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What will 'Communicator 5.0' look like?

June 5, 1998
Web posted at: 5:30 PM EDT

by Yael Li-Ron

Are you wondering what the next version of the world's most popular browser will look like? Of course you are. And so are we. The next revision of Netscape's "Communicator" is one of the best-kept secrets in the history of software development.

We know that a beta version of "Communicator 5" will hit the streets late this year, and that the program will continue to be free. We also know that, like Windows 98, it will enable you to view files on your desktop or LAN, similar to the way you'd look at a Web site. But beyond that, even the Netscape folks don't know precisely what the program is going to look like.

The reason: Netscape has made the code for "Communicator" public. Which means that developers all over the world are hacking away at the program, adding features and fixing problems. Netscape will incorporate the best of these tweaks--along with the work of its own programming staff--into "Communicator 5."

Aurora: Dawn of a New Metaphor

Even though "Communicator 5" is still in development, enough bits and bytes have leaked out to let us sketch an outline of the program.

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First and foremost, it will include Aurora, a new "browsing metaphor" that enables you to view the contents of the Web, your local hard drive, and the LAN--meaning Web pages, word processing documents, e-mail messages, whatever--through a single interface.

Aurora lets you organize those contents in any way you want--by project, by theme, and so forth. And it allows you to navigate them by clicking icons in the browser's left pane rather than by typing URLs or paths or repeatedly clicking the Back and Forward buttons. Sound familiar? Yep: Aurora is Netscape's answer to Windows 98's Web-centric interface.

Other new features in "Communicator" will likely include:

• Improved calendaring and messaging tools (to lure "Notes" and "Exchange" users)
• New buttons, menus, and other navigational tools for moving through the company's newly revamped Netcenter site
• Support for XML (extensible markup language), a new standard that's gaining popularity among Web designers
• Fixes to improve both performance and stability
• A smaller footprint (well, we can hope, can't we?).
• But that's not all. The new "Communicator" will sport features that Netscape hasn't even thought of. Here's why.

Free the Code

Netscape, in a seemingly hippie-dippy bit of selflessness, has released "Communicator's" source code -- also known as Mozilla -- for the whole world to see, use, and tinker with. Only time will tell whether this is a smart move or a shot in the foot. In the meantime, thousands of programmers worldwide are enjoying an unprecedented free-for-all. Here's how this digital Codestock works, along with a few possible scenarios of its impact on consumers.

Anybody can stop in at the Mozilla download page or one of its many mirror sites and get the source code--an uncompiled C++ program. Such code is unintelligible to most mortals (as the download page puts it, "If you have never compiled and debugged a very large C/C++ program before, all that downloading...will do for you is use up a lot of disk space"). But it's a gold mine for programmers, because it allows them to look inside the program and even to modify it.

250,000 Developers

Netscape isn't just letting developers snoop inside the code. Under the terms of the Mozilla program, programmers will retain rights to the code once they've enhanced it with additions of their own. Consequently, users are free to take the source code, tweak it as they wish, and then sell the results on the open market--without paying Netscape any royalties. In return, Netscape asks that developers post those tweaks on the Mozilla site and allow Netscape to incorporate any or all of them it desires into the next version of "Communicator."

So in theory, Netscape has just expanded its R&D staff by about 250,000 people (the number of code downloads as we go to press). Of course while all this off-site development is going on, Netscape's paid staff will continue to develop enhancements of their own.

Netscape officials say that later on this year, the company will take a "snapshot" of the code--combining the best contributions from its own development team and from participants in the Mozilla program--and release that composite as the first beta of "Communicator 5." Contributors of the accepted code will be recognized but will not be compensated; their names will be listed on the Mozilla site, and they will be added to the credits that roll when you type about: in the browser's address box.

According to Netscape, this high-tech giveaway is a win-win proposition. Sure, some clever programmer could conceivably create a leaner, meaner version of "Communicator" and steal some of Netscape's market share. You can already find "Communicator" clones--featuring improved encryption and foreign-language support--on the Web. But such clones won't drain any money from the company's coffers, because "Communicator" is already free.

More importantly, commercial developers could get into the act with some Netscape-friendly versions of their products. As an example, Qualcomm could develop a version of its popular "Eudora" e-mail program that you could use from within "Communicator." And a speech-recognition company could come up with a hands-free browser. Netscape figures that the more comfortable corporate users are with the browser or with one of its variants, the better they're likely to feel about Netscape's server products, and the more often they'll visit Netscape's Web site--both money makers for the company.

In short, the sky's the limit; and Netscape, programmers, other software vendors, and end-users all stand to benefit. As a result, "Communicator 5" should represent a major shot across Microsoft's bow. By the beginning of 1999, when both "Communicator 5" and the next version of "Internet Explorer 5" are likely to be available, the browser wars should be raging full bore once again.