Product Reviews

About five years ago, I knew the day would come when I'd be reviewing Netscape, and I've been dreading it ever since. This has nothing to do with Netscape per se - it's a perfectly good web browser and software platform, within reason. No, the issue is that no-one will take any notice of what I say on the matter, other than to furiously agree or disagree with me. You see, a 2002 release of Netscape is completely irrelevant to PC business users, and most home users too.

However, Netscape is important to those who believe that Microsoft is The Evil Empire. Let's be clear about this - I can't imagine any corporate or SME installing Netscape 7 in preference to IE on its existing Windows clients. Why add complication, management costs, system integration issues and so forth when there is, to all intents and purposes, no benefit?

Netscape's admirers might say, with justification, that Netscape is a more standards-compliant browser and that we should use it as a matter of principle. However, this ignores the fact that web browser development is done to take into account the undoubted foibles and idiosyncrasies of IE, simply because it's the predominant platform.

Netscape 7 isn't just about Windows, of course. There are versions for Mac OS 9 and X and Linux, although certified support is for Red Hat only. How well does it work in practice? I loaded it up on an XP Desktop and my Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar machines, and took it for a long test drive around a pile of websites.

First impressions are always useful - the Netscape interface is of its own design and ignores the conventions of the platform it's running on. This is also true on OS X, where the lack of the Aqua look and feel is most noticeable.

Performance seemed reasonable, but these are high-powered machines. In the realm of Java applications and their support, it was a mixed bag. I installed Sun's

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Java 2 onto my Windows machine as part of the Netscape install, while, on the Mac, Java 2 is already a standard part of the install. Both platforms managed to get into some pure Java applications that I run, although the Mac version messed up quite a bit of the formatting, with missing vertical scroll bars, for example. What's more, for no obvious reason, I couldn't use Netscape to log into my SonicWALL firewall on the Mac - it said the applet was running, but authentication just kept failing. It did, however, work fine on the Windows version. This is still an improvement though, as previously Netscape on OS X appeared to ignore the built-in Java run-time completely.

I'll admit that it's the little things about Netscape 7 that annoy me most. I don't mind that it's somewhat of a memory hog, because RAM is cheap and most machines have plenty. However, the fact that it doesn't respond to the Back button and Click Scroll on my Microsoft IntelliMouse drives me nuts. I didn't realise how much I used these features. I also miss the Automatic Image Resizing feature of IE 6 - its absence was immediately noticed.

Installing Netscape 7 on a variety of platforms has clearly brought into focus how well IE 6 works most of the time. On the Mac, IE 5.2 is a bit of a mess, and any alternatives like Netscape 7 that do a better job are more than welcome. The same is true for the Linux Desktop - Netscape is as good as you're going to get. On Windows, however, I can't think of a single reason why I'd use Netscape instead of IE 6 - the clunky nature of the user interface and little foibles would quickly make me angry.

Of course, the package isn't just about a browser - you get lots of functionality thrown in, including Winamp, Net2Phone, RealPlayer and support for Instant Messaging, email and newsgroups too. It's a comprehensive package, and it's certainly not an expensive trial.

Whether Netscape 7 is right for you will depend entirely on your expectations. If you think Bill Gates is the Devil Incarnate, you'll already have downloaded and installed it, and you'll probably have Opera too for comparison purposes. The competition is good, but I wouldn't advise moving over to Netscape for Windows users. If you're on OS X or Linux, however, it's worth a closer look. Unfortunately, for the majority of PC Pro readers, it's hard to see a meaningful place for Netscape 7 on the Desktop. This is a pity as, despite its odd quirks, it's still a good web browser.