Netscape 9 beta Impressions

[orizng]

history aside, I have been almost exclusively using it for several days, both on mac and linux, the integrated netscape.com features were slow at first, but now they works fine.

I can only say its at least as good as firefox.

Im willing to explore more of netscape.com features, but no conclusion yet,

one serious suggestion for netscape is:

be sure to keep up with firefox's update, security/bug fix, if not, there will be no chance I can stay with it.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[James]

Two things:

- it cannot be "as good as FF" for the simple reason that it will always be in a "catch-up" scenario. For instance, I have the latest FF beta and NS 9. I find that ad-block with Filter Set G will not work with NS 9 but it works with FF. Forecast Fox will not work with NS 9 but it works with FF. This is an example of the simple fact that extensions are not as quickly brought up to date to work with this new beta.

- security measures follow on the coat tails of FF for the simple reason that a world community writes code to patch its flaws since it is open source. NS from my understanding, has a community of a dozen developers who cannot hope to keep abreast of these patches other than taking and using them after the fact.

Perhaps I'm wrong in this and I'm willing to see where I'm erring.

The other issue is the marketing ploy of several of its buttons. For the most part, they are designed to drive people to its portals and generate business. There is no such worry with FF.

When another poster said this was the same company that had been dealt a death blow back in 98, I simply pointed out that this is false. AOL is not Netscape. It's the company that bought Netscape and then essentially trashed it only to resurrect it for it's own purposes. Sure, there will be a small group of folks who will gravitate to it for old time's sake but I can't see it gaining much by way of users from FF, IE and certainly not Opera.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[orizng]

somebody help me to do a simple test.

I found out that if i can't connect to netscape.com, my Tools->Addons will cause browser to hang.

would somebody plz disconnect from internet and try open addon penal and let me know the result?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[Somedude]

I really dislike the fact that it's basically Firefox with the Netscape branding. Sure, it's got the little Netscape.com features, and the Mini-Browser's pretty useful, but otherwise, there's not really anything that makes it different.

~SD

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a5) Gecko/20070606 GranParadiso/3.0a5

[orizng]

I really dislike the fact that it's basically Firefox with the Netscape branding. Sure, it's got the little Netscape.com features, and the Mini-Browser's pretty useful, but otherwise, there's not really anything that makes it different.

~SD

Netscape putting out the codes for mozilla in 199x is just for this. there is nothing to feel bad about, this is exactly what they supposed to be

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[MJR]

I like the fresh new blue-green theme. Better than NS8's and Firefox' default theme. It's about time that Netscape.com (the social news site) gets integrated into a Netscape browser. What took them so long? NN9 should have debuted on the heels of the Netscape.com relaunch. NS9 could have capitalized on the buzz created by the new Netscape.com at that time. Talk about missed opportunities here.

My favourite Firefox 2 plugins installed flawlessly, as expected, except for one. I had to recall then how to modify the xpi's rdf file, a hack well-discussed in the Netscape 8 forums back in those days. I do miss the site controls feature. There are just some websites that load better without javascript enabled.

I do appreciate very much the effort put out by the Netscape team on this project.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[James]

Well, I've stuck with it for the past several days and finally managed to make a few of the extensions work (i.e. Ad-block) but some refuse to cooperate (i.e. Forecast Fox). Albeit, I find it a cumbersome program when compared with Firefox. One example is the difficulty it has in remembering passwords. For instance, I can go to the customized My Netscape (a rather plain-Jane, uninspired home page) and try and access my webmail from there. No go. I use the same password for the mail program that I use to sign in to the My Netscape page, but can NS 9 remember this? Not on your life. The Digg-like portal Netscape offers as a home page is really pathetic in my opinion and the customized My Netscape even worse. When I think how great their portal was back in the mid-90s and how lousy it is today, I blush. In fact, I've dumped the portal and the My Netscape for MyWay, Yahoo and MSN, all of which are vastly superior to these offerings from Netscape. They just don't seem very imaginative.. creative... I don't know what it is. The My Netscape is devoid of graphics and seems like a throw back to the early days of the internet... days prior to images and graphic displays.

