Netscape Navigator

In December of 1996, Apple bought NeXT for $400 million.

It wanted NeXTSTEP to be the basis for a new modern operating system, basically a new operating system like a DOS-type system, one that didn't crash every time like Netscape Navigator.

[laughs] Well, not that it crashed every time, but it cr- it crashed a lot.

And so Steve Jobs came on board in Apple again as an informal advisor to the CEO at the time.

You're more optimistic than I am.

Not that I think the AI is going to fail, but I saw this chart the other day, and it was comparing productivity after Netscape Navigator launched.

So Netscape Navigator launched in like, what, 94 or something, 95? And then productivity after that versus productivity after ChatGPT launched.

So these are like two seminal moments in technology.

And the Netscape Navigator is way higher.

The productivity return from that was much higher than the productivity return from AI.

So I don't know.

These crypto coins and the crypto coin scam, these Glitch McConnell Washington, D.C. boomers, they can't comprehend how any of this works.

They're still using the motherfucking Netscape Navigator over there at Glitch McConnell's house.

And so these fucking cocksuckers in D.C., They haven't figured out how to enrich themselves from the crypto scams at this point.

So the crypto scams aren't...

Uh, it's pretty sick.

But if you are unfamiliar, Netscape Navigator was a web browser.

Brendan Eich created JavaScript while working on the Netscape Navigator browser.

Uh, this happened back in '95, I believe.

It, uh, basically gave us scripting on the web.

Yeah

...

Netscape Navigator was the only browser to support JavaScript, and there was also a press release when it happened with Oracle because it was originally named, like, I think it was MochaScript.

And that really struck me as well.

I remember being back in Germany and by this time, you know, we're into graphical web browsers, you know, early versions of Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

And I remember showing a friend of mine who was playing in a band and showing like, hey, look, somebody's made this website all about this musician you really like or this band you really like.

And he was impressed.

I have never seen a technology boom where most people are basically, like they're knowledgeable or whatever, but they're also pretty apathetic onto it.

Like think about the internet boom, right? When Windows 95 came out, Netscape Navigator, then Internet Explorer, right? That fundamentally changed our lives in the blink of an eye.

You know, I'm informed.

They keep informing me that AI has changed my life.

i think of hyper centralized ai infrastructure is also a dumb concept to go after i think ai trained on everything literally including reddit and twitter is a dumb concept right and this is this this is where you look at something like artificial intelligence that's what i talk about many times in the past there is the difference between the tech the technology the product and the business right the technology is the underlying technology right ipv4 relational databases uh file systems right that's the underlying technology then you build a product on top of that so again we talk about like technology something like https http https that's the technology and then you build the product that uses that technology.

So again, we go back to the old days of Netscape Navigator, right? Netscape Navigator was the web browser, right? And so it was a very good web browser for a particular time period.

Everybody used Netscape Navigator because it was great, right? That was the product.

That was a product.

That was a good product.

So the business started sells a product that has been built on the technology.

And Netscape got absolutely fucking destroyed by Microsoft when Microsoft decided to basically install Internet Explorer, their web browser, for free into Windows 95, right? And so that's the thing.

html https all of that that's all good solid nobody's going to argue about that the product netscape navigator was a good product the business netscape got hammered simply because their competition was microsoft and microsoft's gonna do what microsoft's gonna do you know what i'm saying And that's where I look at this.

Netscape roasts him online.

By Friday, 40 million Americans are downloading Netscape Navigator to see if the little shooting star logo still

works.

That's like