[Andy8]

Download Netscape Navigator

It is back!

[rickey939]

Yuck.

[ghporter]

Why? That page doesn't say what's new in 9, why it is better than anything else, anything. The page isn't trying to sell Netscape, it's just saying "here it is." Why?

[Sherman Homan]

Must be some sort of harmonic convergence with Mac browsers:
Camino 1.5
Camino. Mozilla Power, Mac Style
Now with spel czech 4 thoose of us who kant tipe good!

[patrix]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Why? That page doesn't say what's new in 9, why it is better than anything else, anything. The page isn't trying to sell Netscape, it's just saying "here it is." Why?

Surely you clicked on the "what's new?" link before making this post?

Seems though that they moved away from the whole firefox+IE engines in 1 browser thing that Netscape 8 had.. unless the What's new is only showing me what's new for the OSX version...

Patrix

[angelmb]

Being honest… after reading What’s New in Netscape Navigator? :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser and Netscape Navigator Features :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser I am far from being excited about Netscape come back… a pity.

[patrix]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

Being honest… after reading What’s New in Netscape Navigator? :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser and Netscape Navigator Features :: Netscape Navigator Web Browser I am far from being excited about Netscape come back… a pity.

Only interesting feature is the text field resize. Similar to OmniWeb's feature where every text area can be expanded into a text window for easier editing.

Downloading now to see what it's like..

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by patrix 

Surely you clicked on the "what's new?" link before making this post?

Seems though that they moved away from the whole firefox+IE engines in 1 browser thing that Netscape 8 had.. unless the What's new is only showing me what's new for the OSX version...

Patrix

No, I didn't. The "what's new" link doesn't bother to stand out. NOTHING stands out, and that doesn't say much about it. Why don't they at least say SOMETHING about the browser on the main page? It's like "this is .... whatever."

However, the home page at least shows it has some features-the only new looking one being "social networking." Yawn.

[dn15]

This particular version is based on Firefox 2.0.0.4 -- good to see because I recall that Netscape 8 (which was only for Winodows) was based on a rev of Firefox that was already a couple versions old at the time of release.

Also interesting is it actually identifies itself as Firefox with "Navigator" tacked on the end. (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.5pre) Gecko/0000000000 Firefox/2.0.0.4 Navigator/9.0b1)

It seems to do fine with Firefox add-ons (which is to be expected, I guess, but you never know how they might choose to screw things up.) I just installed the Google Browser Sync plugin and it worked fine.

Realistically, I'm not going to be using this but I'm glad they seem to have done a decent job with the release. Like Netscape 8, it doesn't offer anything earthshattering over Firefox, but overall I consider a new Netscape a "good thing". It has a certain name recognition that Firefox may not with the non-geek crowd, and the more users that end up on open(ish), standards-compliant browsers the better. I guess on the Mac side it's more or less irrelevant because everyone is already using an relatively open, standards-compliant browser engine with Safari, Firefox, Camino, etc.

[selowitch]

I think this could be awesome! It feels and looks a lot like Camino, but it's more or less compatible with FF extensions. That's potentially very powerful in my book.

I wonder what the reaction at the Mozilla Corporation is to this. Did they know about it? Are they cooperating or resisting?

[cgc]

While it's "potentially powerful" that Netscape can use Firefox's extensions, I see no compelling reason to use Netscape as Firefox is also compatible with Firefox's extensions Netscape is also fugly. Die Netscape, thanks for the memories.

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by cgc 

While it's "potentially powerful" that Netscape can use Firefox's extensions, I see no compelling reason to use Netscape as Firefox is also compatible with Firefox's extensions

True. But there's something about FF for the Mac that I don't like that seems to be relieved in NN 9. Could it be a hair faster?

Originally Posted by cgc 

Netscape is also fugly.

A matter of opinion.

Originally Posted by cgc 

Die Netscape, thanks for the memories.

Now you're just being a meanie.

[angelmb]

Die Netscape, thanks for the memories.

Is that german?, like on "die bart, die"… right?

[cgc]

I just think Netscape of today isn't the Netscape of yesteryear and the release of v9 is a yawner. I also think Mac users buy Macs for the reliability and also for aesthetics somewhat. Netscape 9 is an eyesore and the themes I've tried installing in it wouldn't install.

If you really want a fast Firefox-based browser, try Camino.

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by cgc 

If you really want a fast Firefox-based browser, try Camino.

Well, that's just it --- Netscape Navigator 9 seems faster than Camino 1.5 on my Intel iMac, I don't mind the aesthetics, and NN supports extensions, many of which I find indispensible. So for me, a least, it's a competitor to become my main browser for daily use.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by selowitch 

Well, that's just it --- Netscape Navigator 9 seems faster than Camino 1.5 on my Intel iMac, I don't mind the aesthetics, and NN supports extensions, many of which I find indispensible. So for me, a least, it's a competitor to become my main browser for daily use.

