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New Netscape Browser Prototype Available

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.""

33 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why don't they make a linux version? Might help bring linux closer to the desktop - netscape still has more recognition that FireFox.

    1. Re:Linux by QCompson · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why exactly would this bring Linux closer to the desktop? Would people say, "Gee, I'd like to try a new internet browser, and the name Netscape sounds familiar... maybe I'll install a whole new operating system so that I can try out the new Netscape!"

    2. Re:Linux by naylor83 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      These days I think saying it has Firefox would do more good than saying it has Netscape. Firefox has a much better reputation - Netscape seems to (somewhat unfairly so) be having a hard time ridding people of the memory of it's good old bad days.

  2. 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 hendridm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, they did pay for it. I wouldn't call it "stealing" their thunder.

    2. Re:Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by Wordsmith · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mozilla's thunder IS their thunder. Mozilla is based on the old Netscape code, and Netscape/AOL have played a tremendous part in developing Mozilla.

      What's more its the mostly BSD-ish MPL in this case, not the GPL -- and the MPL is designed explicitly so that the code can be used in projects this way. If the Mozilla powers that be wanted to avoid it, they would have used a difference license.

    3. 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.

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      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    4. Re:Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by magefile · · Score: 4, Informative

      Hey, if the AOL browser comes up with anything cool, it goes straight back into Firefox, right?

      Not necessarily. Moz is licensed under the MPL, which is very BSD-like.

    5. Re:Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by Joe+Tie. · · Score: 2, Insightful

      KHTML has been Apple-backed ever since Safari development started.

      Still, KHTML was really nice even before Safari development started.

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      Everything will be taken away from you.
    6. Re:Why? stealing Mozillas thunder or what by andreyw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not nice enough to pass the W3C test suite though. Thankfully, thanks to Apple, we're past that.

  3. Wow. by JanusFury · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does Netscape know anything about user interface design? That has to be one of the most horrible interfaces I have ever seen, especially coming from such a big company.

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    1. Re:Wow. by AnonymousCowheart · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Exactly - they're also breaking consistancy in Windows. They have the file menu on the upper right corner instead of the left, like almost every windows app out there.

    2. Re:Wow. by ShadeARG · · Score: 2, Informative
    3. Re:Wow. by Reziac · · Score: 2

      [looks at screenie]

      Yuck. My first thought was, "Good gods, the layout is built like Windows Media Player."

      I get the feeling that whoever designed this new look never does anything more complex with a browser than merely following links from one page to the next. Or at least believes that users never do anything so gauche.

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      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  4. ... 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?

    1. Re:... Profit? by bay43270 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Let me finish:

      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) Scrap it all and ship Firefox 1.0
      5) Profit?

  5. Re:Isnt..... by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 4, Informative

    Netscape = AOL
    Mozilla = Mozilla & contributors

  6. Sacrilege? by Almond+Paste · · Score: 4, Funny

    I still think IE is the best, most reliable and compatible all-round browser, especially since SP2, with pop-up blocking etc. Go ahead, hang me!

  7. Re:Isnt..... by msim · · Score: 2, Informative

    Netscape = a company
    Mozilla = community project that had resources donated to it from Netscape.

    netscape are just pulling code from GPL'd software and making their own branded product.
    The matter of Mozilla or Netscape making the better product is another topic altogether. ;-)

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    Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
  8. 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...

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    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
    1. Re:What has AOL done to Netscape?!? by Fnkmaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Dwindling? They axed all browser development some time ago and fired all the old Netscape developers. Netscape is only a low cost ISP, and an AOL brand now. AOL outsourced the development of the new Netscape-branded, FF-derived browser to some other company, they couldn't even do it in house.

      Actually, I think they realized FF was becoming popular, decided they could squeeze some more brand equity out of the Netscape name to promote their Netscape ISP offering, and that's what motivated this decision.

  9. Netscape leaves a bad taste in the mouth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful


    We are sorry, but you will need to enable cookies and Javascript to use your Screen Name with this site.

