First Peek at Netscape Navigator 9

lisah writes "Netscape released a beta version of Navigator 9 (Linux.com shares corporate overlordship with Slashdot) today that includes several new components while giving some old ones the boot. This release will no longer ship with mail or composer but does have URL correction, a pre-populated RSS feed menu, and a neat clipboard in the browser's sidebar that will hold links to websites you want to visit again but not necessarily bookmark."

Netscape eh?

[scott.crooks]

I may be a little out of the loop, but I'm surprised that Netscape is still around. I thought the Microsoft monopolizing juggernaut that is Internet Explorer wiped out the once famous net browser...guess I was wrong.

What's the point?

[Frosty Piss]

Honestly, I don't mean this as a troll, but does anyone use Netscape? Even AOL doesn't use Netscape. What's the point?

Version 7 was nice, 8 not so..

[GreggBz]

Netscape 7 really was a nice browser. I can't fault it. It was fast, stable and lean. I actually think it was more stable then Firefox. Just make sure you don't install all that junk that came with it. I used 7.2 on Linux until about 1 year ago. Unfortunately, it became pretty antiquated and started rendering some pages wrong, handling things like google video not very well. Firefox eventually became the better option for me. Now version 8 was horrible. It lasted about 5 minutes on my Windows laptop. This version looks promising. After a brief spin, I like it. Not that it has so many great advantages or anything, but curiosity usually encourages me to change around because things get boring. I think everyone is really starting to get the browser right and refined. I like all the new ones, IE7, Opera and Mozilla. The competition is helping keep quality in check.

Dead? Appropriate terminology...

[Kelson]

JWZ, of original Netscape, famously referred to AOL's continual efforts to slap the "Netscape" name on something, anything -- a browser variant, a portal, a low-cost internet connection, whatever -- as "brand necrophilia" [livejournal.com].

Re:How well does it work with Napster?

[Kelson]

Believe it or not, at one point AOL actually had a low-cost connection service that they branded as "Netscape." They were convinced that they should be able to get something out of the brand name, even if they were practically ignoring the browser and didn't own the server (IIRC, Netscape sold their server division to Sun before AOL bought them), so they were slapping it on anything they could think of.

I'm not convinced netscape is dead

[catbutt]

I think Netscape lives on in Firefox and other Gecko based browsers (of which the one currently called "Netscape" is just one). It's just a name change.

Sure, there was a complete rewrite from the original netscape, but at least initially, that was mostly done by employees of netscape (well, the netscape division of AOL).

People get too hung up on the names, in my opinion. If Firefox was just called "Netscape The Next Generation" and this thing was just called "AOL's branded version of Netscape TNG", the only real difference between today would be that no one could claim that Netscape was dead.

Re:Netscape eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought the Microsoft monopolizing juggernaut that is Internet Explorer wiped out the once famous net browser...guess I was wrong.

Err.. Firefox pretty much is Netscape, isn't it? Maybe there's no code left from the original open sourced Netscape anymore, but still - Mozilla Browser was based on Netscape, and Firefox is based on Mozilla. So Firefox is a heavily forked/rewritten Netscape, right?

Or maybe I'm just an idiot.

Re:Still a good thing

[hollywoodb]

Actually I've been playing with this "new" Netscape Navigator for a few hours now. I really like it; I think the theme is pleasant, and some of the features are "why didn't I think of that" type stuff I actually find myself using instead of disabling. I'm sure most if what it offers could be replicated via FF+extensions, but it is also nice to have it all in one package.

I'm going to give this browser an honest run. For me, like many people (from what I hear), FF 2.0 wasn't a big step in the right direction from FF 1.5. Navigator 9.0b really offers some neat functionality and I have yet to find any big showstoppers or extra cruft. In my mind, what FF 2.0 should have been if they were going to add features to FF 1.5.

Release Notes are here: http://browser.netscape.com/releasenotes/ [netscape.com]

Re:Firefox with a Netscape toolbar

[MindStalker]

Most companies swore off Netscape 6-8 which caused horrible problems. Unless their jumping from Netscape 4 to Netscape 9 I doubt the company line of "Netscape is the way to go" still exist.

On the topic of why they are still releasing it, personally I think its just about portal integration now. There are still many Netscape ISP users, and some Netscape portal users. This browser if perfect for those folks. Otherwise, its pretty pointless.