30 Years Of Netscape

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Mosaic Communications Corporation (later Netscape Communications) was
founded 30 years ago. They were brash enough to thumb their noses at
Microsoft. And if you remember that time, Microsoft was indeed slow to
appreciate the importance of the then-up-and-coming Internet. Bill
Gates famously put out a book called “The Way Ahead”, talking about
how he saw the future of computing evolving, and he didn’t even
mention the Internet, except in a hastily-added postscript.

But once the changes in the marketplace became evident, the
supercarrier did manage to turn itself around. And Microsoft fought
back, by both fair means and foul, to keep Windows not only the
dominant desktop platform, but the dominant platform for consuming
Internet content.

One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.

<https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/how-netscape-lives-on-30-years-of-shaping-the-web-open-source-and-business/>

[knuttle]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with
Very limited capacity. The one particular update, I remember I went to
my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP which came into
his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.

I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe
it is the best program out there for browsing the internet, handling
your email, and browsing the newsgroups. I was pleased when they added
the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird. We use it exclusively to
maintain our home schedule to avoid conflicts. I believe the
Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

[Alan K.]

  but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with Very limited capacity.   The
one particular update, I remember I went to my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP
which came into his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.
I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe it is the best program out
there for browsing the internet, handling your email, and browsing the newsgroups.  I was pleased
when they added the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird.  We use it exclusively to maintain our home
schedule to avoid conflicts.  I believe the Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

I still have a CD of Netscape (7.0 I think).

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Alan K.
I still have a CD of Netscape (7.0 I think).

This <https://archive.org/details/nscp7_0>, by any chance?

archive.org also has other versions available
<https://archive.org/search?query=netscape+cd>.

[Alan K.]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Alan K.
I still have a CD of Netscape (7.0 I think).

This <https://archive.org/details/nscp7_0>, by any chance?
archive.org also has other versions available
<https://archive.org/search?query=netscape+cd>.

S**t. I threw the dang thing away. That ticks me off. I was going to put it on the scanner.

I was cleaning about 3 months ago and tossed some really useless stuff away, like cd's of clipart,
but I should have kept that for sentimental reasons. Cardboard sleeve with the blue/green Netscape
logo.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by Alan K.
I was cleaning about 3 months ago and tossed some really useless stuff
away, like cd's of clipart, but I should have kept that for sentimental
reasons. Cardboard sleeve with the blue/green Netscape logo.

Save a disc image, and maybe scan the artwork, before the original
physical media becomes unreadable. Hard disk space is plentiful, even if
physical room in your house is not. ;)

[Dave Royal]

Post by Alan K.
I still have a CD of Netscape (7.0 I think).

I have a stack of old CDs for getting online, many of them given
away by shops (Tesco, Comet, WH Smith) or ISPs (AOL, Demon,
Compuserve). I collected and kept them to hang on the raspberry
canes to keep the birds off. One of them is from virgin.net dated
1996, which was probably the one I used to set up the first
Windows 95 machine for the family, and which included Netscape 2
or 3. I used communicator until 4.7 iirc before moving to the
Seamonkey Milestone builds.

[sticks]

Post by knuttle

  but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with
Very limited capacity.   The one particular update, I remember I went to
my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP which came into
his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.
I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe
it is the best program out there for browsing the internet, handling
your email, and browsing the newsgroups.  I was pleased when they added
the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird.  We use it exclusively to
maintain our home schedule to avoid conflicts.  I believe the
Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times. With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

[The Real Bev]

Post by sticks

Post by knuttle

  but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with
Very limited capacity.   The one particular update, I remember I went to
my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP which came into
his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.
I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe
it is the best program out there for browsing the internet, handling
your email, and browsing the newsgroups.  I was pleased when they added
the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird.  We use it exclusively to
maintain our home schedule to avoid conflicts.  I believe the
Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times. With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh. I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux. I even used Mosaic a few times!

[sticks]

Post by sticks
One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times.  With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh.  I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux.  I even used Mosaic a few times!

