Netscape readies Java-only Web browser

Netscape Communications will have a beta version of its all-Java Webbrowser, dubbed "Javagator," ready for public consumption by March, thecompany announced on Tuesday. Netscape's "100% Pure Java" version ofNavigator is aimed at Network Computers and other thin clients that supporta Java virtual machine. The final version should be ready by June.

Javagator, which is known internally at Netscape as "Maui," is expected tobe the most ambitious software product yet written in Java. To date, mostlarge-scale Java projects, such as Corel's Java Office, have met withfailure and were abandoned. To this day, the majority of Java code isused in small "applets" that appear on Web sites. Javagator is a proof ofconcept project for both Netscape, and Sun, who is assisting in its creation.

The first version of Javagator will not include any email or newsgroupcapabilities, much like the current version of Navigator. It is based onthe "Gemini" JavaBean that Netscape created to render Java displays.Gemini is also at the heart of the next version of Communicator (called"Mercury"), which is also due by mid-1998