Netscape Communicator 4.5 Spans the Globe

Netscape Communications Corp. announced Thursday that it is shipping versions of its Netscape Communicator 4.5 in seven additonal languages, on the heels of its English release last month.

Localized versions in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Japanese are available for download. Netscape estimates about 50 million Internet users around the world speak one of those languages. In combination with the English release, the new versions will reach 91 percent of the Internet's current worldwide user base.

The seven localized versions of Communicator 4.5 fully integrate with the new Netscape International Netcenter portal sites. In addition, all versions of the software provide support for Euro currency.

The company is developing additional localized versions for Greek, Polish, Romanian, Finnish, Czech, Slovak, Norwegian, Maori and other languages. Netscape's Universal Localization Program enables users to customize Communicator into almost any language or dialect and distribute it for free. For more information about this program, see the Mozilla site. Netscape said that the Universal Localization Program has already produced localized releases of Netscape Communicator in Korean, Hawaiian, Spanish and Catalan.

"The release of Netscape Communicator client software into eight languages in such a short time represents a new milestone for Netscape," said Bob Lisbonne, senior vice president of Netscape's client software. "It demonstrates our commitment to providing the best possible online experience for the growing numbers of Internet users worldwide."