I meant no disrespect, and should have said older than me (I ain't no
spring chicken). Couple days ago, my mom got silly and called the
number on an email from someone claiming to be from paypal saying they
were charging her account $500. My younger nephew was there at the
time. She figured out during the call it was a scam and hung up.
Delete the email and move on. No harm.

For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she had on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing. He never
asked if she needed anything saved or backed up. Then, he got stuck in
an endless loop which would not allow it to finish the installation. He
texts me for help, and I let him sweat it out. When he failed to figure
out how to move forward I told him to just leave it and I would take
care of it.

I was able to get it done and get everything installed again, and
Firefox was the only thing that was back as it should be because of
having the Firefox Account. Didn't lose any email since I had her on
IMAP, but he toasted all her contacts.

I imaged it all before giving it back to her and hope she learned a
lesson or two.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by sticks
For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she had on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing.

This is why I like to separate user files from the OS install. On a Linux
system, all the user stuff lives in the /home directory anyway, so you can
make that a separate partition. That way, if you ever need to reinstall
the OS, you don’t need to touch the user files.

[Jörg Lorenz]

Post by sticks

Post by sticks
One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times.  With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh.  I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux.  I even used Mosaic a few times!

I meant no disrespect, and should have said older than me (I ain't no
spring chicken). Couple days ago, my mom got silly and called the
number on an email from someone claiming to be from paypal saying they
were charging her account $500. My younger nephew was there at the
time. She figured out during the call it was a scam and hung up.
Delete the email and move on. No harm.
For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she had on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing. He never
asked if she needed anything saved or backed up. Then, he got stuck in
an endless loop which would not allow it to finish the installation. He
texts me for help, and I let him sweat it out. When he failed to figure
out how to move forward I told him to just leave it and I would take
care of it.
I was able to get it done and get everything installed again, and
Firefox was the only thing that was back as it should be because of
having the Firefox Account. Didn't lose any email since I had her on
IMAP, but he toasted all her contacts.

My goodness! Use a Mac with iCloud.

Post by sticks
I imaged it all before giving it back to her and hope she learned a
lesson or two.

Obviously not yet.

[knuttle]

Post by Jörg Lorenz

Post by sticks

Post by sticks
One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times.  With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh.  I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux.  I even used Mosaic a few times!

I meant no disrespect, and should have said older than me (I ain't no
spring chicken). Couple days ago, my mom got silly and called the
number on an email from someone claiming to be from paypal saying they
were charging her account $500. My younger nephew was there at the
time. She figured out during the call it was a scam and hung up.
Delete the email and move on. No harm.
For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she hi DONad on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing. He never
asked if she needed anything saved or backed up. Then, he got stuck in
an endless loop which would not allow it to finish the installation. He
texts me for help, and I let him sweat it out. When he failed to figure
out how to move forward I told him to just leave it and I would take
care of it.
I was able to get it done and get everything installed again, and
Firefox was the only thing that was back as it should be because of
having the Firefox Account. Didn't lose any email since I had her on
IMAP, but he toasted all her contacts.

My goodness! Use a Mac with iCloud.

Post by sticks
I imaged it all before giving it back to her and hope she learned a
lesson or two.

Obviously not yet.

I don't use the cloud, but have two computers and an external drive.
The computers are synced so they have the same files, and the Desktop is
backed up to the external drive. While in some people eyes this is not
a backup as all are in the same house, but it is a back up as a file can
no

[Jörg Lorenz]

Post by knuttle

Post by Jörg Lorenz

Post by sticks

Post by sticks
One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times.  With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh.  I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux.  I even used Mosaic a few times!

