>So, it wasn't an accident, or case of NIH Not Invented Here, or corporate bickering.

Maybe that's what Brendan Eich claimed at some point in time, but it certainly devolved into corporate bickering pretty quickly.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19837817

>Wow, a blast from the past! 1996, what a year that was. [...]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19846280

[More links and excerpts at the link above, but here is the timeline summary:]

>Ha ha! Yes, the launch of Javagator was a lot like watching the Space Shuttle Challenger blow up.

>Such glorious plans they had, then Sun and Netscape started bickering about who was going to be on top...

>But Rhino, Mozilla and Phoenix eventually rose from the ashes of the Javagator Disaster.

>December 30, 1997: Netscape sharpens Javagator plans [...]

>February 26, 1998: Netscape's Java browser in doubt [...]

>February 26, 1998: Whither Crawls Netscape's Javagator? [...]

>April 3, 1998: Will Javagator be reborn as Jazilla? [...]

>Fortunately, Netscape's Java Rhino JavaScript engine managed to make it out into the world: [...]

>Javascript Jabber: 124 JSJ The Origin of Javascript with Brendan Eich [...]

>Brendan Eich:

>And Netscape had acquired a company called Digital Styles that was known for rendering engines of some kind. And they started doing a next-generation engine in ’97 I think based on Java. And they thought, Netscape’s doing the Javagator, Netscape and Sun are going to kill Windows, Java’s going to be the future on the client side. Let’s build a Java engine. When Java got the plug pulled from it in late ’97, when the Electrical Fire JVM that Waldemar Horwat was building at Netscape got cancelled, when Sun went away because Netscape was basically going out of business slowly, the team that was doing this Java engine, this Java web engine, rendering engine called Raptor said, “Oh, we better rewrite it in,” maybe it was called Xena, I forget. They said, “We better rewrite it in C++.” And then they said, “Let’s sell it to Mozilla.”

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16354069

>[...] MSFT was even afraid of AOL, Oracle, and others teaming up to offer a home appliance (eg. a net PC) at low prices and undercutting the PC industry. Of course, those partnerships and alliances never did work out. Sun and Netscape hated each other, for example. [...]

Ain't that the truth! The bitter irony is that a bunch of the Sun-hating Netscape programmers went over to AOL after the acquisition, just to be mis-managed into the ground by a bunch of "Alliance" managers from Sun.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aol-woos-netscape-employees/

>Case told the Netscape workers that after the merger is completed next spring, stock options will remain valuable, their sabbatical program will remain in place, and their corporate culture will remain intact.

>"Maybe you joined the company because it was a cool company," he said. "We are not changing any of that. We want to run this as an independent culture."

Pffff!!!

http://www.zdnet.com/article/a-year-ago-friction-behind-aol-...

>Netscape cancelled a project to develop a Java version of Netscape Navigator with Sun Microsystems Inc. because Netscape couldn't afford it, according to Kannegaard. Kannegaard's claims are at odds with the story Netscape told publicly about the reason it killed its so-called Javagator product. "It was explained to me that after Microsoft in their [Netscape's] words undercut their business, they could not afford to continue the project, so they had to reduce their engineering resources and cancel this project," Kannegaard said.

>That is not the story Netscape told the general public. According to a story in ZD Net's sister publication, PCWeek published Feb. 26, 1998, Netscape said it was pulling back on Javagator in hopes of getting help from Network Computer manufacturers such as Sun and Oracle Corp.

Meow!!!

https://www.cnet.com/news/aol-layoffs-slam-sun-netscape-alli...

>After the layoffs, iPlanet will largely be a Sun satellite. As of last July, only one-third of iPlanet's approximately 3,000 employees were from AOL, Sun Chief Financial Officer Mike Lehman said. Lehman has further said that Sun largely owns iPlanet's intellectual property.

Owch.