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Netscape 6.0 Released
Dave writes: "The first non-beta release of Netscape 6.0 has made its way onto the Netscape FTP server. The Windows, Linux and Mac versions are currently available. The version in the directory pointed to is a network installer. If you want to download all the files in one go then go into the 'sea' directory. However, for a more cutting edge browser then grab the latest nightly builds from Mozilla.org, the Mozillazine builds page tells you which nightly builds are worth downloading." And Mozilla doesn't draw the same standards-compliance critiques as Netscape 6.0 does, either.
Yeah, I've been using M18 (or nightly builds of it, actually) as my primary browser on Linux for a while now. It still doesn't have https support so I have to use Njetscape 4.7 to access ecommerce sites, but that's about the only thing I still use NS for.
Assumming you are running on either Windows, Solaris or Linux, you can 'Install PSM' from the 'Debug' Menu at the top of the screen. Scroll down the web page and click the appropriate button for your OS (or load the package in manually for Solaris). If all goes well, you should see the package load in and your should get a successful XPInstall message. It would be nice to see some more OS's supported - at least MacOS is pending and a BSD-compatible version and some for other Unix platforms and architectures would be nice. Maybe there is room for an OpenSource PSM project.
PSM is good enough that I've successfully ordered plane tickets using it, and can quite comfortably browse Sourceforge in SSL mode.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
>
> Clarence (Andreas M. Schneider) wrote:
>
[
> > Clarence wrote:
> > > ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/
]
> > Now "Permission denied" (before my download was complete).
>
> It took me several attempts, but at about 12:20 AM, I was able to grab
> all the components and install.
Be careful. We have not announced the product yet, and typically pre-push
various candidate builds just to test out the distribution mechanism and
site. What you got may not end up being the final bits.
I recommend that when the final bits are actually released you should
compare the date stamp in your user agent with someone who did download the
final bits and make sure they are the same. If they differ I'd recommend
re-installing the real release because the fixes we've accepted in the past
week have been really serious ones (security exploits and things of about
that level).
-Dan Veditz
(Dan works at NS)
--
The shareholder is always right.
And not just cutting edge - at the rate it's going, Mozilla is going to have more features than any application on earth, let alone any browser.
I wonder if it'll ever get out of beta!
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
From what I have seen, the newest string of Netscape software is still slower than its predecessor and less stable - despite definitely making improvements over the last few weeks. I wonder if the program is really ready to lose the beta tag, especially with widespread distribution of the Windows version to a public with high expectations. ISP's may be forced into doing tech support for a Netscape package that isn't fully ready for the average consumer's daily use.
Read your /.
...or the mozilla site:
Mozilla.org Posts New Roadmap
mozilla development roadmap
--
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
I've been using the preview releases of NS6 for some time, and I've never been hugely impressed. Sure, theres all the usual standards (non)compliance issues, and theres that 'its-not-IE' look to it (could be a bonus if you're anti-MS). But what has killed Netscape for me is the lack of innovation.
Back in the old days of Version 3 browsers there was real difference between the options. IE was headed toward DHTML, and NS was going down the road of JavaScript. People complained bitterly about their sites not working on one browser or another, but they also managed to come up with some really cracking stuff.
These days theres little real innovation. If MS or NS come up with something cool that the other doen't support it gets labelled as 'proprietary'. And we never use 'proprietary' things because they're 'non-standard'. Its all well and good having the exact same standard XML parser, the exact same DHTML support, and the exact same JavaScript command set, but then you end up with two exact same browsers.
Standards are fantastic for the essentials. HTML made the WWW what it is today. But standards can often get in the way of the cool stuff.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
Yes, the-nastily-bundled-with-windows-IE could be replaced with Netscape, but the problem is that people dont ever upgrade their software.
If AOL users get Netscape installed when they install the other AOL stuff they wont change it, ever, or until the next AOL CD comes in the mail.
If anyone here went through ftp1-29.netscape.com you would find that /pub/netscape6/english is cut off. If you go to ftp30+ you will find that there are three directories, 6.0/, 6.0_netbiz_edition, & 6_PR3/. Obviously they are not done sending this out to the ftp farm. Wait until morning and download it. I know all of us Linux fans are jonsin' for a new browser but this will have to wait a few more hours =)
That directory has been there for eons... long before the PR releases came out, and it's always had the permissions set to deny anyone. I love how someone sees a directory structure and knee-jerk posts, just to get a submission in...