I meant no disrespect, and should have said older than me (I ain't no
spring chicken). Couple days ago, my mom got silly and called the
number on an email from someone claiming to be from paypal saying they
were charging her account $500. My younger nephew was there at the
time. She figured out during the call it was a scam and hung up.
Delete the email and move on. No harm.
For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she hi DONad on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing. He never
asked if she needed anything saved or backed up. Then, he got stuck in
an endless loop which would not allow it to finish the installation. He
texts me for help, and I let him sweat it out. When he failed to figure
out how to move forward I told him to just leave it and I would take
care of it.
I was able to get it done and get everything installed again, and
Firefox was the only thing that was back as it should be because of
having the Firefox Account. Didn't lose any email since I had her on
IMAP, but he toasted all her contacts.

My goodness! Use a Mac with iCloud.

Post by sticks
I imaged it all before giving it back to her and hope she learned a
lesson or two.

Obviously not yet.

I don't use the cloud, but have two computers and an external drive.
The computers are synced so they have the same files, and the Desktop is
backed up to the external drive. While in some people eyes this is not
a backup as all are in the same house, but it is a back up as a file can
not be deleted or accidentally saved by mouse dribble.

A disaster like stick's is not very probable in your case. I prefer a
less time consuming way to have always and everywhere access to my data.

BTW: A cloud is not really a backup. For this purpose I use Time Machine
to even protect my data from a total failure of Apple Servers. It is
done continuously (every hour) on my lead machine.

Data should always totally independent of the hardware. You should be
able to smile if the Android or iPhone or even the laptop drops into the
sea or is run over by truck.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by knuttle
The computers are synced so they have the same files, and the Desktop is
backed up to the external drive. While in some people eyes this is not
a backup as all are in the same house, but it is a back up as a file can
not be deleted or accidentally saved by mouse dribble.

But the syncing will delete the file on the backup as well, the next time
it runs.

To guard against this, you need to maintain multiple generations of
backup, say, going back 7 days.

[knuttle]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by knuttle
The computers are synced so they have the same files, and the Desktop is
backed up to the external drive. While in some people eyes this is not
a backup as all are in the same house, but it is a back up as a file can
not be deleted or accidentally saved by mouse dribble.

But the syncing will delete the file on the backup as well, the next time
it runs.
To guard against this, you need to maintain multiple generations of
backup, say, going back 7 days.

I use Syncback free, to do my syncs. When it finds differences it gives
the user a list of files that are different and the user decides what
files to copy where. Nothing is ever lost completely, unless the user
messes up.

With Syncback Free, the files as stored under the unamended files names,
so if there is a difference, the file is saved under the same name on
both computes with user instructions.

Using Syncback Free, you can do a back up. In the backup mode, the files
are identified with date and time to distinguish them.

[The Real Bev]

Post by sticks

Post by sticks
One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times.  With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh.  I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux.  I even used Mosaic a few times!

I meant no disrespect,

No worries!

Post by sticks
and should have said older than me (I ain't no
spring chicken). Couple days ago, my mom got silly and called the
number on an email from someone claiming to be from paypal saying they
were charging her account $500. My younger nephew was there at the
time. She figured out during the call it was a scam and hung up.
Delete the email and move on. No harm.

I've got 3 of these calls so far: "Hey grandma, I'm in trouble..."
Surprisingly effective if you don't have that much contact with the
grandspawn. Ask for his dog's name.

Post by sticks
For some reason the nephew decides she needs to reinstall windows cause
she got phished. Not sure exactly what procedure he used, but he
effectively did a full install and erased everything she had on her
system. All pictures, documents, contacts...every damn thing. He never
asked if she needed anything saved or backed up.

That's unforgiveable. At the very least the little shithead is out of
the will!

Post by sticks
Then, he got stuck in
an endless loop which would not allow it to finish the installation. He
texts me for help, and I let him sweat it out. When he failed to figure
out how to move forward I told him to just leave it and I would take
care of it.
I was able to get it done and get everything installed again, and
Firefox was the only thing that was back as it should be because of
having the Firefox Account. Didn't lose any email since I had her on
IMAP, but he toasted all her contacts.
I imaged it all before giving it back to her and hope she learned a
lesson or two.

