PC NEWS: HP to provide Netscape browser on new PCs

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, which the companies are set to announce 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.

As part of the HP deal, consumers in the U.S. and Canada 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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