Netscape to rise from dead?

[Nny]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115723,00.asp

Interesting... Not sure if we'll see a Mac client. While Mozilla 1.7, the underlying code for Netscape, is available for Mac, the current beta of the desktop widget is only for Windows. Anyone here still use Netscape? Any interest in development of an updated client? Just curious.

 

[ltgator333]

Yeah I use netscape 7.1 on a normal basis- I use it because the "main machine" in the house is trapped at OS X 10.1.5 so no Safari and IE 5.2.whatever is really.. not all that. It is a bit of a CPU/memory hog but once it gets going it seems to feel faster than IE at least. The page loading speed seems about similar to Safari on Jaguar, and it has the tabbed browsing which is a must-have really. The GUI for it isn't bad, and the buttons.. I use the classic style because I don't need the pretty and I liked the way Netscape 4.x looked anyway. The default style I wouldn't know how that performs, but the classic is pretty snappy, once the program is loaded and it's not doing anything big. The big gripe I have with it though is it's still not a complete package- I still have IE on the machine and I really need it in some situations, one glaring example is Yahoo games. Netscape 7.1 just wont do it, never checked into why.

 

[MisterMe]

Yeah I use netscape 7.1 on a normal basis- I use it because the "main machine" in the house is trapped at OS X 10.1.5 so no Safari and IE 5.2.whatever is really.. not all that. It is a bit of a CPU/memory hog but once it gets going it seems to feel faster than IE at least. The page loading speed seems about similar to Safari on Jaguar, and it has the tabbed browsing which is a must-have really. The GUI for it isn't bad, and the buttons.. I use the classic style because I don't need the pretty and I liked the way Netscape 4.x looked anyway. The default style I wouldn't know how that performs, but the classic is pretty snappy, once the program is loaded and it's not doing anything big.

I have last yesterday's nightly build of Mozilla 1.7, Netscape 7.1, and just about every other browser for MacOS X 10.3.3. Let me start off by saying that Classic is a theme. There is nothing in the Classic theme that will affect the performance of Mozilla/Netscape for either good or bad compared to any other theme. Mozilla 1.7 should be an improvement over Netscape 7.1 because the code base is newer. Netscape 7.1, on the other hand, has some features that were never added to Mozilla. Even though Netscape is based on a older version of Mozilla, I have never seen a web site that it could not handle if Mozilla can. As for performance differences, I just don't see it. If you can measure the differences in rendering speeds between the two, then you probably have wa-a-a-ay too much free time on your hands.

The big gripe I have with it though is it's still not a complete package- I still have IE on the machine and I really need it in some situations, one glaring example is Yahoo games. Netscape 7.1 just wont do it, never checked into why.

"... not a complete package"? If anything Mozilla is bloatware. That is why Mozilla.org is now developing Firefox, Thunderbird, and other focused applications. I think that what you mean is that Mozilla can't render certain sites that use proprietary IE features. I don't see that as being Mozilla's failing. However, I just went over to Yahoo and tried out Solitaire. The first thing that I noticed is that certain Yahoo games are explicitly declared to be incompatible with the Macintosh. However, I was able to play Klondike Solitaire with no problems. I played it using Netscape 7.1. I played it using Camino. Both seem to work. I see no difference.

 

[Nny]

Yeah I use netscape 7.1 on a normal basis- I use it because the "main machine" in the house is trapped at OS X 10.1.5

Awww.... don't feel trapped. If money is your concern you can pick up Jaguar updated CDs at Macsales.com for $30 now that everyone is buying Panther. Wait until 10.4 comes out and you should be able to find good deals on Panther too.

 

[Skeeball236]

................. Wait until 10.4 comes out and you should be able to find good deals on Panther too.

Stop telling all of my plans to the whole internet!.....

 

[Sparky's]

I'm using Mail and Safari with Jaguar but my wife still insists on using Netscape 7.1. Since she began using it when we had OS 8.6 and she used Netscape at work on her PC, it made sense to her to keep using it. I switched because I hated it after a while. But as an all-in-one mail client and web browser, it wasn't too bad.

 

[ltgator333]

It won't do yahoo pool, plain and simple. as for the perfomance issue, go ahead and launch safari and then launch netscape 7.1, the difference in time from *click* to home page is notacable. Also, while running both apps and having them just sit idle, open the terminal and fire up top and notice the differences in memory and CPU usage.. I've never even done this but I'd bet that Netscape uses much more resources. Minor gripe for most users, but if your me running 2-5 apps at once to cruise the web.....
Now when your done BBQing me, I'm using the program right now and am aware of the alternatives to it, but this suits me just fine.

 

[MisterMe]

It won't do yahoo pool, plain and simple. as for the perfomance issue, go ahead and launch safari and then launch netscape 7.1, the difference in time from *click* to home page is notacable. Also, while running both apps and having them just sit idle, open the terminal and fire up top and notice the differences in memory and CPU usage.. I've never even done this but I'd bet that Netscape uses much more resources....

Just tried it. You would lose the bet. Both Safari and Netscape 7.1 use about 30% CPU each to download porn from one of my favorite sites. top itself uses about half that.

 

[Nny]

Just tried it. You would lose the bet. Both Safari and Netscape 7.1 use about 30% CPU each to download porn from one of my favorite sites. top itself uses about half that.

Hmmm.... better give us a URL... I think we need to test this on muliple computers... for the sake of accuracy.... *wink-wink*, *nudge-nudge*

 

[ltgator333]

yahoo pool.. don't work to my knowledge.. any thoughts why?