I've got 5 (maybe 6) rotating backups of my entire working partition and
I do a new one every few days. I don't think you can do that with windows.

[Sn!pe]

Post by The Real Bev

Post by sticks

Post by knuttle

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with
Very limited capacity. The one particular update, I remember I went to
my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP which came into
his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.
I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe
it is the best program out there for browsing the internet, handling
your email, and browsing the newsgroups. I was pleased when they added
the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird. We use it exclusively to
maintain our home schedule to avoid conflicts. I believe the
Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

One of the things I really like about Firefox is the "Firefox Account".
The ability to get it all set up on a different computer by just syncing
into the account has made life easy many times. With the old people I
have to maintain systems on, I set them all up on one.

Heh. I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux. I even used Mosaic a few times!

I predate Netscape, my first browser was Cello:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_(web_browser)>

[The Real Bev]

Post by Sn!pe

Post by The Real Bev
Heh. I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9 for
linux. I even used Mosaic a few times!

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_(web_browser)>

I THINK I heard of that, but it's pretty dim. I did use lynx, though.
And pine and tin.

[Rich]

Post by The Real Bev
Heh. I am one of those old people and I started using Netscape .9
for linux. I even used Mosaic a few times!

I used Mosaic quite a lot in the very early days. Of course it was
being used on an X terminal (yes, real X terminal) connected to a Sun
Sparc Station 20 in another building at work.

IIRC it was Mosaic that I used to pull up photos of Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact with Jupiter in 1994 on that same X terminal
a mere few hours after the impact occurred.

[Jörg Lorenz]

Post by knuttle

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
but a trimmed-down adaptation of the c

I remember I started using Netscape when I have a acoustical modem with
Very limited capacity. The one particular update, I remember I went to
my son-in-laws house and down loaded it through his ISP which came into
his house for his LAN. His system which was many times fasted the my modem.
I have stayed with Netscape and then Firefox/Thunderbird and I believe
it is the best program out there for browsing the internet, handling
your email, and browsing the newsgroups. I was pleased when they added
the Scheduling/Calendar to Thunderbird. We use it exclusively to
maintain our home schedule to avoid conflicts. I believe the
Thunderbird Scheduling/Calendar is under appreciated.

Very much the same here and I certainly share your appreciation of the
offsprings of the Netscape era.

[Ant]

I still use SeaMonkey that was based on Netscape's design (Communicator)!

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Mosaic Communications Corporation (later Netscape Communications) was
founded 30 years ago. They were brash enough to thumb their noses at
Microsoft. And if you remember that time, Microsoft was indeed slow to
appreciate the importance of the then-up-and-coming Internet. Bill
Gates famously put out a book called ???The Way Ahead???, talking about
how he saw the future of computing evolving, and he didn???t even
mention the Internet, except in a hastily-added postscript.
But once the changes in the marketplace became evident, the
supercarrier did manage to turn itself around. And Microsoft fought
back, by both fair means and foul, to keep Windows not only the
dominant desktop platform, but the dominant platform for consuming
Internet content.
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.
<https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/how-netscape-lives-on-30-years-of-shaping-the-web-open-source-and-business/>

[Daniel70]

Post by Ant
I still use SeaMonkey that was based on Netscape's design (Communicator)!

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Mosaic Communications Corporation (later Netscape Communications) was
founded 30 years ago. They were brash enough to thumb their noses at
Microsoft. And if you remember that time, Microsoft was indeed slow to
appreciate the importance of the then-up-and-coming Internet. Bill
Gates famously put out a book called ???The Way Ahead???, talking about
how he saw the future of computing evolving, and he didn???t even
mention the Internet, except in a hastily-added postscript.
But once the changes in the marketplace became evident, the
supercarrier did manage to turn itself around. And Microsoft fought
back, by both fair means and foul, to keep Windows not only the
dominant desktop platform, but the dominant platform for consuming
Internet content.
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.
<https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/how-netscape-lives-on-30-years-of-shaping-the-web-open-source-and-business/>

I don't quite make 30 years .... but in late 1996, I opened an account
with a, then, local ISP and got two 5.25inch discs, one containing the
Windows dialer program and the other contained Netscape Browser V0.9.
(V0.9 .... so was that a "pre-release Release"?? What do 'we' call them
now-a-days?? Alphas?? Betas?? Release Candidates??)

