On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, Paul Sims wrote:
OK - thread starting here - Is Netscape *better* than IE ?
Here's my take on it: Netscape as such is dead at 4.7. It is comparatively slow, comparatively clumsy, comparatively crash-prone, but highly compatible. And it has a few security holes. (The open-source Netscape 5 is covered below under Mozilla.) IE is ongoing. It is comparatively fast, flexible (much better fundamental design than Netscape), and stable. But everything *else* running on the same system is crash-prone so long as IE is running, it has a *lot* of security holes, and MS is in the habit of including in it unannounced OS changes that are not backward compatible and can't be uninstalled. (Which, oddly, never break the most current prior release of MS software. On the other hand, they *have* broken custom software written with the most current prior release of MS development tools.) Mozilla, the open-source Netscape Navigator project, should *not* be considered as the next version of Netscape. Both the object model and the HTML rendering engine have been thrown out and replaced. That's equivalent to an auto mechanic replacing the engine, transmission, drive train, and wheels, plus the instrument panel and controls. Unfortunately Mozilla is still in alpha testing, and needs to be. I looked briefly at Opera for Windows. Externally it looked like an old version of Netscape, except they had ripped out all the user-interface features I like best about Netscape and replaced them with something more like the IE version. Also it did not at that time support Java, and three of the first four sites I went to needed Java support. Can't comment on internals, later versions, or Linux version. I haven't looked at any others yet, except for the KDE browser. I'm looking around a bit now and then trying to change the KDE mail program (which I like) and file browser to use Netscape as the web browser, which should tell you how much I like the KDE browser. -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/