That's the great thing about the current browser market, lots of options. Glad you like NN. BTW, I found a site that did extensive benchmarking of browsers and Opera 9 was the fastest in most cases.

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by cgc 

That's the great thing about the current browser market, lots of options.

Yep. Standards support is still an issue, and support for things like Unicode, XForms, etc. could still be better and more uniform. Still, the browser segment of the market remains an exciting and interesting area of software, no doubt.

Originally Posted by cgc 

Glad you like NN. BTW, I found a site that did extensive benchmarking of browsers and Opera 9 was the fastest in most cases.

Interesting. I wonder how the new NN stacks up. Opera's a nice browser. Mostly I just use the mini version on my Nintendo Wii, but the Mac version is rather good, too. But for me, no extensions = no dice. Shiira is another great one for the Mac, and I hated the fact that there was no way to get Camino to "close all tabs on the right/left" of the current tab. That's one reason why NN 9 is so exciting, because it resembles Camino in terms of speed and interface, but also supports the removetab extension, which to me is simply a must-have.

I also wonder if Safari will be noticeably different under Leopard.

[littlevish]

I downloaded Netscape to give it a try, but the lack of Aqua widgets in a browser instantly turns me off. Basically seems like Firefox with a different name to me.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by littlevish 

Basically seems like Firefox with a different name to me.

Well, it is Firefox with a different name. All they essentially did was take Firefox and slap a theme on it, added a Netscape.com prefpane, and renamed it Navigator.

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

Well, it is Firefox with a different name. All they essentially did was take Firefox and slap a theme on it, added a Netscape.com prefpane, and renamed it Navigator.

Do you know that for a fact, or is that a series of suppositions? Also, what exactly are Aqua widgets? I understand that Aqua is the name of OS X's interface, so I guess you mean that Navigator doesn't look like a Mac application, at least not inside the browser window (excluding the bar that include the Apple, Navigator, File, etc., whatever that is called). Help me out here.

[littlevish]

I am talking about the buttons, dropdown boxes etc.
Aqua Widgets (Camino, Shiira, Safari etc.)


VS.

Others (Firefox, Opera, Netscape etc.)

[selowitch]

Originally Posted by littlevish 

I am talking about the buttons, dropdown boxes etc.
Aqua Widgets (Camino, Shiira, Safari etc.)


VS.

Others (Firefox, Opera, Netscape etc.)

Ah, interesting. So it's a question of how the various browsers interpret the <input> and <button> and <textarea> tags, etc. and whether they use the Aqua widgets in those cases. While I certainly prefer the Aqua widgets, too, it's not really a dealbreaker for me.

Consider, for example, that (if I understand correctly) the non-Aqua buttons are responsive to styling via CSS that Aqua widgets mostly ignore. Viewed from that perspective, one might say that Aqua widgets do something that is contrary to a fully accessible, standards-based World Wide Web. In other words, the Aqua widgets are prettier out of the box, but the standard "widgets" can be manipulated to a much greater degree via cross-platform CSS.

[dn15]

Originally Posted by selowitch 

Do you know that for a fact, or is that a series of suppositions?

No question, the About window says so:

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

Ever since since version 6, Netscape has been a lightly modified version of Mozilla, then Firefox with version 8. That's why Mozilla (now known as SeaMonkey) came about in the first place. They released a bunch of code created by Netscape to create new a new open-source browser on which they could base future versions of Netscape.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by cgc 

If you really want a fast Firefox-based browser, try Camino.

Camino is not Firefox based.

[dn15]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

Camino is not Firefox based.

To clarify, Camino is Gecko-based. Gecko is the engine originally released in Mozilla, which in turn spawned a number of other products. To those who are not already familiar with the history of Mozilla and Gecko, it's rather confusing.

Browsers:
• "Mozilla" was the basis of Netscape 6 and 7, and recently became known as "SeaMonkey." Mozilla.org yanked the name as they demoted the suite to an unofficial project, deemphasizing it in favor of the now-more-popular Firefox and Thunderbird apps.
• "Chimera" became "Navigator" (not the new Netscape Navigator) which became "Camino". It offers Gecko with a mostly-native Mac interface.
• "Phoenix" became "Firebird" which became "Firefox." It is a browser-only spinoff from Mozilla and was the foundation of Netscape 8 and 9.
• "K-Meleon" offers Gecko with a native Windows interface, sort of a Win32 equivalent of Camino.
• "Minimo" is a stripped-down Gecko browser for Windows Mobile devices.

Other:
• "Thunderbird" is a standalone mail client based on the one found in Mozilla/SeaMonkey. It's the mail equivalent of Firefox.
• "Sunbird" is a standalone iCal-like app based on Mozilla software.
• "Nvu" is a standalone WYSIWYG HTML editor spinoff of Mozilla's Composer.
• AOL for Mac OS X uses Gecko in its browser component. Unfortunately they never got around to using it in the Windows version.

I'm probably missing a few, but those are the Gecko-based apps that come to mind at the moment.