I think I still have those two floppies somewhere!!

[Mr. Man-wai Chang]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Mosaic Communications Corporation (later Netscape Communications) was
founded 30 years ago. They were brash enough to thumb their noses at
Microsoft. And if you remember that time, Microsoft was indeed slow to
appreciate the importance of the then-up-and-coming Internet. Bill
Gates famously put out a book called “The Way Ahead”, talking about
how he saw the future of computing evolving, and he didn’t even
mention the Internet, except in a hastily-added postscript.

I have been using Netscape then Mozilla as browsers all these years.

[Newyana2]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.

For anyone who's interested, there's a good documentary about
the final days of Netscape. It's called Code Rush, available at both
youtube and archive.org.

This link should work to download it:

https://ia801809.us.archive.org/6/items/code-rush-2000/Code%20Rush%20%282000%29-Decombed.mp4

[Francis Strelok @strelok.com>]

Post by Newyana2

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.

For anyone who's interested, there's a good documentary about
the final days of Netscape. It's called Code Rush, available at both
youtube and archive.org.
https://ia801809.us.archive.org/6/items/code-rush-2000/Code%20Rush%20%282000%29-Decombed.mp4

Oooh, thank you for linking that!

[Alan K.]

Post by Francis Strelok @strelok.com>

Post by Newyana2

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser. That lives on today (after a fashion) as
the SeaMonkey browser, but a trimmed-down adaptation of the code,
jettisoning all the non-browser-related functionality, found new life
as Firefox.

For anyone who's interested, there's a good documentary about
the final days of Netscape. It's called Code Rush, available at both
youtube and archive.org.
https://ia801809.us.archive.org/6/items/code-rush-2000/Code%20Rush%20%282000%29-Decombed.mp4

Oooh, thank you for linking that!

Here is youtube of it.

I think, at least the first 20 seconds is identical

[Newyana2]

Post by Alan K.

Post by Francis Strelok @strelok.com>

Post by Newyana2
https://ia801809.us.archive.org/6/items/code-rush-2000/Code%20Rush%20%282000%29-Decombed.mp4

Oooh, thank you for linking that!

Here is youtube of it.
http://youtu.be/4Q7FTjhvZ7Y
I think, at least the first 20 seconds is identical

193 MB. 56 minutes. I think I originally saw it on PBS.
The archive.org download is slow, and there are multiple
youtube downloads. I didn't post those because sometimes
such links are junk and because some people may not know
how to actually get the file that way.

[bad sector]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was
to open-source the browser.

THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took out a
provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express purpose of thus
hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent anyone from ever
being able to take out a patent on the same idea.


BTW I'm looking for higher resolution/quality copies of the original
Netscape 'navigator' (icon there wree several versions, I want them all).

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by bad sector

One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was to
open-source the browser.

THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took out a
provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express purpose of thus
hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent anyone from ever
being able to take out a patent on the same idea.

Patents in the public interest ... now THAT I can applaud!

But then, simply publishing the idea would, in theory, count as “prior
art”, wouldn’t it? Though in practice it is very hard to get patents
invalidated anyway, at least in the US system (also *cough* East Texas
*cough*).

[Rich]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct
was to open-source the browser.

THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took
out a provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express
purpose of thus hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent
anyone from ever being able to take out a patent on the same idea.

Patents in the public interest ... now THAT I can applaud!

Officially, that is (at least in the US) the official, Constitution
derived, reason for the patent system in the first place. In exchange
for a limited length monopoly, the public gets disclosure of the
invention and the ability to use it once the limited length monopoly
runs out.

Of course, a 20 year monopoly lets bad actors be bad for 20 years....

