In a move that harks back to the browser wars, Hewlett-Packard plans to ship Netscape's Web browser on new consumer PCs and notebooks starting early next year.

The agreement, announced Monday, is the first browser distribution deal with a major PC maker since the end of the browser wars in the 1990s, according to Netscape, a division of Time Warner's America Online subsidiary. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The company in May released Netscape 8, a browser with features to protect users against online scams.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is by far the most-used Web browser, but smaller players have been pecking at its market share. Mozilla's open-source Firefox browser has a loyal following. Opera Software is also making noise, announcing Sept. 20 that it will strip the ads out of the free version of its browser.

As part of the HP deal, consumers will be able to choose Netscape as their default browser during computer setup, a Netscape representative said Monday. Icons for the browser, which will be customized with links to HP and Compaq Web sites, will appear in the Windows Start menu.

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HP= Netscape= both =

HP =

Ever tried repairing those? Gah!

Anyway, I hope the Netscape they ship will be based on the latest Firefox, otherwise they won't have automatic updating, so more security holes.

Indeed... HP has gone downhill in terms of their support...

For example, the latest release of the official video drivers for my laptop cause instability after resuming from standby/hibernation.

As for the browser, I agree with Nankai. I'm not sure how much of a good thing this will be...

i agree hp is starting to go down hill now and this latest move is a bad one,,,

i also agree that those hp products are hard to work with and rebuild, even tho its still possible to rebuild and upgrade them its not my choice