Basically, I had been using Netscape since 1994, and have been disappointed that AOL
allowed it to decline until it eventually became a rather sorry shadow of it's former self.
Since Mozilla is effectively carrying on what was Netscape's old tradition (before AOL
bought up the company) of an independent firm making top quality internet software,
these days I mostly use Mozilla as my weapon of choice for browsing the web.
One reason why the new Netscape update could be favoured over it's open source
sibling, aside from the Netscape Webmail support and the AOL/ICQ Messenger, is
that previous versions of Netscape, have always included the necessary browser
plugins (such as Macromedia Flash Player and Sun Java) all in one package,
and it's very likely that Netscape 7.2 will also be the same.
Meanwhile, the developers at the Mozilla Foundation are trying to keep download
sizes as small as they can, by not bundling any of the aforementioned plugins. So,
if you're a Netscape user, you don't have to go and download extra packages to
enable the browser plugin functionality. But, if you're a Mozilla user (whether
you're a technically minded user or not) then you do.
One of my reasons for still being interested in Netscape, is the hope that they'll
also offer a CCK to go with the new 7.2 upgrade. As it stands at the moment,
this seems somewhat unlikely, but certainly not impossible by any means.
With a new CCK, I can resume production of what I used to call DJGM-i Distros,
and Antony can also resume production of the SillyDog701 Streamline Series.
The DJGM-i Distros, and the SillyDog701 Streamline Series were custom versions
of the Netscape browser suite, with a somewhat more flexible choice of plugins
and/or additonal extensions. I used to offer three seperate "editions", one was
the "Lite" edition, consisting of the Navigator and Composer components, while
the "Pigeon" edition, which also included all the messaging components, plus
the Flash and Java plugins. Finally, the "Full-On" edition, which had all of the
components from the "Pigeon" edition, plus optional multimedia software
such as Nullsoft Winamp 2.x and RealPlayer 8.x.
My old DJGM-i Distros page is still lurking on the former Club Netscape website,
but the actual downloadable files have since been removed from the servers.
Links:
Netscape Client Customisation Kit
The DJGM-i Distros page (outdated)
(Temporary) Club Netscape website
The SillyDog701 Streamline SeriesUserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040618
SeaMonkey = Swiss Army Knife: It's versatile, reliable, and contains useful tools.
Windows Internet Explorer = Old Swiss Cheese: Full of holes, and it stinks!
