Mozilla to the Rescue? Part 1
Friday, February 16th, 2001
Backin the days of Internet glory (just about 18 - 24 months ago,)Netscape was viewed as the king of web browsers. It was the mostsecure and compatible web browser around. Many things happened at acorporate level including being bought by America Online, who is nowAmerica Online Time Warner. Development slowed down and peoplewondered if that was the end of Netscape. Internet Explorer by rivalMicrosoft was being integrated into Windows thus creating a monopolyand Netscape was being left in the dust.
Mozilla has lately proved to be the brains of Netscape. Although notofficially Netscape, they have really been the ones behind thedevelopment of Netscape 6, and have ensured that the source code ispublicly available. Mozilla doesn’t due the major code development,but has made a substantial contribution to the final product.
When many think of Netscape 6, they believe that the only version isthe one with the Netscape logo that is officially released byNetscape. This is not so. Mozilla releases builds of its nextgeneration Netscape every once in a while. These builds mayeventually be incorporated into a future version of Netscape sometimedown the road. Mozilla 0.7 eventually became Netscape 6.01.
Mozilla as recently released its next build (Mozilla 0.8.) Thissubstantial build features many bug and UI enhancements that have notbeen available in any Netscape 6 or previous Mozilla build. Here is abrief rundown of the program and how I thought of it:
Web Browser
The web browser is the core of the program as it is what everyoneuses, some use the mail or the IRC client, but virtually everyonedownloads it for the web browsing capabilities. Thus this is the mostimportant aspect of the Mozilla software.
Mozilla 0.8 renders pages much quicker thanany previous build or Netscape 6. It has also fixed numerous CSS andJavaScript bugs that have plagued previous versions. It is also muchmore compliant than any other web browser including InternetExplorer. This makes it very easy for web developers to create pagesthat will display properly. Many web sites that are built usingindustry standards will need little or no changes to work well withNetscape 6/Mozilla users.
One very nice feature is that the popular “what’s related” option hasbeen expanded to show even more detailed information. Although thisinfo is not very accurate as Alexa, who manages the data has beenknown for being a little slow with updating, but it is still a veryuseful feature to have.
On the negative side the SSL (Secured SocketLayer) capabilities still need a little work to ensure completecompatibility with all web server SSL software.
Another large feature is the powerful mailsoftware that is integrated into Mozilla 0.8. One of the new featuresfor this version is that you can now have sound notification of newmail (which has be re-implemented from Netscape Communicator 4.x.)This mail program is very powerful and is HTML capable. It is muchmore flexible and powerful than Outlook express, but its somewhatbusy appearance will drive some users away.
Mozilla 0.8 is beta software and should betreated as beta software. It is not recommended for novice users, butfor power users who would like to play with the future, it is highlyrecommend, but at your own risk. Mozilla 0.8 can be downloaded fromhttp://www.mozilla.org.
