Netscape has launched the new and improved Netscape 8 today. The new browser is based on the FireFox 1.0.3 code and includes extra features and enhancements. It includes the best of FireFox with a clean Netscape interface.
Netscape 8 Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Im testing it and Im loving it right now.
Specially the option to change from Gecko to IE rendering.
… and I thought netscape was dead and buried ! Now it is resurrected after how many years ?
According to Ben Goodeger, it is highly un secure
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008180.html
Any change that engine switcher will get ported over to Firefox?
I mean, Any CHANCE that engince switcher will get ported to firefox
That netscape, being one of the most cross-platform commercial programs one day, become windows only.
I saw an ancient linux distro and it had soo much commercial desktop apps there! Like StarOffice, Cubase, WordPerfect, CorelDraw, etc etc. And linux was infancy then!
Remember, lack of cross-platformness is problem of current ideolody (only one OS exists) rather than other oses’.
It would have been great if they added the Netscape 8.0 token to the useragent when using the IE rendering engine. Then it would be possible for trusted sites to know that their users are using Netscape 8. Oh well.
There’s already one available as an extension, isn’t there?
I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. It’s always nice to have different projects start out and the one that best fulfills the need surviving and evolving into something that everyone can use. There was a time in the *nix world, when I remember installing several browsers and flipping between them to view a site because of unsupported standards. And it has been a sign of relief to know that those days are in the past… for the most part.
What I don’t understand is, why so many different branches of the same thing are stemming out. I dont particularly like this move of Netscape to divide the users of Firefox. What if one browser has a better feature than the next? Does that force us to install both browsers so that we could enjoy the features they offer? I don’t mention Opera into this, cause I think its a slightly different case. They have always come up with inituitive ideas and some of the so-called features that we see have existed in opera for years (Eg. Tabbed browsing)
I also think Ben is acting like a child. Instead of supporting the community and perhaps assuring that they will help each other to develop a usable browser, they are fighting over turfs like warlords. (He just says that the browser doesnt have a security fix that they released, but the attitude and choice of words are not too friendly)
Anyways, these are strictly my thoughts about it. I am sure some will have different thoughts about this, but this is my opinion for the moment, till perhaps things turn out differently.
Goodeger is right in that none of the gecko based browsers will ever be as fast about having a fixed browser as mozilla’s official browser, but I must say that there is no reason that Netscape couldn’t be a lot faster about getting patched versions out. I have to agree with some others that I think the idea of tying Netscape to Windows is a bad idea. Certainly some of the features like being able to use the IE rendering engine can’t be ported to other platforms, but I think that there is certainly would be some interest in having Netscape for other platforms. Considering the history of Weatherbug I don’t think that it is very comforting to include it with Netscape.
Downloaded this evening
looks good specially switching to classic theme much usable
just one curious question though
what will happen to those ppl who have removed IE from their system (by using XPlite or some similar program)
i.e. will netscape work or will it give error?
So Netscape decided to ditch Mac and Linux. What a shame.
Well, gladly The Real Thing is better than this ugly-gui-mockup.
What is the point of using IE rendering engine with a different GUI?!?!? The problem with Netscape is the marketing. Just call firefox Netscape and call it a day.
Its crap , ff with some extras and defaults to IE
no linux or mac ports , crap crap crap , but we can expoect that from aol
it uses ie, could it be safe?
Orange and green combination might work for the University of Miami but not for this browser.
I like it, nice to see them still around. Hopefully they will add the Linux and Mac versions soon.
It is bad for web because lazzy and/or ignorant webmasters will have less reasons to make decent web pages, using standards, and they will remain making IE-only web pages.
If Netscape 8.0 becomes popular it is bad for Firefox and free software.
It comes with WEATHERBUG? Ah, the days when a web browser was just that. I woudlnt’ install it for that reason alone! I’m assuming there is a kitchen sink included in it, right? I need somewhere to flush all the crap. I loved Netscape… but not the new AOL-I’m-trying-to-be-like-MS-only-different Netscape. I am so glad I have Firefox and Opera. (Can’t decide between the two.) Just let Netscape die… it gave birth to a wonderful offpring (Mozilla) that will carry on long into the future.
If Netscape 8.0 becomes popular it is bad for Firefox and free software.
Yeah, let’s make politics more important than people’s choice…
please, free software has nothing to do with that… it’s about “standards”, no free/libre software, GPL or whatever…
This kind of statement lots like some govs spreading FUD about how X may be a thread to their way…
* Netscape 8 merges the security holes of both the Internet Explorer Engine and Gecko.
* Even some holes which were fixed with Firefox 1.01(!) are still open in Netscape 8.0. So much about “is based on Firefox 1.03”
* To make it worse Netscape does not release any or very few security fixes. The latest version of Netscape 7 is from summer 2004… Many people blame Microsoft that they need ages to fix security holes (those people are right!), but AOL obviously takes those “ages” to fix holes literally.
* If you add a website to your trusted sites Netscape 8 automatically uses the Internet Explorer Engine for it. Since your “trusted sites” are usually the ones you visit most often, Netscape 8.0 will just be another boost for the IE Engine on the webstatistics if it’s successful.
-> All in all I can *not* recommend to use this browser.
You may wonder why Netscape is twice as big as Firefox. Because it comes bundled with the weather tool, a nice application which installs itself as a background application into the windows taskbar. And then there’s another program, the “Real Arcade” service where you can play absolutely fantastic games over the net, of course only if you pay.
