Netscape Releases New Beta
January 6th, 2009 - ccbilllog.com - editAvailable via free download, Preview Release 2 is a follow-up to the first release, launched in April. That version first showcased Netscape's small, open source Gecko engine, which the company licensed from mozilla.org.
Among the new tricks in the latest beta are "Themes," which allow users to change the look of the browser by applying different combinations of design elements or "skins." With this tool, businesses may create and distribute custom versions of the new browser with their own branding.
Also included is a new, encrypted password manager that builds on the privacy and security offerings of cookie manager and offers users the convenience of protecting passwords, and revised My Sidebar features, including My Sidebar Central and My Sidebar Directory.
The new directory features tabs from new tabs from: Real.com Guide, SportsLine.com and Digital City, among others.
Netscape Senior Vice President and General Manager Jim Martin said the release was the America Online Inc. subsidiary's latest step in its aggressive browser campaign.
"Built on the open source code, Netscape 6 continues to fulfill its promise to deliver a browser that is smaller and faster, offers a complete communications package, leads the industry in standards compliance and can run across a wide variety of platforms, from traditional desktop PCs to new computing devices," said Martin.
Martin expressed confidence that the final version of the browser, released this fall, would be a driving, innovative tool for consumers and developers.
But some industry observers aren't so sure this will happen. Upon testing the first version, Andrew Starling, editor of internet.com's Web Developer's Journal wrote it was fitting that Netscape's revamped browser is the Gecko engine because of the slew of bugs he found in the first preview version.
"Its font handling is poor, it can't keep track of its own URL history, it gave my CPU palpitations, and of course it's liable to crash," Starling said, pulling no punches. "It rejects good Java, and as for its DHTML handling - well, I haven't quite figured that one out yet."
Starling also said the only reason Netscape would get away with its new product was because of its brand -- coupled with the fact that many people do not like Microsoft Corp. these days.
Indeed, one developer who encountered a problem with Netscape 6 sounded off Monday on Web Developer.com's discussion forum.
"I'm in the process of putting up a site here that is split into a top and a bottom frame," said the developer who goes by the name Shadow. "Everything showed up great in both browsers, until I put in some simple javascript mouseovers into both frames. Now, it only opens in IE, but in Netscape I just get a big blank space at the top. That is definitely not what I had in mind!"
It's quotes such as these that prompt Cameron Barrett, of Alphanumerica.com to write the following on his Web page:
"Netscape went ahead and released Netscape 6 PR2 today, well before it's ready for primetime, especially the Mac version. I've said as much to several people privately since I've had access to PR2 nightly builds for a couple of weeks now. Why Netscape keeps issuing pre-beta software, and then getting slammed by their users for it being so slow and buggy, is beyond me. At this point the Mac version of Mozilla (M17) is faster than Netscape 6 PR2 [discussion], and since .jar support for Mozilla just landed in the M18 nightlies, I expect a substantial speed increase. The point we all need to take from this is that Mozilla is not Netscape, despite the shared codebase."
David Boswell, new technology producer at Alphanumerica.com, said he doesn't really think the preview deserves the bashing it has taken at the hands of developers.
"I have a different persepctive," Boswell said. "Most of the complaints are being lodged by those using it on the Mac; I use it on Unix and it screams. But it's the open source development software that gets the most press. If I was using IE 6 three or four months before the final is released I'm sure Id be seeing my share of bugs."
If problems snowball for Preview Release 2, and people turn viciously on
Netscape, Martin's assertion this week in an interview with siliconvalley.internet.com that he did not want to
be in a browser war might be a gross understatement.
#If you have any other info about this subject , Please add it free.# |
