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Browser Wars II: CompuServe Strikes Back
securitas writes "Today CompuServe (an AOL subsidiary) launched CompuServe 7.0 with Netscape as the underlying browser. CompuServe started testing Komodo, a Gecko-based client, last year, and is now experimenting with Gecko-based AOL clients. CompuServe's 3 million-member user base is seen as a testbed before turning AOL's 34 million members into Netscape users later this year." Update: 04/16 20:54 GMT by T : Also an interesting story at CNN on the upcoming Mozilla 1.0. RC1 is very nice, as have been most recent builds.
..Apple would switch from IE, there would be some progress away from MS.
This is not meant to be flamebait, this is a legit question. *Who actually uses CompuServe nowadays?* Seriously. What does CompuServe's customer base look like? Is it early internet adopters that were too lazy to "upgrade" to AOL (I say upgrade with a grain of salt)? Is it customers that were jaded by poor AOL service and thought that CS might actually be better? hmm ...
If the idea is to do an initial test with a fraction of the AOL users, why didn't they wait until Mozilla reaches 1.0 and Netscape releases a version based on this codebase ?. What if the test fails simply because Netscape is still not stable/polished enough ?. Mozilla 1.0 is supposed to be close at this point in time ... what am I missing ?
<sigh>
Don't get me wrong, Mozilla is great and I love/use it, but there are still some very serious issues:
Hope those CompuServe users can hang in there until 1.2 or so.
(I'd link, but they don't take referrals from SlashDot... here's the Mozilla Bugzilla Home Page.)
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
I realized last night that I'm now completely dependent on the superior feature set of Mozilla's web browser.
I ran across a web site which had obviously been written to cater to MSIE browsers, and eschew web standards compliance. The pages didn't load (at all) in Mozilla 0.9.9, so I decided to give Konqueror a shot before giving up entirely. Konqueror rendered the pages (kudos to the K-people!) but made me realize why I like Mozilla so much. Pop-up windows, animated gif ads, and the clutter of multiple windows was enough to make me groan more than once while trying to navigate the site.
Oh, and before anyone posts "Konqueror does that, you moron!" realize that I'm not trying to rain on the K parade, just extoll the virtues of my fair web browser.
To avoid the dreaded Off-Topic, I'd just like to close by saying that I hope the experiment works, and Compuserve users get a chance to take control of their web browsing experience. Hopefully the privacy and anti-annoyance controls aren't removed when they turn it over to the consumer users.
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
...that just because Netscape may be getting back some of the market share does not mean web standards compliance will suddenly be the norm. Keep in mind that before IE was worth using (pre-IE5), Netscape was just as bad as Microsoft is in developing their own web tricks. Anybody remember when frames first came out?
The only thing Netscape gives the market is another significant mouth to feed for web developers to accomidate code for. Both companies will continue their practices as they always have in order to appear to have the 'better product'. Any browser that releases a version full of options that only comply to the standards will be playing catch up forever.
If a large faceless amoral corporation with money to burn wants it "done the right way" they should cough up the bucks. Helping your fellow man one day in a soup kitchen is NOTHING like working for free just so that Microsoft could turn in into CORPORATE WELFARE.
The BSD license is more like volunteering your free time to a white slavery ring.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
How about adding a page to slashdot to show current/past statistics of browsers that are used to access SlashDot? A link from the main page would also be nice!
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Microsoft Internet Explorer has - seen from the users point of view - been virtually unchanged in terms of enhancements and new developments since version 4.0, where Netscape 4.x was fully cloned.
I am writing this in IE 5.1 for Mac OS X, where the only facility I have found to be different than 4.0 for Windows, is the ability to track online auctions, which is useless to me.
Mozilla is a refreshing new product, where the new stuff like the tabs, sidebars and navigation bar mean that I can get rid of some of the things that has nagged me the most in both IE and Netscape 4.x.
Since Mozilla is going to be basically everywhere, it seems that this is going to prompt the user interface stuff in the browsers again. With the new facilities now available in both the major browsers like XSLT we should see a surge in new XML-based services, and that the rest of the browsers keep up.
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Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen "...and...Tubular Bells!"
Where do these companies (M$, AOL (Netscape), et. al.) make revenue in shipping these browsers? One has to buy Opera but the rest are free downloads.
the only cool part of the mozilla project is the engine, and that's only if you're a developer and interested in building your own browser.
You're entitled to your opinion, even though it's wrong.
XUL is very cool. Need a browser with no menus of buttons, as an interface to a web-based application for a control-freak client? I got Mozilla (in the M18 days) to do this with a few hours of messing around in the various xml files (and a very small bit of javascript hacks to stop that damn throbber from exiting). No C or C++ coding at all. And I am not a browser or Mozilla developer - perl coding is my speed.
Browser came up to a pre-determined URL and user had no visible way to go anywhere else. (Unfortunately, the project was cacelled before I figured how to inhibit the control-* keys, oh well....)
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
Because its too embarrassing that over 90% of the users visit slashdot with IE.
i'm 1 that uses Moz on linux. anyone else? a do-it yourself poll?
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?