You can of course cancel the installation of both programs, but it’s still a not so nice way from Firefox which comes in a *.zip Archive and doesn’t have to be installed at all, to a program which mandatory installer includes applications you never asked for.
where have you been? Firefox has been distributed with a pretty slick installer since its 1.0 release.
A poster to Slashdot pasted this section of the Netscape EULA:
“(a) AUTOMATIC FEEDBACK. You agree that the Browser may periodically check your computer system for, and report back, without additional notice to you, information relating to your use of the Browser, including, for example, information relating to the frequency of your use of the Browser, your Browser configuration settings, and information on computer errors, malfunctions or other abnormalities occurring during your use of the Browser. The Netscape Browser team may use the information for such purposes as diagnosing performance issues with the Browser, improving the reliability of the download and install process, and improving its products and services to users generally. This information will not be tied to any information that would identify you personally.
“(b) BROWSER ID. The Browser contains a specific identification number for the purpose of tracking the number of unique instances of the Browser in use. This number is not associated with any information about you, or that would personally identify you.”
I trust AOL never to build a usage profile on me, never to sell it to others, and never to invade my privacy. Why? Because AOL has always acted with supreme fairness and has never abused its customers. Their track record speaks for itself.
Just got this from Broadband (formerly DSL) Reports:
AOL Raises Prices
Only a month after lowering them
It’s hard to take the world’s largest Internet powerhouse and make it completely irrelevant, but thanks to a long series of bad decisions, AOL management is slowly doing just that. In an apparent moment of clarity, AOL recently lowered prices, dropping dial-up prices from $24 to $20, and the price of BYOA (bring your own access) from $15 to $10. Well, guess what: despite mounting subscriber losses, they’ve quietly changed them back.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/63712
I thought that Firefox was based off of the Netscape codebase and was usually a little bit behind, but with a slimmed-down UI.
Now we have a new Netscape based off of FF? Isn’t this a funky kind of tail-recursion?
It used to be that Mozilla’s regular browser (called Sea monkey) would come out in a new version based on a freshened rendering engine, and Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox would follow with its version a month later. Netscape would then follow suit several months after that. Then Netscape ceased development. Then Sea monkey ceased development. Firefox is now the official Mozilla browser.
AOL developed a new version of Netscape after a couple of years of dormancy. The new version is based on Firefox, as the Sea monkey base they had used previously will remain at 1.7.
The Netscape enginees made their version of Firefox unusable.
Only for Windows ???
Where is our Linux version?
Did anyone here noticed that supporting IE Netscape is also supporting Microsoft disrespect to the web standards?
Netscape was king in the late 90’s and they’re definitely back in full swing w/ this browser…I love it.
It’s now my default…
Great job!
Anonymous wrote:
> To make it worse Netscape does not release any or very few security fixes. Many people blame Microsoft that they need ages to fix security holes (those people are right!), but AOL obviously takes those “ages” to fix holes literally.
Well, check yourself. 8.0.1 is out:
http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/security/alerts.jsp
Not available to me, not missed by me.
I rather go on a long voyage than escape on the interwebs.
I just think of the strangest thing… given that a virus is a piece of computer code, how do you test that? Do you install it on a vanilla installation an watch how it breaks things? “My computer is wrecked. Fine, this virus is working perfectly…”.
Netscape will be able to explore all the wonderful new insecure ways in which it will be used in the Windows environment.
Come the release of the cow, you’ll need a different version because maybe,
, just maybe there might be a few odds bits and pieces not working properly anymore.
” According to Ben Goodeger, it is highly un secure
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/ben/archives/008180.html“
Actually it was fixed yesterday with the release of 8.0.1. I think this guy might be having some jealousy issues, Netscape 8 surpasses Firefox in many ways.
Some of the sites in their “White list” from the shots I’ve seen are pretty ugly. Sites like msn.com, ask.com and most AOL related sites are in there. Those belong in the black list instead.
> Well, check yourself. 8.0.1 is out
I don’t know what they fixed but http://secunia.com/multiple_browsers_window_injection_vulnerability… still works.
http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/download/default.jsp
Gotta love that turn-around time for a bug-fix. Sure, it shouldn’t have been there…but it was fixed *very* quickly.
These firefox devs should relax and not perceive a new Netscape browser as a threat to their baby. They wouldn’t have what they have today w/o Netscape, to begin with.
Is it just me, or is this the ugliest browser ever shipped?
Netscape 8 surpasses Firefox in many ways.
like evilness?
lol
seriously though, what ways would those be?
Looks cool, but feels a little bit slower, and seems to consume more memory. Anyway it’s good to have an option to switch, and imho the option of switching to IE rendering is just what we might need.
I’m wondering what the statistics are gonna look like.
If you browse with the Netscape 8 IE engine, will it be registered as IE or just as Netscape 8?
Netscape, of course. How are detection methods going to test what *renderer* you’re using?! They go off the browser ID string, which will say Netscape 8.
Clean interface? This UI looks like it goes many steps backwards in terms of usability.
I would suggest that Netscape should release browsers for Linux and Mac. But instead of IE engine,they should give an option for KHTML engine on Linux and Mac.
By doing this they are not going to have a radically new product for Linux and Mac. But they can leverage their brand name and can find some use by new comers on Linux and Mac platform.
test from tor