One of the things Netscape tried to do was keep the concepts of client and server very separate.

Judge as of 1995-06. True: contemporaneous documentation or accounts show that Netscape's product architecture deliberately kept client (Navigator) and server products and concepts separate, for example through separate products communicating over open standard protocols (HTTP/HTML) rather than proprietary client-server coupling. Mostly true: separation was a clear design principle with minor exceptions, such as some Netscape-specific extensions working best with its own servers. Mixed: separation held in some respects, but substantial client-server coupling existed. Mostly false: Netscape's design notably tied its client and server together, with only a nominal separation. False: the design deliberately merged client and server concepts.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 The Marc Andreessen Interview Page Thom Stark (personal interview page) · 1 January 1995 Own record

   “First of all, what we're basically going to do is, we're going to provide our customers with interoperability--whatever that takes, whatever that means.”

2. E2 The Marc Andreessen Interview Page Thom Stark (personal interview page) · 1 January 1995 Own record

   “Netscape currently offers a Web server which uses the SSL protocol you developed to permit secure transactions over the Web for business uses, and Netscape Navigator supports SSL transparently.”

3. E3 133 U.S. Department of Justice (court filing, United States v. Microsoft findings) · 18 January 2026

   “that they were pleased with the revenues they were receiving from licensing both browser and server software to enterprises.”

4. E4 Internet OS - Wikipedia Wikipedia · 16 July 2011

   “Netscape also would continue to sell its server software, and Java applets would run cross-platform on both its clients and its servers, and as a scripting language in the form of JavaScript.”

5. E5 The Marc Andreessen Interview Page Thom Stark (interviewer; page copyright 1995) · 1 January 1995

   “First of all, what we're basically going to do is, we're going to provide our customers with interoperability--whatever that takes, whatever that means.”

6. E6 The Marc Andreessen Interview Page Thom Stark (interviewer; page copyright 1995) · 1 January 1995

   “Netscape currently offers a Web server which uses the SSL protocol you developed to permit secure transactions over the Web for business uses, and Netscape Navigator supports SSL transparently.”

7. E7 United States v. Microsoft, Plaintiffs' findings of fact (section III, Alternative Platform-Level Technologies) U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division

   “Netscape's browsers contain their own set of APIs (as well as a set of Java APIs) to which applications developers can write applications.”

8. E8 1995: Apache and Microsoft IIS Shake Up Web Server Market cybercultural.com · 31 August 2021

   “By the end of 1994, Netscape had released two web server products.”

9. E9 1995: Apache and Microsoft IIS Shake Up Web Server Market cybercultural.com · 31 August 2021

   “It knew that Netscape primarily made money off its web servers, not its browser.”

E8 and E9 are later retrospectives showing that Netscape sold web server products separately from its browser. They do not describe how the client and server were designed or whether separating them was a deliberate principle. E2/E6 say Navigator supported the SSL protocol used by Netscape's server, which links the two products, but neither item says whether this coupling was proprietary. E1/E5 contain only a general pledge of interoperability, and E3, E4 and E7 do not address whether client and server concepts were kept apart. None of this evidence settles the criteria either way.