    Click here to return to Netscape Channels or here to try again after you have enabled cookies and Javascript in your browser.

    http://my.screenname.aol.com/badbrowser.psp?site do main=channelsns&authLev=1&siteState=OrigUrl=http%3 a%2f%2fchannels.netscape.com%2fns%2fforum_center%2 fforumsmemauth.jsp%3fseamlesswebtag%3dhttp%253a%25 2f%252fcommunity.netscape.com%252fn%252fpfx%252ffo rum.aspx%253fwebtag%253dws-nscpbrowser%2526redirCn t%253d1&RefUrl=http%3a%2f%2fslashdot.org%2findex.p l&source=login&lang=en&locale=us

    sorry but visiting Netscape reminds me of visiting a domain squatters site or those other seedy portals, hijacked by their demands and presenting as little content as possible with maximum advertising prominence, why anyone would want to visit Netscape by choice is a mystery, its a horrible experience

    uggh

  10. 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.

  11. One of the oldest computing companies? by rbarreira · · Score: 4, Funny

    If you look at the taskbar in the screenshot, it proves that Netscape was already around in the 30's :)

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    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  12. Can someone tell me by afstanton · · Score: 2, Insightful

    exactly why anyone would want this when they can already get Firefox?

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    Reject Fear - Embrace Hope
  13. In the proposed design concept... by FuturePastNow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why does Netscape.com look an awful lot like Google?

    --
    Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
  14. Re:Switch beteen MSHTML and Geeko by bhtooefr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It starts in Gecko mode by default. I THINK new tabs start in Gecko mode, EVEN IF the current tab is in IE mode.

    However, it will automatically switch a tab to IE mode if you go to certain sites, for example, microsoft.com (which means that Windows Update SHOULD work (on the older beta, it just crashed it).

  15. The Official End of Netscape Browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Yes, you saw it before, and here it is again:
    With 'Display like Internet Explorer' enabled, Netscape uses IE to render pages, sends the user-agent of your installed version of IE to websites

    Translation: The New Netscape is Internet Explorer. The new netscape will catch ActiveX controls, viruses, spyware, and all the other good features of IE.

    Average Joe user will download the new netscape. The first page that doesn't display right they'll switch to the NetscapeIE, and they will never switch it to Gecko. Then their machine gets plugged with spyware, then it becomes:

    "That Netscape Mozzarella thing is no good, I got infected anyway. What a bunch of fakers"

  16. Re:Isnt..... by Compenguin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mozilla is under an MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license. The only parts of it that aren't are the firefox logos (see my sig), I recommend using scragz public domain logos instead.

  17. Netscape as I see it by Orion+Blastar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Netscape to me, is like Firefox, only with spyware and bloated AOL bundled applications.

    One of my Nieces visited our house recently for a party we had. She wanted to see one of her pop singers, and in order to see the video from AOL, some AOL software needed to be installed in Firefox, after that my system went crazy, locked up a lot, lost the network connection, and the software seems to want to phone home. I am told that the software installed is part of the Netscape browser bundle. I'll be sure to stick with Firefox sans the AOL software, after I get done reformatting my system to get their Spyware off my computer.

    Thanks, but no thanks. Netscape was cool before AOL bought them out. Now Firefox is cool.

    --
    Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
  18. Menus in the top right corner by dumky · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although these menus do look weird at first, the idea seems interesting. Only some real life testing would tell if it's a good choice, but moving the menus is a good way to save some screen room.
    On the flip side, it's harder to "grab" the window to move it, but do people really do that a lot, now that tabbed browsing is going mainstream?

  19. I am a beta tester by superyooser · · Score: 2, Informative
    Netscape has a Site Controls section in the Options, which is something like IE's security zones. Settings/security profiles included are Default, Local Files, and specific sites, such as netscape.com and microsoft.com (needed for Windows Update). You can add as many profiles as you want.

    For each profile, you can set the Display Engine (Display like Internet Explorer/Display like Netscape, i.e. Gecko) and configure popup, image, ActiveX, Java, JavaScript, and cookie controls. If IE is selected as the display engine for that profile, the advanced JavaScript settings are unavailable. If Netscape is selected, the ActiveX checkbox is unavailable. Yes, you can easily disable ActiveX even when using the IE engine, and using the IE engine in the first place can be restricted to certain sites.

    By default, the Default profile is set to use Netscape/Gecko. The Local Files profile is set to display like IE.

    The Site Controls UI displays a security rating for each profile according to its settings. Using Gecko or IE with ActiveX disabled is considered Medium level of security. IE with ActiveX enabled is rated Low. Disabling both Java and JavaScript using either engine is rated High.

  20. Red headed stepchild by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why does AOL keep revving up Netscape, while continuing to use the Spyglass/IE browser as the core of the AOL browser? It's confusing, and of course their browser itself is a travesty, as always.

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    make install -not war