark had recently left his position at Silicon Graphics, the company that he had founded, and was looking to start another business. He was primarily interested in developing some type of interactive software. The initial meeting of these two men didn't go well and they parted company, agreeing to stay in contact. Eventually, however, they did come to an agreement, and they started a company. The decision was made to develop a new browser for the Internet. They knew that the Mosaic browser wouldn't hold up to the rigors of a commercial application, also that there would be too many legal implications, so they decided to start over from scratch. At this point there had been no decision on how they would make money from the project. They only knew that if they built it and could get enough people to use it, that they couldn't help but make money from it. The first step was to recruit a team of top programmers. Due to the politics involved Clark didn't want to approach any of the people from Silicon Graphics, many of whom he had personally recruited and knew well. They decided to talk to the same team that had worked with Marc on the original Mosaic. Fortunately they were all pretty eager to build something that would destroy Mosaic, and they all came on board. By October 1994 things were set to roll. The company's revenue model was in place, and the first beta version of the Netscape browser was ready to be released over the Internet. The only thing that could stop them was the University of Illinois trying to get what they figured was their fair cut of what they considered to be their intellectual property. The University did try, fortunately an independent software expert was able to refute their claims and they were able to move ahead. On October 13, 1994 everybody watched over pizza and beer as the first version of Netscape Navigator was released over the Internet. In order to keep score of which version was downloaded the most sound effects were set to go off for each one. A cow mooing for each P.C. version, a bell for Macintosh and an explosion for Unix. It was a close race for a while, but eventually P.C. zoomed into the lead. It's reported that one of the unix engineers even got mad and left the room. The important thing however is not which version won or lost, only that the giant Netscape Navigator chugged into action, and hasn't let up since.
Source list Reid, Robert H. Architects of the Web, 1000 days that built the future of business (pp370) Wiley, Jones and Sons Inc February 1999 Clark, Jim/ Edwards, Owen Netscape Time (pp304) St. Martins Press Inc. May 1999 Allison, David K. Smithsonian Oral and Video Histories, Excerpts of an Oral History with Mark Andreesen June 1995, http://www.si.edu/resource/tours/comphist/ma1.html#developing Netscape Website www.netscape.com/company/about/backgrounder.htm
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