August 9, 1995 is considered by many historians to mark the birth of the Internet Era. On that day Netscape Communications went public and countless Internet millionaires would be minted over the next five years.
Most early Internet users experienced the World Wide Web for the first time using Netscape's Navigator software. In short order Microsoft launched Internet Explorer and today maintains a commanding lead in Web browser utilization.
Netscape's original concept was to bundle the Navigator browser with other software including Web developer tools. This design package has been resurrected by The Mozilla Foundation and has been renamed SeaMonkey Internet Suite. (Mozilla was Netscape's early mascot and the organization is also the keeper of the open-source Firefox Web browser.)
SeaMonkey 1.0 is now available for FREE public download. It's Web developer tool is called Composer, which is primarily an HTML text editor with support for JavaScript debugging. SeaMonkey is ideal for students and other budget-conscious designers and developers who want to learn the basics of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and are not in position to purchase industry standard tollkits such as Dreamweaver, which retails for $399.
I used the SeaMonkey Composer tool to edit and upload my Recent Training section of the Web Apprentices Website and it works quite nicely for simple edits.
Designers and developers in training can download SeaMonkey and start practicing with the following FREE tutorials available from WebDevelopersNotes.com:
By the way, Netscape hasn't gone away. Netscape 8.1 is available for download and there are rumors of a Netscape 9.0 version in development.
