Netscape heeft aangekondigd dat de eerste release candidate van Netscape 9.0 per direct beschikbaar is. De browser kan vanaf deze pagina gedownload worden voor Linux, Mac OS X en Windows. De ontwikkelaars van Netscape hebben Firefox 2 als basis gebruikt voor de ontwikkeling van Navigator 9 en in tegenstelling tot de 7-serie ontdaan van een e-mailclient, een nieuwsgroeplezer en html-composer. Hierdoor is de webbrowser geen internet suite meer, maar een stand-alone browser. Welke veranderingen doorgevoerd zijn in Netscape Navigator 9.0 RC1 staat hieronder gepost:
Due to Netscape.com's transition from a social news site to a traditional news portal (and the resulting re-launch of the social news site at Propeller.com), we made the decision to remove the built-in social news functionality from the Netscape Navigator Web browser. We will be releasing those features as stand-alone Propeller-branded browser extensions shortly, and our browser development efforts will be refocused on providing new features and browsing enhancements not specifically tied to a single Web service.
The following changes have been made since Beta 3:[break]
- Added splash screen
- Fixed formatting bug in Mac license
- Fixed a bug that was preventing custom background colors
- Mini-browser enhancements
- Removed social news integration
- Exposed more preferences in the Preference Dialog for tabs and the mini-browser
- Fixed reversed preference for opening searches in new tab
- Fixed Mac bundle signature
- Fixed default icon and file assocations
- Moved custom FTP style out of userContent.css
- Added URL correction preferences to Advanced Preferences page
- Added drop-down menu to print button
- Added drop-down menu to home button
- Added Firefox profile importing
- Added support for importing Netscape 8 bookmarks after the initial install
- Fixed theme issues on Linux
- Fixed truncation of Reload button label
- Fixed bugs with URL correction and country codes
- Added "Save to Linkpad" option to History context menu