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Gecko May Replace IE In AOL/CompuServe
ShaunC writes: "According to this C|Net article, pieces of Gecko have been spotted in a beta version of the next CompuServe client, and AOL has confirmed that Gecko is being tested as CompuServe's default browser. AOL 7.0 is shipping with IE, but perhaps future versions will widen the gap between AOL and Microsoft. (I'm glad we won't be seeing AOL-TW-MS-NBC.)"
If CompuServe 7 comes packaged with Gecko, it could be one step toward rekindling the Web browser wars from the late '90s. Once the hands-down leader of browser technology, Netscape Communications, now a division of AOL, has let its browser slip into the middle of the pack.
Yes, but this time, the browser wars will be a fight to provide customers with the highest level of web standards compliance, rendering speed, cross-platform capability, and truly useful features. I, for one, think that this sounds like a good thing. (Even though I will probably not be using anything but Konqueror ever again.)
If you take this artcle about microsoft wanting to deliver "AOL like services", this seems to be a logical step for AOL.
;-)
This could get very interesting, I don't think this is a browser war, I think it's an ISP war...
Would YOU distribute software of your newly aquired #1 competitor??
Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity
I use mozilla. It rocks. It has tabs, it has mouse gestures, it's fast and it's really stable. I can theme it any way I want. I of course have IE installed but I never fire it up unless I visit one or two percent of the sites that insist on it.
Besides Mozilla does not leak my personal information, it does not have cryptic option names designed to fool me, it does not keep sending me to MSN, it does not accept activeX controls, it does not execute viruses automatically, and best of all it allows me to turn off popups on page load.
Mozilla is the best browser on the market and it's not even version one yet. This is because it focuses on me. It wants to help me have a better web browsing experience. IE wants to deliver me to advertisers. That's a significant difference.
The number one reason AOL should go with mozilla (or gecko) is because MS is planning to implement smart tags and has already implemented 404 redirects. The last thing AOL wants is for their customers to be redirected to MS sites anytime they click on anything and besides why give aid and comfort to your enemy.
By switching to mozilla AOL will also discourage people from building IE only sites and that will be a good thing for all of us.
War is necrophilia.
How can a browser have "IE compatibility" issues? Surely it is IE that has compatibility issues?! Gecko isn't perfect, but it aims for standards compilance. Don't fall into the trap of slamming products for not being "compatible".... with certian other products which are designed and developed specifically to break such compatibilities. If a web site renders well for IE, but not for Gecko (or Opera or OmniWeb or ...) then it is the WEB sites fault, not Geckos!
return 0; }
Christopher
Mozilla
It's a matter of user perception. A huge percentage of web sites out there are designed around IE's rendering bugs and faulty CSS model. If Joe User views one of those sites with a Gecko-based browser, and it looks broken, who will he blame? Not the web designer, because it looked fine in IE.
To deal with this, Gecko has a wonderful feature - 'quirks' mode. When handling a web page that doesn't have a strict DTD declaration, Gecko emulates the rendering bugs of IE (especially those with spacing and the CSS box model). So a page that is not standards compliant but works with IE will probably look OK in Gecko too.
Users will yell if something that worked with IE don't work any more.
When AOL moves 20 million clueless idiots from MSIE to Gecko, Web designers will fix the problems very quickly, making the Web a better place for all of us.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Well, pack me off to Bugtussle, Beulah, seems this swamp ain't as nice as it looked.
Big hint, here, guys: standardizing on defacto standards owned by a company that demonstrates allegience to no one but itself (check out the recent enterprise licensing schemes if you think MS cares about its customers one whit) is a reliable way to get screwed.
That's especially true when you consider that, in this case, "standardizing" means making a conscious decision to exclude a portion of the browsing public. Can't be the fairest thing to do when you work for paying customers who need the biggest bang for their buck.
Big cheers to AOL if they go ahead with this. I'm damned sure that most big sites will not tolerate web developers who lock out that much of their audience. I neither like nor use the AOL service, but I promise to say nice things about it if this happens.