Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

Netscape Beta / Mozilla is it worth it?

I know that most of you here love IE. I myself think it is a good browser when I am using Windows. But I have kept up with the mozilla project and the development of netscape as best I could to see if they could produce something on a par with the mighty IE. So here we have the next installment from Netscape rather than Mozilla in the Beta Release 3. Now many of you may have tried the Preview Alpha Release that was absolutely shit. this on the other hand is not. Although I am talking from a Linux perspective as I have not yet got it on the Windows box. For those wondering what it looks like here you go.



So what is it like? It renders pages faster than IE and faster than any of the nightly builds of mozilla I have tried. It handles passwords better than IE, stores them independent of cookies and encrypts them if you choose. It allows you far greater control over browser search facilities. If I am right in remebering that IE requires a registry hack to change the default search engine, this does not. Messenger has a built in spell check, IE and OLX require MS Word to be installed. History management is better than anything I have seen from IE.

It has options to control wheel mouses (not that I use it), and it has a nifty little AIM intergration in its side panel now (a bit buggy though )I really would suggest doing the download just to see it in action. I think that when the final release comes out it will be a serious match for IE. The only thing it fails on is that it does not integrate with the OS in the same way as IE. Shame really but hey maybe the world can force MS to take that part of Windows Open Source

If you want to try a developemnt release of the nightly builds go to www.mozilla.org. Or if you want to try this release from Netscape go to www.download.com

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sp00ky
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'If you ask me we're all heterosexual by default, not by decision. It's just a question of who you fancy. It's all about aesthetics and it's fuck all to do with morality' Renton

[This message has been edited by Spooky (edited 10-09-2000).]

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: 54.60°N 5.70°W
Posts: 1950

In the words of someone else,

++++++

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There is no music any more.
Music was assassinated on the 8th December 1980

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: 51N3, 114W3
Posts: 1071

I'll breakdown my review of Mozilla/Netscape6 on the various OSes I use:

Windows 98/NT: Somewhere in the operating systems code must be writ the words "Thou shalt use no Browser but Bill's, forsaketh thee the Browser and forever shall thee face the Blue Screen of Death"

With preivew release 3, the mozilla boys and girls have cure some of the most glaring ills of previous releases, builds, etc, but have yet to clean it up the code enough to make it usefull. Netscape is still a bloated beast. RAM hungry and it's gecko rendering engine leaves a great deal to be disired in terms of compliance to W3C standards, at least in comparison to IE 5.5s.

On the Mac: Mozilla is only a useful browser, as of this date, if you have the latest and greatest. Mollasas like performace on anything less than a g3 450, running OS9. Considering the grace with which IE performs on much slower machines, Netscape is still fighting the uphill battle it began back when they were still calling it Netscape 5.

Under Linux: Quick smooth and clean. The obvious bias of Open Source programmers is towards the un-cola of OSes. Unfortunately what is a "good for them"--for having done a splendid job on the Linux code--may not be a "good for you" to Netscape.

Although, admittedly, these are still "preview" and "alpha" releases, this is getting old. Netscape 5 was long overdue a year ago, and the shoddiness of current preview releases is not showing much promise. Build M15 was a stronger build than M16/Preview Release 1, and while there have been many improvement on the latest build, it still leaves a great deal more to be desired. DeBugging , it would seem, has taken a back road to simply releasing yet another Preview release, as widely reported bugs in the rendering engine still persist, even from some of the earliest builds. For all it's promise, Netscape 6 is quickly becoming a mini-java. All the promise, just none of the follow through.

Then again, I may be just bitter that end up using IE more and more these days and using Microsoft tools for anything gives me a rash.

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would you mind if I stalked you?

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 862

how does this incarnation of netscape handle table rendering?

the previous ones were pathetic. in the case where there is multiple nesting of tables, it downloads the page and sits at "done" for sometimes at least a minute while trying to figure out the table structure. that alone is why i wouldn't consider using netscape over IE, especially when my current job is HEAVY nested tables.



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d0n't click this link!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Erehwon
Posts: 7537

The email i sent sp00ky a second ago - before he posted

> Your wring about ie mate. This renders pages faster than IE and faster
> than any of the nightly builds of mozilla I have tried.

IE is pretty damn fast at it mate - especcially if you do the registry hack
thati have done at home

It handles
> passwords better than IE, stores them independent of cookies and
> encrypts them if you choose.

I dont save passwords on webpages

> It allows you far greater control over
> browser search facilities. If I am right in remebering that IE requires
> a registry hack to change the default search engine, this does not.

ever seen me use the default search engine?

> Messenger has a built in spell check, IE and OLX do not.

I can spell - and if i can't idont care - its only email

> History
> management is better in this than anything I have seen from IE.

I've never found a use for the history either, bar the list in the address
bar

> It has
> options to control wheel mouses (not that I use it).

ditto - its nice to have it as a third button for back though - not hard to
do with the right softwareon windows

>I think that when
> the final release comes out it will be a serious match for IE. Although
> I except that it does not have the OS integhration that you love so much.

It is a match for ie - it always has been - its just not what i prefer - i
like the desktop integration - and that aint gonna happen with NS.

My comment was regarding the customisation - IE is ridiculously easy to
customise, while NS traditionally hasn't. The only thing i want to change
in IE is the icon set... and i am looking for a hack to do that now


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a /\/\ i n a l

"KRACKK! goes the hymen"

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

rather than emailing you I will put it here aminal. The mozilla engine beneath netscape is proven in independent tests to be faster at rendering webpages than IE. Fact. Results can be found at Mozilla's website and at ZDnet. I know you can do aregistry hacks to make IE faster but not everyone wants to and that is the real issue.


As for passwords I know that may not be for you, but it is for alot of people. The point is that the mozilla project have taken all the good elements of IE and intergrated them into mozilla along with adding extra, more intuitative features to the entire communicator package. Also it is now possible to change the size and position of the buttons, just like in IE


In the past netscape has been a bit of a pig, but the project now is feature rich in comparison to IE.


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sp00ky
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'If you ask me we're all heterosexual by default, not by decision. It's just a question of who you fancy. It's all about aesthetics and it's fuck all to do with morality' Renton

[This message has been edited by Spooky (edited 10-09-2000).]

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

give me a site with shit loads of tables and I will check for you

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sp00ky
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'If you ask me we're all heterosexual by default, not by decision. It's just a question of who you fancy. It's all about aesthetics and it's fuck all to do with morality' Renton

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 862

there's a bunch on sites at work - i'll post a URL or 2 tomorrow when i'm there...

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 862

bah...i forgot that i fixed the damn page i was going to post as a test so that it's no longer nested tables...damnit!

when I come across another (a lot of our stuff is damn old) i'll post a link.



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d0n't click this link! (but be sure to tell your friends about it!)

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