Slashdot Mirror
Netscape 7.2 To Be Released August 3rd
Following up a story from May, linux2004 writes "for those who thought Netscape was dead after firing all their staff and spinning Mozilla off into a non-profit foundation, then think again. It was announced a while back that Netscape would continue releases of their browser suite and now the release date has been confirmed as August 3rd as a free download or by buying a CD. I don't think it'll take the attention away from Firefox but will be a decent upgrade for those using Netscape 7.1. The 7.2 release will be based on Mozilla 1.7 and will probably have the usual Netscape additions."
meh, netscape and kickass were words that went together in 1996
now i think netscape, i think bloat
mozilla is today what netscape was years ago, and when you add the netscape monicker, that just brings the image of quality downward
...and that's all there is to it.
Give me a break. Most uninformed people (which is the majority of people in this world) do not have a clue what Firefox is. These same people probably do know what Netscape is.
Netscape might not be as advanced and bleeding edge as Firefox or Mozilla but at least it has the name recognition that the non-geeks require.
Well being as how most of the programming/backend behind Netscape vs. Mozilla/FF is the same, wouldn't all you need is a UserAgent Switcher and then you wouldn't have ANY problems at all, and could still be using Mozilla/FF? I mean if the site works with Netscape it's bound to work with Mozilla, just not know it.
And how many paid developers work on OOo hired by Sun? None, 12 or even more :)? See, from AOL (former Netscape) nobody is working on Mozilla anymore.
Now that the WWW is a scarier place, Mozilla is much more comforting to me than IE, but I miss some of the ease of IE when it came to the ability to play some of the "multimedia" out there.
Netscape was just as effective as IE when it came to that sort of thing, and if they can bring the "full flavor" back to the internet without the nagging security holes in Internet Explorer then it might just be worth the second chance.
You mean like ID gave away the first levels of DOOM and then sold a more advanced version (ie with more levels)?
This is hardly a new model.
--Azaroth
Yes. Most people have never heard of Mozilla but they have used Netscape. It's good that Netscape keeps making releases because it keeps the amount of gecko-based browsers up, which impacts how web designers develop their sites. Most people also don't care about corporate politics or whether a product is free or Free.
It's called outsourcing.
Yes, don't try to make money writing someone as general as a web browser. Like OSes, Word Processors, ftp clients, etc they are now commodities (unless you are Microsoft). Go find something someone actually needs and is willing to pay money for and write that.
Finkployd
A better idea would probably be a Netscape branded Firefox. That would kick ass.
;P
Naw, a better idea is just to use firefox in the first place. Then you don't have to worry about what netscape is doing.
User agent switching can be harmful, it messes with sites stats and therefore makes your favourite browser seem less popular.
--
Beer is best!
netscape is bloated and useless now that mozilla is out. firefox is picking up a huge amount of support and it's the best browser on the net.
Well for one I'd be happy if they sent Netscape 7.2 on CD to all their ISP subscribers, this would help increase Gecko marketshare.
If Gecko gets a significant share of the market (in whatever form - Netscape, Firefox, Camino, etc) then it might make Netscape's parent company decide to finally switch their ISP for muppets (AOL) over to a Gecko based browser too - particularly with all the IE security holes.
That would make me happy.
--
Beer is best!
Corporate execs are more comfortable with a known brand name. Even though Mozilla (and FF, Camino, K-Meleon, etc) are based on the same code, they are not "Netscape". When execs are made aware of the faults and deficiencies of IE, they may think "I wish it was still like the old days, when we could at least choose between IE and Netscape." Lo and behold, here's Netscape 7.2. If you mention Opera or Firefox to them, you'd get blank stares.
Also, some of these execs want an all-in-one solution, not a perceived patchwork of FF+TB+whatever to meet basic internet needs.
Plus, "Mozilla" sounds like something only a geek could love. "Netscape" sounds like a polished product, like the marketing team actually spent more than 5 seconds to think of it. That's important to execs.
Constitutionally Correct
How about version 4.0, where they re-wrote nearly the entire suite (this was the first of the "Communicator" suites). For me, that was first release that took a step in the wrong direction in terms of bloat and speed, and I had been using Navigator since v.1.1.
"Nobody owns the fucking words man." - James Dean
Mega bloated? Mozilla AppSuite is approximately as big as the standalone browser + emailclient + composer + tec. put together. It's a choice between several downloads totalling +- 20 MB, or one big +- 20 MB download.
Takes an hour to startup? What kind of equipment are you using :) ? 20 MHz 386 ;) ?
On my old 500 MHz Pentium III + 64 MB memory it takes over half a minute, but on my new 3 GHz Pentium IV with HyperThreading and 512 MB memory it loads in seconds. No problem.
If Mozilla suite takes an hour to load, then most other apps will take long to load too. Not a Mozilla problem, but old hw not designed for todays sw.
Netscape 7.2 will be based on Mozilla 1.7, so your rants over Netscape are not applicable.
A very important point is the fact that now, if a business wants to roll out the browser, they have a corporate contact and a support partner in form of Netscape. Lack of a commercial entity behind a product is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest obstacles to adoption of a lot of FOSS in commercial IT.
This is exciting also because Mozilla is not just a browser, but an application framework - it happens to be a very nice toolkit for developing client-side GUIs. In a corporate environment with a lot of custom-rolled user interfaces, this is a very valuable tool; and even PHBs are pleased because there's Netscape to sign a support contract with.