netscape 6- blowing taps
6-October-2001
Is Netscape 6 dead? Yes... but like a zombie, it still walks.
I could write an impassioned article that would elicit impassioned rebuttals, but I won't. The facts are painfully simple. Read them and come to your own conclusions.
the facts...
Netscape 6, 6.01, and 6.1 are not really Netscape browsers (as we knew them). Netscape 6x is based upon the Mozilla browser.
Mozilla was formed by Netscape as an open source development community and its mission was to develop new software. That new software was supposed to be Netscape Communicator 5.
The Mozilla browser has been in development since January 1998... nearly four years. Mozilla has yet to release a completed version. Netscape, however, has badged and distributed prerelease Mozilla builds as finished Netscape browsers (versions 6.0-6.1).
Netscape evangelized the Mozilla project and publicized the amazing Mozilla core rendering engine called "gecko". The gecko engine was touted as brand new technology. The fact is, that if you look real close, gecko shares some of the same limitations as the Navigator 4 engine.
Shortly after the release of Netscape 6, reports of rendering problems cropped up all over the world. Simple image rollovers would turn black and simply disappear from the screen. Pressing the Reload button would either crash Netscape 6, or break apart page content.
I was told by a Netscape engineer, on condition of anonymity, that the cache was broken and would need to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Netscape pioneered DHTML. Heck, they invented JavaScript. Yet the Netscape 6 engine does not have the juice to render DHTML animation nearly so smooth as Netscape 4 does.
Note: DHTML allows web designers to craft compelling pages without the need for plugins or controls. DHTML allows designers to create unique interfaces. DHTML uses HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to separate style from content while it brings web pages to life.
Netscape organized Mozilla and many of the developers are former or current Netscape employees.
AOL now owns Netscape. If you are unfamiliar with AOL, it is part of the AOL Time-Warner Conglomerate, which controls the largest U.S. Cable TV system, the largest U.S. Internet Service Provider, and the Cable News Network (CNN).
As you ponder these facts and attempt to coalesce them into an opinion, I'll leave you with a quote from Jamie Zawinski. Zawinski was a longtime Netscape engineer, a Mozilla pioneer, and the original Netscape evangelist. He resigned from Netscape in 1999.
"AOL is about centralization and control of content," Zawinski wrote in a page dated March 31. "Everything that is good about the Internet, everything that differentiates it from television, is about empowerment of the individual. I don't want to be a part of an effort that could result in the elimination of all that."
A transcript of Jamie's public resignation can be read here. In the event his site goes offline, here is a cached copy.
and so it goes...
I would like to clearly state that the basic premise of the Mozilla browser is one I support. That is, I support the notion of a core set of web standards that every browser should adhere to. While I consider Netscape 6 dead, I do hope for a Netscape 7 that works as promised. I actually have some rather strong opinions about what a browser is, who should make them, and how they should be distributed... but that's a topic better left for another day!