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
But then, simply publishing the idea would, in theory, count as
“prior art”, wouldn’t it? Though in practice it is very hard to get
patents invalidated anyway, at least in the US system (also *cough*
East Texas *cough*).

Yes, it does not matter the manner of publication, just the fact that
it was published.

But, bad sector's method has the added benefit of the fact that the one
"database" that is most easily accessible to the examiner's working in
the patent office is the actual database of prior patents. So
inserting his idea into the existing patent database itself meant the
document had the best chance that it would be found, and possibly used,
to block someone else.

[bad sector]

Post by Rich

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct
was to open-source the browser.

THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took
out a provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express
purpose of thus hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent
anyone from ever being able to take out a patent on the same idea.

Patents in the public interest ... now THAT I can applaud!

Officially, that is (at least in the US) the official, Constitution
derived, reason for the patent system in the first place. In exchange
for a limited length monopoly, the public gets disclosure of the
invention and the ability to use it once the limited length monopoly
runs out.
Of course, a 20 year monopoly lets bad actors be bad for 20 years....

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
But then, simply publishing the idea would, in theory, count as
“prior art”, wouldn’t it? Though in practice it is very hard to get
patents invalidated anyway, at least in the US system (also *cough*
East Texas *cough*).

Yes, it does not matter the manner of publication, just the fact that
it was published.
But, bad sector's method has the added benefit of the fact that the one
"database" that is most easily accessible to the examiner's working in
the patent office is the actual database of prior patents. So
inserting his idea into the existing patent database itself meant the
document had the best chance that it would be found, and possibly used,
to block someone else.

Exactly, which is is why I done it. There are many ideas in the public
domain by the mere fact of once having been published but if they don't
turn up in an early search you may later have to prosecute your case and
end up in a never-ending brawl costing attorney fees and such other
luxuries that most mortals will NEVER be able to afford. I'm no expert
but the provisional patent system was an ideal alternative for $100
which I was pleased to invest into screwing wanna-be chislers in
waiting. The provisional system was later terminated.

And what led up to it all was an earlier patent I had actually had
prosecuted by an american pattent attorney, that one cost me a LOT more
and I had my hopes up but the potential market (military) just wasn't
smart enough for my invention. I still think it to be an excellent idea
and had developed it as an expert instructor and sometimes stunt
sky-diver, even discussed it for a very short while with the Royal
Military College, alas to no avail. Continued renewals would have eaten
my house so I had it lapse into public domain ...as my first lesson :-)

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Post by bad sector
And what led up to it all was an earlier patent I had actually had
prosecuted by an american pattent attorney, that one cost me a LOT more
and I had my hopes up but the potential market (military) just wasn't
smart enough for my invention.

Making money from patents is as likely as winning the lottery.

Patents are about “invention”, but success in business comes, not from
“invention”, but from “innovation”.

[bad sector]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Post by bad sector

One important thing Netscape did before going completely defunct was to
open-source the browser.

THAT was a class act! I did something vaguely similar when I took out a
provisional patent and then let it lapse for the express purpose of thus
hard-wiring the idea into public domain to prevent anyone from ever
being able to take out a patent on the same idea.

Patents in the public interest ... now THAT I can applaud!

yeah, I was rather proud of it, seems like in another life now

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
But then, simply publishing the idea would, in theory, count as “prior
art”, wouldn’t it? Though in practice it is very hard to get patents
invalidated anyway, at least in the US system (also *cough* East Texas
*cough*).

Ideally 'prior art' would block another applicant, but yes, once granted
overturning would be a task and a half, especially with thin records.

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

Bill Gates famously put out a book called “The Way Ahead” ...

Ahem, actually “The Road Ahead”.

Obviously not worth reading, anyway. ;)

[Wolfgang Agnes]

Post by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Bill Gates famously put out a book called “The Way Ahead” ...

Ahem, actually “The Road Ahead”.
Obviously not worth reading, anyway. ;)

Why not? :)