This is almost as bad as seeing nightly builds with a milestone number in them and then screaming "Mozilla MXX is out!!"
"We obviously need a new moderation category: (-1, Woo-fucking-hoo)" --Mr. AC
I, like a lot of /. readers, dismissed Mozilla after I tried one of the earlier, bulky build and discovered numerous problems. Just recently I have downloaded the latest milestone build M18 (Linux i586) and it is good.
The Mozilla hackers are not kidding when they said the next releases are going to be optimisation only, because Mozilla is ready to go forth and take over the world!
Amongs many goodies in M18: themes are now fully functional, you can choose NOT to install the news/mail/chat clients, memory footprint is more or less the same as Netscape 4.75.
You own it to yourself to at least download the ~8MB binary and give it a try. (You can install the whole thing under a standard account if you don't want to mess with your /usr/local/ :-)
====
Codeala - Just another mindless drone
Well, netscape may have closed it dirs, it has been mirrored allready, for example: /ne tscape/netscape6/english/6.0
ftp://ftp.surfnet.nl/pub
Hmm... sounds like the similar dillusions of one Mr. Gates.
Fact is, I'm on a WinNT box, and I use Netscape (v4.61) almost exclusively. Why 'almost'? Well, the company I work for makes its intranet for IE only, so I have to keep it around. I have tried 3 different versions of IE and all of them do the same thing to varying degrees; they misdraw most frames, outlines around buttons, and outlines around text boxes. These lines appear in random places all over the desktop and won't go away (even after closing IE) until I F5 or "wipe" my screen with a different program. Not everyone has this problem, but I'm not the only one either.
Even if this little bug that makes my screen practically unreadable at times didn't exist, I would probably still use Netscape. It never crashes on me, I prefer the interface, I prefer the 'bookmarks' method rather than the 'favorites' method, and it's not so intertwined with the functioning of the OS.
I realize my experiences are not the same as everyone. That's my point; just because you think IE is better doesn't mean everyone thinks IE is better. Even if most people think IE is better, that still doesn't make you right.
If you really think you know what's best for everyone else, there's a little company in Redmond you might to apply to work at, because they have a similar philosophy.
By the way, on Linux, I used Netscape exclusively until KDE2 came out, now I also use Konquerer.
It looks like Netscape has but the release up on their FTP server but didn't want it for public viewing yet. At the time it was wide open, now they've made it permission denied until they finally release it.
My view of the Linux version - better than previous Netscape previews but the latest Mozilla nightly is still way ahead. I got a few crashes on this release which I've not had with the latest Mozilla's but overall the Netscape release seems OK.
One prob with the Linux version is it still spouts all the messages to stdout/stderr if you run it in an xterm - for a supposedly released product to say things like "we don't support eBorderStyle - please fix me" seems a bit unprofessional. Perhaps they'll fix this in the next few days before they open up their FTP servers again. I sent feedback to them about it on their feedback form, all they need to do is to get their shell script that starts mozilla-bin to redirect all output to /dev/null not exactly a high risk fix.
Anyway sorry for the disappointent caused, this FTP server worked for hours after I submitted the story
Dave
shall we have a poll to see which crashes more often?
--- LOTR!!!
Likewise, the ability to dynamically move transparent objects over a page is exactly where Mo/Netscape excel, and IE will again be behind "the bleeding edge."
This is a quick guide for those who are saying Mozilla doesnt have JAVA and SSL support, explaining how to enable both under Win32. If anyone can explain how to get it working under linux, feel free to add to this.
Download the lastest Mozilla build (check comments on www.mozillazine.org for build information)
unzip the build into c:\mozilla (or whatever you wish)
Get hold of the Sun JAVA2 1.3 JRE (Java Runtime Environment)
Install the Sun JRE, and reboot the system.
Copy the 3 Java Plugin files (npjava12.dll, npjava11.dll, npjava32.dll) from the JRE directory to the Mozilla Plugins directory ( bin/plugins).
This will enable full Java support.
To enable SLL and https support, run Mozilla and serch the menus for a menu itm called "Install PSM" this will take you to a web page on IPlanet and at the bottom is a button saying "Install Netscape PSM for Windows" (there is also a install netscape PSM for Linux too).
click the button, and the PSM will automatically download and install itself, then restart Mozilla.
Thats it, SSL + JAVA 2 working.
Anything else being released this weekend? We could also see 2.4.0 kernel, Gimp 1.2, glibc-2.2, gcc-3.00 or even the next Win2000 service pack.