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New Netscape Browser Prototype Available

Posted by Hemos on from the joining-us-here-in-the-present dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mozillazine.org writes, "AOL has released a new prototype of Netscape Browser. This new version is almost identical to the first prototype but it's based on Mozilla Firefox 1.0 rather than 0.9.3. The browser does not contain the proposed new design concept or any new features, though there are some performance improvements. As before, only registered testers can download the prototype from community.netscape.com/nscpbrowser. MozillaZine ran an in-depth preview of the first prototype.""

5 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by gilesjuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They've just rebranded and repackaged firefox, why bother? it's stealing their thunder to help promote AOL.

    Anyone can tweak and rebadge an open source project, sure they're not breaking the GPL. But you have to ask yourself why would they do it?

    1. Re:Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Anyone can tweak and rebadge an open source project, sure they're not breaking the GPL. But you have to ask yourself why would they do it?

      Excuse me, but its a basic principle of open source that you can modify it to suit yourself. AOL is working very much within the spirit of open source. I say, go ahead and tweak and fiddle. Hey, if the AOL browser comes up with anything cool, it goes straight back into Firefox, right?

      The best possible result is, AOL comes up with something they like and instantly swings another, what is it, 10% of IE users over to Firefox overnight.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  2. ... Profit? by DeathFlame · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1) Color Scheme No one likes
    2) Move the menus from there top left location to the top right...
    3) In fact let's just move completely away from the familiar IE look people are used to, and scare them off
    3) Built in Toolbars most people don't want
    4) ...
    5) Profit?

  3. What has AOL done to Netscape?!? by IO+ERROR · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Now that Firefox and Thunderbird have taken on a life of their own, is "Netscape" still relevant? Why would I want to use Netscape (or even Mozilla) instead of Firefox/Thunderbird/all my favorite extensions?

    Don't get me wrong, I like having more options to choose from. I just want to know why, at this point, I should choose Netscape? After all, that MozillaZine review basically said the interface was horrible...

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
  4. Brand Recognition by Eric+Hysen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This looks a lot like the iPod+HP strategy to me. Netscape is still a fairly well-known brand, and many users will probably trust a browser from them more than they would from a company they know nothing about (Mozilla). Despite the fact that the Netscape Browser is inferior to Firefox, it's still easily better than IE and will help reach the goal of reducing malicious programs that spawn through Microsoft's security holes.