Browser Suite: Netscape 6.0

[Neon]

I have been using Netscape 6.0 side by side with Communicator 4.75 for about 3 weeks. While the tone of Larry Blasko's review is decidedly pejorative, I am more optimistic, and can see the potential of this browser. It is worth taking a look at for the new features. It should be quite satisfactory, once they fix some of the bugs. However, it is not yet ready to assume primary browser status on my computer, because of the shortcomings outlined below.

My computer is a 3+ year old Quantex:

P200MMX CPU

128 MB RAM

Win 98SE

128k ISDN dialup

The highlights:

Support for multiple email accounts. This is my favorite new feature. You can check email in various accounts without doing a lot of reconfiguring of the mail preferences.

Password manager. When you visit a web page and type in a name and password, it gives you the option of remembering your input, so you don't need to retype them every time. How conveenient.

Page rendering is noticably faster than before, but this may be a negligable difference on a slow dialup modem.

Skins (or themes). This seems mostly cosmetic for the average home user. It may see use for customized commercial versions of the browser for ISPs or whoever wants their own corporate logo on it. At home, I don't see changing skins every day, unless I'm particularly bored.

Sidebar. This is a collection of tabbed mini-web pages that is quickly accessible from a menu along the side of the browser window. It's good for taking a quick peek at news headlines, stock quotes, etc. without loading the entire page.

The lowlights:

The install is rather balky. It took 3 or 4 tries, because it kept hanging.

The program takes a long time to load. On my computer it takes about *90 seconds* (including the Sun Java applet). Even though I have a slightly faster processor than Netscape's recommended minimum, this needs improvement. Actually, I need a faster processor. Dear Santa... :D

The bookmarks menu now scrolls, rather than presenting multiple panels. I prefer panels, and would like to have a choice. Also, there is a bug that causes the down arrow to sometimes disappear, so you can't scroll to the bookmarks at the bottom of the list.

Scrolling with my Logitech mouse is something of an adventure. Sometimes the web page scrolls uncontrollably to the top or bottom with just a single click. This occurs even with the latest mouse drivers, and is not a problem in other apps.

Crashworthiness not so good. It is less stable than Communicator 4.75 at this point, but should improve with future fixes.

Finally, here are some links to what some of the "pros" think about Netscape 6.0:

http://home.cnet.com/internet/0-3779-8-3607741-1.html

http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-2000-11/lw-11-netscape6.html

http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/overview/0,8826,431922,00.html

DISCUSS HERE