Netscape! For Real?

Who in the hell still uses Netscape?! I can’t believe there are still people out there who use Netscape. I know this because on the “Stats” feature on Blogger, one category lists visitors by what browser they are using. I was surprised to see “Netscape” a few days.




It felt like an anachronism taking me back to the mid 90’s when I first started surfing the net. My school used Netscape at the time. I spent many hours aimlessly wandering the electronic wonderland. It was so much fun. I quickly learned there were some freaks out there.



One night, WRAL broadcasted a story warning us about the seedy things on the internet such as pornography. “I hadn’t thought of that”, I said to myself. So, the first thing I did when I went back to school later that night or the next day was to search on either Prodigy or Yahoo: “XXX.” I hit the mother lode! There was so much porn, most of it free.



I would eventually get a computer myself and plug in to the internet. I was 28 when I had my first computer. It was over $2000 for a mid-line model. I think it was a Packard-Bell. Of all the browsers I used, I did not use Netscape. I received enticements from several ISP’s: “40 hours free”, “100 hours free” or even “1000 hours free”. Getting access to an ISP was like robbing a bank; getting in was the easy part, getting out was damned near impossible.



Those guys would make disconnecting so difficult. The only to cancel was to call. They would not accept cancellations by email, mail or any other way. And the wait-time for the cancellation call went over 2 hours for one server, and I still didn’t get through to anyone. I had to cancel my credit card to get the ISP to drop me.



It was nice to see Netscape again. Somebody has to be the last to have shag carpet. Somebody has to be the last to use a Walkman. And I guess somebody has to be the last to use Netscape.