AOL to Release Netscape 7.2 Based on Mozilla 1.7

securitas writes "ZDNet's Evan Hansen reports that AOL will release Netscape Navigator 7.2 based on Mozilla 1.7 code this summer. The update comes a year after version 7.1 and after Microsoft stopped standalone development in Internet Explorer. eWEEK's Matt Hicks offers analysis of the new Netscape release, citing studies that say while Microsoft has a 93.9% browser market share and 87% of business users use IE, 25% still use Netscape and 11% use Opera -- the math works because people use multiple browsers. Hicks asks the question 'Is the Netscape Browser Being Reborn or Just Stabilized?' Hicks interviews several people in the know including a former Netscape engineer, an industry analyst, and Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner."

Re:Of course

[Zareste]

I'm not sure where Netscape's strong-points are, but on a Mac (though things might be entirely different on Windows or others), it's one of the slowest browsers you can get, while IE for Mac goes much faster, and of course, Safari blazes past both of them with its RAM-based architecture (it doesn't waste time caching much of the web page to disk).

Although I've found IE for Windows to be incredibly slow with Javascript. I guess it's the plug-in use that determine most of the speed.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[sql*kitten]

haven't bother to check has IE included that option yet

Allegedly it will be in XP SP2, released in the summer.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[sonicattack]

Every once in a while, you have to wipe a Windows machine, for whatever reason (usually, because the registry is so bloated with crap, it's easier to start over fresh.) At work we just finished doing just that - installing a fresh copy of Win2K (patches galore to get it from SP2 to SP4, joy...) The first thing I did (after installing a firewall, antivirus software, THEN jacking the machine into the network to download updates) was to install Firefox and set it as the default browser. Then, just for good measure, I hid IE (you can't remove Explorer, but there is an option to hide the toolbar icon and desktop shortcuts.)

If this is a recurring task for you, I'd recommend using some partitioning imaging software to make a snapshot of the completed state of the installation, after service packs, extra patches, hiding the IE icons :), and other stuff. A reinstall is much simpler then, since it is just a question of restoring the partition image.

I bet there is some free Windows-equivalent of the "partimage" software out there.

Re:Will real browser gain market?

[Trailwalker]

WebTv is still around as MSNTv. It is a profitable division of Microsoft. They are now beta testing a broadband version of MSNTv. This will eliminate one of the real problems with the appliance. The new units have many long desired feature such as USB support, etc.

MSNTv is the ideal way to access the net for the totally inept. No virus or worms to worry about. While not everything that a PC will do can be done with MSNTv, surfing and email are easily done.

Most WebTv owners believed and still do believe that development of WebTv suffered greatly after its acquisition by Microsoft. Being assigned to the MSN division was another blow.

Re:Why?

[byolinux]

I remember them as a browser company I'm 22. I just asked a 15 year old, they remember them as abrowser company.

I think you're underestimating the memories of people, perhaps. Either way, 'netscape' is a name people know; whether it's Coke or New Coke.

Boycott Coke! [colombiaso...ity.org.uk]

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been implemented in Service Pack 2, and is ON by DEFAULT!

Check out the RC's of SP2, it works perfectly.

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[RoLi]

But honestly if I'm running windows, what real motiviation is there to download a replacement browser when IE is already installed, and works? I can't be mad at any secretary 'cause she uses IE instead of Mozilla/Netscape. Of course of political reasons she shouldn't, but practically?

• Mozilla is using HTTP 1.1 pipelining which is faster for sites with lots of images, especially noticable over dialup
• Tabs
• No security holes
• Numerous extensions that make life easier

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Seumas]

But honestly if I'm running windows, what real motiviation is there to download a replacement browser when IE is already installed, and works?

* I like having a pop-up blocker.
* I like the regex-based content filtering of the adblock extension which eliminates almost all advertising, including flash animation.
* I like tabbed browsing.
* I like fast rendering.
* I like the advanced bookmark, history and cookie handling.
* I like the CTRL+K google search tab (which is also expandable to other engines) in Firefox.
* I like the livehttpheaders plugin that lets me see the http header content for debugging stuff.
* I like the web developer extension with all the useful tools.
* I like the "open this page in MSIE" extension that lets me quickly launch MS-proprietary coded crap-pages in IE that won't render right in Mozilla.
* I like not having to worry about Active-X and other security concerns.
* I like mouse gestures.
* I like the reloadevery extension that lets me set a tab's page to reload at whatever interval I want (great for slashdot and other forums as well as the drudgereports.com news site!).
* I like the better CSS support and ability to customize CSS from my end-user side.

Those are just things that came off the top of my head. Notice that almost all of them are with regard to the end-user experience and not my "I'm a web designer (because I'm not) and prefer Mozilla and wish all my visitors used it". And I won't even get into all the wonderful reasons to install Thunderbird as an email client.

I'm not sure why Microsoft would even want to stay in the browser business anymore. There was a time where the leverage was useful but it seems like it might be time to close-up shop on the MSIE development group and just start bundling Mozilla with the operating system as the default browser. This pushes the bad publicity of security issues off of them partially and gives them a world-class web browser while saving the cost of having a huge development team of their own.

I understand the point of Microsoft pushing MSIE in 1999, but I don't see those same reasons today.

Re:Browser stats

[Jugalator]

Your site is a niche site.

Let's see what a site that's visited by a broader audience (with a site that *do* work for all modern browers) tell?

- Browsers used to visit Google, April 2004 [google.com]
- Operating systems used to visit Google, April 2004 [google.com]

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera had popup blocking first, you are correct. But back then Opera's blocker was "stupid" - it blocked ALL popups, whereas Mozilla had the first intelligent blocker that stopped _unrequested_ popups. And then there is Lynx <g>

I'm not entirely sure about tabbed browsing. Opera was the first to ship it as a standard feature, but some claim Mozilla had a tabs-extension before that (multizilla). But who knows (or cares) which came first, both have it now and we love them for it.

Re:Browser stats

[lone_marauder]

My site's primary audience is users of Orbiter space flight simulator, which only runs on Windows. IE accounts for only about 87% of the browsers being used to reach the site. I've also noticed that IE's "market share" has been steadily declining over the past year or so. Whatever the absolute numbers, that trend is of considerable interest.

Just Switched to Firefox

[av8tors32]

Yes I admit it. I one of those people who has always just used IE because it was there. Not even tabbed browsing got my attention. So what made me change?

I just got a new laptop with one of those wide screens. With the resolution set to 1920x1200 (recommended) IE just does not render correctly. Websites with graphics just look like hell in IE at this resolution. I installed Firefox and the sites look great.

Do I have something set wrong in IE or is this just one of the many short comings?

Re:Why replace the default browser?

[argent]

Because IE is a big security hole, a lousy browser, and easily infected with all kinds of spyware.

Remember Netscape Smart Download [grc.com] phoning home with all your download traffic? Don't bother with Netscape's latest version, stick with Mozilla or Firefox.

Re:Of course

[BZ]

There are security checks in Gecko that prevent doing exactly this sort of thing from an http:// page. Did you even bother testing your HTML snippet before posting? It doesn't work in HTML that doesn't live in a file:// URL already.