What Netscape learned from cross-platform software development

and Marc Andreessen, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois where he had led the team of hacker programmers that built Mosaic, the first mass-market browser for the Web. Together they founded Netscape to create a simple, universal interface that would allow users with almost any type of communications device to access the Web. Their initial focus was on two products: a commercial-grade browser that would take up where the buggy Mosaic left off, and a Web server, the software that allows individuals and companies to create Web sites [1]. Navigator 1.0, released in December 1994 as Netscape's first product, was a spectacular success, quickly becoming the browser of choice for Internet users. By December 1995, the company was worth more than $7 billion in terms of market capitalization. It soon introduced a series of browser and server products that used Internet protocols as the basis for intranets, extranets, and other business applications. Netscape thus evolved from a browser company into an enterprise software company, distinguished by its ability to write Internet software for all major personal computer platforms, as well as for Unix. By 1998, after deciding to give away the browser for free, most of Netscape's revenues were from servers, about 60% of which was from customers running various versions of Unix. The other 40% of its server revenues was from cus-Its development strategy produced unexpected costs, a wrong turn with Java, performance compromises, and questions about future ties to Sun Microsystems.