Netscape Navigator
The browser that built the web, then got mugged by Internet Explorer. Legends never really 404.
Quick Bits
What It Was
Netscape Navigator was one of the defining browsers of the early commercial web and, for a lot of people, their main way into the internet. It helped make web browsing feel like something normal people could do, not just specialists and hobbyists in dim rooms.
Why It Mattered
Its influence on browser competition, early standards, and software distribution was huge. Netscape helped define what a browser even was supposed to be while the web was still making up the rules as it went.
Why It Still Matters
It lost the browser wars, but its codebase and culture fed directly into Mozilla and later Firefox.
Netscape still matters because it did not just browse the early web. It helped build the whole vibe.