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AOL Releases Netscape Beta, Based on Firefox

Posted by michael on from the browser-wars-still-over dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Netscape has released their new prototype browser for Windows based on Firefox 0.9.3. The prototype's development was outsourced to Mercurial Communications and includes several Netscape specific extensions. The biggest difference from Firefox, however, is the ability to switch to the Internet Explorer rendering engine from within the browser using an IE ActiveX control. The browser is currently available for a limited download."

7 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. Also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are screenshots and comments over at Planet Mozilla.

    1. Re:Also by RevAaron · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why in the sam hill would I want to 'switch to internet explorer rendering'?

      These days it is very rare that I'd need to view a page in IE, but it happens once in a while for me. For that, I use an extension for FF that lets me right click and say "open in IE." *shrug* Some folks may run into this problem more, and if this is done well, you could just pop into IE and view that page, then move on, keeping your tabs in the same window, etc.

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    2. Re:Also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just install the Tab Browser Extension for Firefox. It supports moveable tabs, saving tabs when you close, multiple rows of tabs, etc. Firefox lacks them because not everyone wants them, and they're available with a simple extension download for those that do.

    3. Re:Also by tvadakia · · Score: 5, Informative

      Try the Tabbrowser Extensions (http://piro.sakura.ne.jp/xul/_tabextensions.html. en) extension for Firefox. Beats anything even Avant can fassion. Enjoy IE free browsing.

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      Unique.
  2. Yet at the same time... by the_mighty_$ · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...they are beta testing a new IE based browser.

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  3. Netscape is ruining the purpose of FireFox. by garcia · · Score: 4, Informative

    I always thought that Firefox was meant to streamline the webbrowsing experience? The first thing that I noticed when installing the browser is that it asked for my zipcode for weather reports. Ugh, no thanks, 90210 here I come. It also asks for a reboot after install. For what? What do I need to reboot after an install of a webbrowser for? What are they installing?

    It defaults to ONE ugly screen with a tab opened, a headlines ticker going, a "money" ticker going, and the menu bar on the opposite side of the window than I am used to. There's a "new tab" option on the left side of the browsing area instead of leaving the main tab open there. You think new users are going to like this? I don't.

    At least I don't see any AOL icons installed to my desktop or my favorites (yet). They might come after a restart though.

    It's nice to see the backing of AOL/Netscape on Firefox. People might recognize those two names before Firefox and they might switch. Especially if it can render the IE-only pages 100%.

  4. Re:Perfect Name for a Ripoff Artist by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Informative

    They did support the Mozilla development environment for a good many years for like 0 profit

    Actually did far more than that...

    They donated $2 million to the Mozilla Foundation to get them going and willingly donated the mozilla.org domain name, the Mozilla-related trademarks, and related equipment such as the mozilla.org servers, to Mozilla Foundation. They was obliged to do none of this, just having purchased Netscape and got all this along with them.

    See also this story.

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