Jewish World Review March 18, 2005 / 7 Adar II 5765
Netscape Ups Browser Ante, But Only for Windows Users
By Mark Kellner
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
According to the April issue of Maximum PC magazine
(http://www.maximumpc.com), Microsoft Corp. is readying the release of
Internet Explorer 7, available to users whose Windows XP is modified by
Microsoft's "Service Pack 2," the somewhat controversial upgrade released
last year. (Some people like the way SP2 has worked; others reported serious
problems. I've upgraded a couple of PCs with SP2 and had no hassles so
far.)
But until then and there's no official release date from Microsoft
what's a Windows user to do? There's been much talk about Firefox, the free,
open-source Web browser that avoids many of the security hassles of IE
(http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/central.html). A couple of weeks
ago, Opera 8's Beta version for Windows bowed, and it's also quite nice
(http://www.opera.com).
In suburban Dulles, Virginia, however, there's a new rival to IE which,
oddly, co-opts a bit of the Microsoft program. It's something worth
examining and it's called...Netscape.
Yes, Netscape, the once-dominant Web browser invented by Marc Andreesen and
a team of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers some 12
years ago. Yes, the Netscape that sold for around $50 a copy,
once-upon-a-time. Yes, the Netscape that lost precipitous market share to
Microsoft when the latter created IE and bundled it with the Windows
operating system. Yes, that Netscape.
The new version (http://www.netscape.com) is only available for Windows and
it's built on elements of Mozilla/Firefox, which is developed independently
of Netscape owner America Online. But because of historic links between
Mozilla and Netscape AOL provided startup funding and advice to the
non-profit Mozilla Foundation it made sense to start with this basic
browser.
Among the extra features (and why the product is only available for Windows
right now) is the ability to use the "rendering engine" from Internet
Explorer to display certain Web pages. There are a number of Web sites a
relatively small number versus the billions of Internet sites around the
world, but significant nonetheless that will only display properly using
IE. If you end up at one of these, and if you trust the site in question,
you can click on a button in the display window's tab and use that IE
feature.
What this gives Windows users is the ultimate in flexibility and security.
If you visit a Web site that would attempt to exploit some of the "ActiveX"
(stet) controls and other features of IE to plant "spyware" or other items
on your PC, AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said last week, Netscape 8 will
warn you. Some ActiveX controls might be acceptable, but this program will
try to stop them.
While enhanced security is a positive factor in a Web browser, it's far from
the only feature that commends Netscape 8 to end-users. There's a
top-of-the-screen "control center" that reminds me of an automobile dash
console: you can see Web addresses, easily search the Internet, see a scroll
of news headlines, check Web-based or other e-mail accounts, and catch up on
the local weather, along with controls to print pages, erase your visit
history and store passwords.
There's a pop-up blocker, of course, and also standard forward, back,
navigation and page reload controls. You can also create "trays" of
important or often-used Web sites, accessible with the click of a single
button. All these controls seem natural and aren't ominous in any way; using
them seemed easy and intuitive.
There's also a new "Netscape Netcenter" (stet) home page
(http://netcenter.netscape.com/netcenter/) that can be viewed with any
browser that runs a Macromedia Flash plugin. Created totally in Flash, the
Netcenter page is a "portal" to news and information on the Web, largely
from CNN, Time-Life magazines and other properties of Time Warner, AOL's
owner. It's an improvement, I believe, over the current Netcenter page and
for those with broadband access, it offers a lot of information in an
easy-to-handle form.
Bottom line: whether it's the new Netscape browser, or the Netcenter home
page, there's a lot of life left in the Netscape brand. Now, guys, get that
browser ready for Mac users, won't you? Thanks.
Find this column useful? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.
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