I can’t believe that it’s 2004 and we’re still hearing anecdotal stories about how certain government agencies have standardized on Netscape 4 and require all agency related web development to support this archaic browser. This, of course, creates a trickle down effect where developers believe they must support Netscape 4 because so many government agencies still use this browser. The result is that developers are afraid to design with web standards because of Netscape 4’s notoriously poor support for CSS.
I have to say that I’m skeptical about these claims. Are these agencies completely unaware of Mozilla and the fact that it’s FREE? How do they rationalize standardizing on seven year old technology when the best web browser on the planet is available at no cost?
If possible, I’d like to debunk this myth once and for all so we can all move forward with accessible, standards-based design. If anyone has hard evidence of government agencies that still use Netscape 4, please post a brief comment here. I’d like to get to the bottom of this once and for all.
I know that many users at the National Cancer Institute still use Netscape 4. Officially, the NCI no longer supports N4 but many users still have it on their machines and continue to use it. Now, new machines have IE and Mozilla installed on them. If users call the help desk with a N4 problem, the browser is removed and Mozilla is installed.