Maccentral is running an interesting article about the devel of Netscape 5 for the Macintosh. After making IE the default browser on Macs, Netscape obviously had some lost ground to cover. But apparently based partly on the Open Source evangelizing of Mozilla, Netscape was able to get them to come around. Things went so well that Apple is even donating some of the code: ColorSync, Key Chain support, and NSL. The story features the requiste talk about NGLayout as well, for those interested. Check out the actual story for more information.

Dr. Crane writes "There has been a lot of talk on bugtraq lately about the security implications of Netscape's new smart browsing feature. Dave Winer has some interesting news and opinions here. "

Jeremie Miller writes "I happened across an old disk from 94 that had my very first Netscape browser on it, so I've posted the file along with some cool strings extracted from the binary and screenshots(yes /. does display in a usable way!). Starting it up again is a very nostalgic experience if you were on the Net back in "those days"! "

JPelorat writes "Ya know those stupid motivational posters you see in waiting rooms and other depressing places? I swear, if I see one more platitude about 'Happiness', I'm gonna hit someone. And then I saw these 12 replacements. Much better than the real ones. Hang one of these on your cube and enlighten your co-workers... " Those are quite amusing. I need a really expensive color printer now so I can make some posters. Course I don't have a cubicle, but my sofa will look nice.

Pierce writes " This is a few days old, but I don't remember it making an appearance... "Software drivers for American Megatrends MegaRAID(R) controllers are now available for the latest release of the Red Hat Linux operating system, version 5.2." "

Those of you who've poked around with Netscape 4.5 have noticed that wacky little What's Related button on the location bar. (yeah, there's some controversy about that too, but thats not what this is about). Did ya know its actually an XML App? Check out this Davenet article where you can see the truth. It's pretty cool. Thanks to Archimedes for sending this our way.

It's all fun and games out here at ALS, hopefully I can sit down now and actually get the summary out before either netscape crashes again, or something else occurs that forces me to leave the safe haven that is the Slash/Themes/Meat booth. Hit the link and read the deal...

Netscape has acknowledged a bug present in the Unix version of Navigator from version 3.0 to 4.5. News.com has the story. It's a security exploit involving browser plug-ins. Kind of makes me feel safer knowing I don't use plug-ins. A patch is in the works.

Alec Flett writes "The unix bits for Communicator 4.5 just hit the wire. You'll find them on the first 12 ftp sites (ftp2.netscape.com through ftp13.netscape.com) right now, and higher mirrors over the weekend. Many thanks to all the rocksolid people and slashdot readers who have given some fantastic feedback! And what a better way to say thanks than to deliver a new Linux port: SparcLinux! It's untested, but it works! (and yes, other Linux ports are in the works) "

Zdnet is reporting a study by Zona Research Inc that shows Netscape's dominance of the corporate market increasing, to lead IE by 60% to 40%. Moreover 84% of IE users in companies must do so due to company policy. This is good news for Netscape, which makes its revenues off server software for companies: more browser recognition and usage decrease the hurdles it faces to sell its server software for which its browser is optimised. However the results are bad for other browsers: for the first time since 1996 all the companies surveyed use either IE or Netscape. Thanks to Linux Today for the link.

Jon Ellis Writes in asking for assistance on this issue: "I'm looking for help getting japanese input working (well) under Linux. The app that matters most is Netscape (browser and mail), and in case someone suggests it MULE and Cut & Paste won't cut it ;)"

ian ehrenwald needs some assistance with this problem: "Can someone help me out with getting a Canon BJC620 to work in Linux and with ghostscript correctly? I have RTFM over and over and compiled this in and that in and with this option and with that option. Nada. I use Staroffice 4.0 and when I try to print stuff just to the normal lpr I get the postscript codes. I am guessing this is because my printer isnt PS friendly. So can anyone reccomend a way to get this BJC620 working with ghostscript so I can print from Staroffice or Netscape or any program that uses PS?"

Kanoot writes "I got the following message from a StarOffice representative this morning... "The beta testing of StarOffice PreFinal has been closed and generated very useful input for the Final version. As StarOffice 5.0 will ship very soon we have discontinued shipping out the PreFinal. The StarOffice 5.0 for Linux is scheduled for release beginning of November." "

According to ZDNET Netscape might not include Sun's JVM on it's Mozilla browser which it's beta is coming soon. Since the OJI (Open Java Interface) is already in the browser source code, anybody would be able to point he's web site to use any JVM available (including the crappy MS one's). Do I smell Kaffe implementation? Jikes maybe? :)

frokost writes "After searching for "Linus Torvalds" on AltaVistas Photo Finder, I ended up with links to several pictures of, well.. Linus Torvalds. I clicked a "Visually Similar"-link, and ended up with this page. It seems like Bill and Linus aren't that different after all ;-) " Someone whose name got lost by my Netscape 4.04 crashing again came across this support incident today. And finally, the denizens of Castle Slashdot are slowly recovering after an angry peasant mob stormed their home by surprise yesterday.

just testing wrote to tell us of a leaked Microsoft memo which proudly announces that Microsoft is at its most powerful ever. However it admits failings in the useability department (Uninstallers are very popular in WinLand) and suggests enforcing certain standards on third party software (somewhat like Apple did I believe). It also names IBM, Oracle, Sun, Netscape as its enemies, but neither the DOJ nor Linux. Finally -- run for cover! -- Bill is starting to code again.

Magus311X writes " Even during the usual marketing of Windows 98 and how to effectively nuke your system resources using it, Linux once again is mentioned! The wonder OS was featured on Computer Chronicles with a cool segment featuring Linus Torvalds over national cable access. Linus bashes the OS market by claiming that all the OS's "Just... suck." and self-proclaimed himself as "the best programmer in the world". The show also included snippets of the ever-glorious "Slashdot.org" using Netscape 4.5, as well as The Gimp, KDE. It also featured VA Research, and that they make custom Linux boxen. (Mooo!) So, thanks to WGBH 44 and all the other cable access channels that featured Computer Chronicles, for showing the world "The growing alternative to the Windows platform". The show usually reruns the following Saturday, so tune in on 10-17-98 for some Linux action. And check out the Computer Chronicles website"

arielb wrote in to plug a website that will focus on Mozilla Skins. Wayne Schlitt wrote in to send us a link to a page of spoofs on O'Reilly books. Features "How to pronounce Linux", "Practical cp", and "Managing ls". BOredAtWork wrote in to tell us about a new site called Linux Game Breeding. The site aims to focus on creating new games. Finally someone from linuxpower.org wrote in to announce the opening of their site. The site will feature documention, tutorials etc. to help everyone coax more out of their Linux boxes.

Lisa wrote in to tell us about a report in Wired that Microsoft has been denied the use of tapes of Netscape executives used as book research by two professors. You can also read another report about it at news.com as well.

Kanoot wrote in to send us a link to a techweb article that talks about Satellites getting ready for a meteor shower. Says that opinion is divided- this could either be no big deal, or it could knock down communications all over the world.