AOL has released Netscape 7.2, unfortunately, linked to GTK+ 1.2.x instead of 2.x under Linux.
Netscape 7.2 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Oh boy, it has support for Gtk+ 1.2 !!
Netscape is Mozilla without useful features… who’d want this?
(gtk 1.2, i guess no xft support, and so on)
it’s getting 30 Mb on startup
, firefox has smaller memory usage
There is brand value and aol mail connectivity. i guess it isnt pretty much over what firefox does better now.
…what is that?
Does anyone still use this? If so, why?
IE comes free with Windows and some sites demand it, so I can understand why it has such a large market share.
Other browsers like Opera, Safari and Firefox all have good features that make them worth using.
But what about Netscape? I don’t see anything that makes it better than Firefox or Mozilla.
What more can I say?
I really makes me sad to see the state of Netscape. In the early 90s Moasic and then Netscape shaped the web into its modern form. It was the inovator and sadly it has come to this.
I miss the days of the early browser wars when they were adding features that were truely new and exciting. These days, the feature enhancements between Mozilla 1.6 and 1.7 are so small that the average user will never notice a difference. Now they compete on speed and smaller memory footprints. While this is welcome, it’s not exciting and today, the name Netscape almost has the same negative response as Explorer.
While some people will not think that a new Netscape release does not serve much for people I think that it still matters. There are individuals as I have always said that don’t believe that mozilla and Netscape are essentially the same thing. Also Netscape still has slightly more name recognition although after the all the free news coverage in June/July I think that may be changing.
For AOL a netscape browser certainly matters. If you look at Alexa netscape.com has been falling in ranking as Netscape stopped updating their browser. The more people that are using Netscape where the NS portal is the default homepage keeps usuage of their portal up. Since it costs almost nothing for a new NS release it doesn’t take too many new NS users who use the NS portal to make a new NS release beneficial to their bottom line. The only question that has never been addressed is why AOL has never bothered using mozilla code for AOL. It seems like a silly investment if they don’t make use of their own browser.
Although I will likely never use NETSCAPE…. this release should only be embraced by the IT community.
Many people have never heard of Mozilla, but they have heard of Netscape. Releasing a *new* Netscape browser opens the door for more IE users to make the switch to a mozilla-based suite. AOL also has the power to push the technology in an ad campaign to its millions+ user-base; the Netscape brandname can also grab “average joe” non-aol users.—All cases help to accelerate gecko adoption.
The more users you have running gecko browsers, the greater pull that will have on web developers and maintainers… in terms of supporting *REAL* standards, not microshaft proprietary crap. Developers and companies won’t want to alienate a growing/large user-base because that would hinder its sales and penetration into various markets.
As this shift embracing standards-compliance takes hold, browsers like Firefox become even more attractive than they already are.
Case in point: *WE ALL WIN HERE*… so stop bitching!
As for the font support… I agree it is unfortunate that they don’t support the latest XFT/GTK2, but it comes as no surprise; it’s a logical move by Netscape. These initial releases are clearly targeting Windows users b/c they’re the group of IE users who need to be moved. Linux users are basically stuck (for lack of more positive terms) with Gecko/KHTML/Opera. By converting Windows users, the free *NIXes become a more viable platform.
The browser war apparently didn’t end; it went into a long hibernation. With IE users being driven crazy by worms and SPYWARE, the reemergence of Netscape is a well-timed and calculated move. Perhaps in a couple years, we’ll be seeing a 50/50 split in IE to Gecko marketshare.
To guys wearing ties & suits (you know: the ones that purchase stuff and control budgets), Netscape has a familiar sound to it as a ‘commercial company’ which in their book is much better than those light-shy hackers that code on Mozilla. If you want to push that Gecko engine, this release it good news. It gives salespeople another tool to introduce something else than MS browsers, while “not” using something made by those nerds-who-live-in-the-night. After all, Netscape 7.2 is made by a ‘real’ company and not some obscure foundation. … (yeah right).
LOL wow – you hit the nail on the head 100%!
I’m an AOL user now running netscape because of viruses and spyware problems. I probably never would have switched without AOL’s endorsment. Plus, i can check my email from the browser seemlessly.
Soon, I plan on giving linux a whirl. If people start to follow the same path, maybe AOL will make their client available to you unix boys and girls! (Then you might not rip on us as much – he he)
exactly!
… does it mean it’s faster/lighter than mozilla?
Victor.
The thing is, people need a _reason_ to switch from IE. The only reason it’s got 70-80% market share at the moment is because it’s integrated and people don’t have to get a program in order to use it. Why would I bother to download Netscape if I haven’t got Mozilla or Firefox already?
And as far as this unix boy goes, I’m not interested in AOL making their client available at all. It won’t be open source, and I’ve got a better browser already.
After all, Netscape 7.2 is made by a ‘real’ company and not some obscure foundation. … (yeah right).
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flaming the mozilla foundation.uh?. think of the fact that AOL uses mozilla name for promoting its own product now
Who the hell would use it?
—“Who the hell would use it?”—
…Lindows PC owners probably would.