The Netscape browser, v8.0 beta , was released yesterday. Download here.
Netscape Browser, v8.0 Beta 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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Are they providing builds, without the IE renderer support, for the other platforms they’ve always supported – a variaty of Unices and OSX?
I still have a thing for Netscape even after all these years, but I’ve not had a Windows machine for ages.
They might stop supporting it because FireFox is so readily available and known to Unix people.
Is this Netscape’s first Firefox-based version? I noticed on their website it says it’s based on Firefox 1.0. If so I think that’s great news, if not a little too late…
What’s the use of netscape nowadays? It has been a rebranded mozilla from the days of moz 0.9.6.
Now is a rebranded firefox…
…what’s the use of it?
They will still support other operating systems. The specs may me ponder a bit, 1GHz recommended? For a web browser? *blink*
Wow, a cluttered and less usable version of Firefox. Sign me up!
One plus I see is that the menu bar and Window border are combined helping to reduce the problem many browsers have of too many layers of menues and toolbars. Still, the UI needs work.
I noticed that it comes with an AIM client. Is that like the old AIM interface in the other Netscapes or is this the reqular AIM client?
I just tried it out and clicked on there Beta feedback button to leave them a comment about changing a UI element. Clicking on the feedback button launched an endless loop of internet explorer windows opening. System ran out of resources around 80 windows and would not even open the task manager. What a piece of crap.
To bad I am waiting on back ordered midplane assembly for my iMac G5 or else I probably would have never had to deal with this mess of an operating system not handling poorly code programs.
http://browser.netscape.com/nsb/product/formfill.jsp
Wow. Counting the vertical icons strip, there are four distinct sets of tabs in that dialogue box. Worse offenders exist, but that is still an impressive feat. If the Interface Hall of Shame were still open, I would dub it a worthy candidate.
Ia ia Netscape fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Netscape R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. Ia ia Netscape fhtagn!
Wow.. what a piece. I just downloaded it and installed and it crashes every time i open it..
I haven’t even used it yet and it’s crashing.
Why bother?
It’s a beta man.. not a final build.
Well it took me a while to get accustomed to it, being an Opera user. I have to say, apart from the ugly theme, it has some interesting features, like the site-specific preferences button available on the tabs.
why did they have to put the menus on the right of the window though.. every other application has them on the left.
can be toggled to the left or the right.
The fact that I detested Netscape in the 3-4 days, then 6 was terribly unstable, along with the mozilla version behind it, made me very leary of picking up firefox when i did (around 0.5). I then fell in love with firefox as much as I had hated the old stuff. For that reason, I really kinda like this netscape. I will contiune to use firefox, but this might be an easier way to get my fiancee and mother to use it. That way when I use their computers I have a familiar browser to use. I also wonder if this will make firefox more compatible with sites. There are still plenty of sites that support IE and Netscape but not firefox…..
AFAIK, netscape uses the same rendoring engine that firefox does. if something supports netscape, it supports any gecko based browser (seamonkey, firefox, camino, epiphany, k-meleon, etc)
No, actually they don’t. A lot of sites have some really stupid javascript browser detection mechanisms which lock out everything but IE and Netscape. So, while these sites would display just fine in all Gecko-based browsers, you can only visit them with Netscape (or by using a user agent spoofer).
This is not a problem for me, as I just boycott such sites, but it may be quite annoying for users who are more interested in convenience than in politics.
Regarding Netscape 8, the UI is horrible. There should be torture penalties for all developers who use an individual skinned UI rather than the default toolkit for no apparent reason. Booh Netscape. Real made it the other way round, RealPlayer 10 for Linux is using GTK+ and has a very slick and functional UI.
I predict that Netscape 8 won’t get much user adoption. People are switching to Firefox (and maybe some to Opera, becoming aware of alternative browsers through the Firefox mania). The only people who still use Netscape are those who never upgrade their browser. When these people get a new computer, they will use the default browser, which will obviously be IE, Safari or Firefox, as practically no vendor is stills shipping Netscape.
Not as bad as Lotus Notes or Domino Designer. Talk about a nightmare of tabs and interface redundancy.
eek… 12MB download!
I’m running it right now and I got to say it isn’t too bad. I really like the fact that you setup websites to use either the Gecko Engine or the IE engine.
I have tried it a few times om my WinXP box, but it keeps freezing on me. If I leave it alone for a few minutes, it won’t react…
Have someone spent a little time reading their licence agreement?
“(b) AUTOMATIC FEEDBACK. You agree that Netscape may periodically query your computer system, without additional notice to you..”
I’m not including the rest of it about the privacy which doesn’t look any better. Also, I’m pretty sure you will get AOL icons popping up all over the place.
I just can’t believe they will find people who would use it.
Regarding the AIM version question – Netscape 8 installs an integrated AIM client just like the former netscape releases. It’s basically identical to the last one… sidebar integration and all.
Spyware bundle – it has *NOT* installed any AOL ads or AOL icons all over the place… in fact, there’s absolutely nothing about AOL mentioned, sans Netscape being owned by AOL, Inc.