Any other comments?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[n301]

Honestly James,

How many people do you think use netscape navigator 9 in order to solely visit netscape.com and do everything from there ?
Secondly, extensions are personal choices. If yours don't work find a different one. It's as simple as that.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[Fulvio]

James,
I suggest that you try the Nightly Tester Tools addon as an aide to install addons. It is compatible with NS9b1, and, I have had no trouble installing any which I wanted (make them all compatible). I have not tried the regular Forecasrfox, but I had been able to installed Forecastfox enhanced, even without NTT.
As for the rest, I don't care for My Netscape. In fact, I hid the icons. So, what do I have now? Another Firefox, and I am happy with it, as I can run it side by side with the real Firefox.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a5) Gecko/20070606 GranParadiso/3.0a5

[James]

Hi Fulvio

Thanks for the suggestion. In fact, I'd completely forgotten about the Nightly Tester Tools. I'll give it a try.

Like you, I'd also hidden several of of tool bar icons (dragged them off) which were little more than marketing ploys anyway. And as you say, what I have left is little more than a re-skinned Firefox. I play around with it (as you can see from my user agent string) but FF (the real thing) remains my default.

I can't see Netscape ever regaining what was lost. It's too little, too late. Had this NS 9 been a suite with some real innovation, well... that would have captured a great number of users who continue to use NS 7.2 for the simple reason that they want e-mail integrated into the browser. Thus, they lost a great opportunity and those folks are likely going to migrate to SeaMonkey when it becomes obvious that 7.2 is just too long in the tooth.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/20070604 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1

[Fulvio]

As you can see, I am using Seamonkey1.1.2, but it has an annoying problem which was confirmed only by another person, i.e. it does not give me the chance to go back. Back arrows appear only when I am inside a website, from internal links. My history is set to 3 days.
In case you don't know AOL/Netscape is working on a mail client, which will be based on Thunderbird2.0.0.4, i.e. Netscape Mercury. It will make happy a couple of people.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070509 SeaMonkey/1.1.2

[richard mitnick]

The thing about Netscape 9, now, from the AOL perspective, if it fails to drive any revenue toward AOL, then there is no reason to continue support.

Like you folks, I have eliminated all of the Netscape.com stuff, I am left with a very workable FF clonbe, it works fine, the compiling leaves nothing to complain about, but...

You know, who needs it?

They are planning a mail utility based upon TBird.

There is significant value in using the name Netscape, if it gets people away from 7.2, especially for mail, because no part of 7.2 is secure, so it can be a virus spreader. If folks will go to the new up-to-date mail utility-even though it is not s suite- it will have served a purpose.

I still and will always preach SeaMonkey to those who want a suite.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[James]

Hi Guys

Have to agree with Richard regarding the revenue (or lack thereof) which AOL obviously hopes will be realized. It's one of the reasons I mentioned their portal. A good portal can generate considerable income. The Netscape portal, in my opinion, just does not cut it. I can't see how they hope to derive income from this browser given the fact that most with whom I've talked have ditched the social buttons (which were marketing tools) just as the two of you (and I) have done and given the miserable look of their portal. Furthermore this is no longer 1995.

Today there are alternatives to IE and Netscape: SeaMonkey, Firefox, Safari, Opera and a host of other IE clones. How many millions of the Firefox users do you really imagine will revert to NS 9? Why bother when Firefox does it all and does not have an ulterior motive?

It sounds like I'm opposed to Netscape. Actually, I'm not. What I'm opposed to is AOL's methods and motives and half-measures. They have nothing new and so they simply rework Firefox and add on a few things that have dollars written all over them. Like I said, if they actually had some creative ideas and developers with innovation (of the nature that Marc Andreesen had) THEN I'd be on their bandwagon. As it is, I'm mildly interested mainly for nostalgia's sake. Taking Thunderbird and doing the same to it that they've done to FF and then calling it a Netscape e-mail client is disengenous.

But that's just my opinion and it isn't worth much.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[Somedude]

The only thing that Netscape's really useful for is the Mini-Browser, which will no doubt be turned into a Firefox extension soon, rendering Netscape completely useless.

Good for a FF clone, though.

~SD

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4

[Fulvio]

I am 50?50 on standalones vs. suite, but I am becoming disenchanted with Seamonkey. I posted separately, but Seamonkey has real problems, although no one at this newsgroup seems to have run into them. The only other person who confirmed my issues has been the fellow who developed the Skypilot and other themes.
I just discovered that if I use Tabs, only the first tab is affected. I don't know what would happen having no tabsm but I thought it is interesting. As an example the first tab is for an item in Wikipedia, but the navigation toolbar indicates:
http://sillydog.org/forum/posting.php?m ... st&p=85511

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070509 SeaMonkey/1.1.2