Automated feedback is useful for them… they probably collect info on what sites people chose which engines for, etc… that way, when they release the final product, it can be auto-configured by default to try to give the user the best default experience. They really have no need monitoring what sites beta users go to… their current advertisement scheme works well enough for them.
Theme – yes, the theme is a nightmare… wayyyyyy too much random stuff strewn all over the place. It’s very Netscape-like. But if you can remove a lot of extraneous junk… like that toolbar of crap…. it’s basically like firefox, with a few things pushed around.
This is a screenshot of things after i’ve cleaned them up – http://home.comcast.net/~mbernabeo/netscrape8.jpg
I’ve had no problems with freezing thus far. The only annoyance i’ve found is that the browser seems to default to the IE engine on just about every site, when it renders perfectly and fully functional in gecko. *shrug*
I still prefer firefox.
Except that many sites use browser sniffing to determine if they support the browser or not. Having a capable rendering engine won’t help at this point… only browser spoofing.
I thought they were dead!
It seems like a trojan horse, that this netscape uses the IE rendering engine. So people will download Netscape, feel like they’re safe, and then get burned. I haven’t tried it yet, but is there a way to explicitly tell it to NEVER use IE?
I really like Netscape and I use 7.2 on my ThinkPad. I’ve also got it on my PowerBook but I mostly use Safari. I downloaded the 8.0 beta and my first thoughts are that the performance is good, but it is one seriously ugly browser. I’m glad to see that they’ve gone over to the Firefox code, but why did they have to change the look of the program so radically? Just for marketing purposes to differentiate it from 7.x? Too many elements, buttons, and gizmos for my taste. I’ll stick with Netscape 7. Hopefully the final version will allow the the user to customize the look back to the more traditional Netscape.
I especially like the way that the bog standard Windows scrollbars stand out against that theme (which looks like nothing so much as a combination of the worst parts of the AOL and WMP interfaces).
I guess I’m the only one here (and on Slashdot) who likes the UI. Which is really strange because I normally prefer Simple and Elegant to Flashy and Complex.
Is there a Linux version…?
BTW Opera shows ugly fonts to me
Dunno why although I wanna give it a try if the fonts work right ???
For those that are actually aware what is installed on our computers and are aware of the various browser options, Netscape really is out on a limb here.
Firstly, it’s a windows only download, so they’ve thrown cross platform compatability out the window for now (one would assume they will have *nix variants soon ?)
Secondly, at 12mb it leaves you wondering exactly how they’ve managed to add bloat onto a 4.8mb gecko engine. Even with the additional support of the iexplore engine, that shouldn’t add another 7mb onto the download !
Thirdly, it doesn’t support any of the nifty firefox extensions
Fourthly, it’s got a butt ugly bloated interface
And finally, it’s just, hmmm, just not cool ?
Oh yeah, finally you can surf the web with the Gecko-engine without missing anything! Because if some website tries to exploit security holes in the IE-engine, Netscape 8 automatically switches over, so that you can also take part in all the fun.
I mean, a cluttered user interface mixed with the worst renderengine and a non-existing privacy statement, what you want more?!
Now I don’t have to tell people that they cannot switch from IE to AvantBrowser, Abolimba, MyIE2, SlimBrowser, CrazyBrowser, Netcaptor, etc because they share they same security holes and rendering engine, no… now I can add Netscape 8 to that list too.
What a pile of junk… I have never seen such an awful looking and feeling piece of software in my life. If Netscape this will get them their big comeback then is all I have to say is “oh dear”. On the plus side its a beta and theres time for them to improve it.
Seems it is based on Firefox and the menu’s and dialogs all resemble FF in a big way.
Windows update works with NS8, which probably means ActiveX “works” and automatic (junk) software installs “work” etc.
It just can’t be any more secure than IE.
I’ve been testing Netscape 8 since the alpha version, and I can tell you that this UI is like a dream compared to the original. I actually kind of like it, although I have yet to switch from Firefox permanently. As for the IE rendering, there’s a setting in Preferences that lets you permanently change the engine. AFAIK, Netscape builds in extra security precautions for the IE engine (such as ActiveX blocking without explicit permission), effectively providing pre-WinXP users who need to use the IE engine with a secure, free alternative to XP SP2.
As for Firefox extensions, which ones have you tried? Adblock at the very least works fine for me.
I also appreciate having an AIM version for Windows that doesn’t take over my system or force me to tolerate gigantic ad panels (yes I know about GAIM but its font rendering is simply too tiny on my system).
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Wow. Counting the vertical icons strip, there are four distinct sets of tabs in that dialogue box. Worse offenders exist, but that is still an impressive feat. If the Interface Hall of Shame were still open, I would dub it a worthy candidate.
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Personally i like a preferences panel like that. Just because it has more than 5 tabs doesn’t make it crappy.
However, the main browser UI is so crappy..I can’t believe they include an option to switch toolbars!
Someone mentioned thge netscape 8 site-specific prefs available on each tab was available as a firefox extension.. what’s the name of that extension?