Netscape 9

[izanbardprince]

I was wondering.

Since Netscape 9 has been announced to be multi-platform, is Ubuntu going to offer it in the non-free section like with Opera?

[Polygon]

if someone packages it and submits to the repo maintainers im sure it will.

[SunnyRabbiera]

maybe, it really depends

[fuscia]

nutscrape, along with the human theme, will look like a howard johnson's.

[mcduck]

It's currently pretty much Firefox with different name and theme. It uses Gecko engine, has all the same features and even uses Firefox extensions. And it even looks pretty much the same.

They seem to have changed the settings panel, and added some antispyware features. Hopefully in the future it will gain more unique features but right now I don't see any reason to use it instead of Firefox :D

[crimesaucer]

It's currently pretty much Firefox with different name and theme. It uses Gecko engine, has all the same features and even uses Firefox extensions. And it even looks pretty much the same.

They seem to have changed the settings panel, and added some antispyware features. Hopefully in the future it will gain more unique features but right now I don't see any reason to use it instead of Firefox :D

Having tried Netscape 9.0.0.3 for Linux, I will tell you that it whoops Firefox's a** when it comes to performance.


The pages load with the feeling of Opera or Epiphany, and as fast or faster than Opera, Epiphany, Swiftfox, Swiftweasel, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3 beta 1...


When I say that the pages load like Opera, I mean that they load instantly, and all at once. It rarely crashes, it's much faster on digg.com, and loads this Ubutnu Forum instantly.


The page loading time shown in my Fasterfox clock says it all.


I could care less if it's not free like Opera. The reason I'm liking it is because it is still everything that's good about Firefox (extensions, userChrome.css, import Firefox bookmarks, easy to customize, uses my gtk-2.0 theme in the default skin), but it feels exactly the way Opera and Epiphany feel when opening pages and starting the browser.


Try it before you knock it... and the ugly icons are very easy to change in the classic.jar file.

[smartboyathome]

Have you tried Seamonkey? It is basically the same thing as Netscape, but is open source and run by the community.

[crimesaucer]

Have you tried Seamonkey? It is basically the same thing as Netscape, but is open source and run by the community.

No I haven't, but I will now, thank you. (I did just read through the Seamonkey page, and it seems different than Netscape 9.0.0.3 stand alone Linux browser)

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
http://browser.netscape.com/firstrun/9.0

[samwyse]

Seamonkey aka Iceape (on Ubuntu/Debian), formerly known as Mozilla browser, doesn't use Firefox code.

[smartboyathome]

I just read more about Netscape 9, and now see that it is based on Firefox 2.0. So Seamonkey is like an older Netscape. Sorry about that.

[samwyse]

I'm currently using Iceape. Speedwise I don't think there's a difference to Firefox, but it doesn't have as many extensions and some of them need to be installed as sudo. Also the toolbar is not customizable in the same way.

However CTRL+PageUp/PageDown for tab switching works properly unlike in Firefox: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=611893 :)

[crimesaucer]

I just read more about Netscape 9, and now see that it is based on Firefox 2.0. So Seamonkey is like an older Netscape. Sorry about that.

I also just went into my Swiftfox, and disabled my StumbleUpon toolbar and my ForecastFox Enhanced toolbar (since neither of those is available for Netscape 9.0.0.4), and I saw a HUGE difference in page loading times and speed of the browser.

Now Swiftfox and Netscape were about the exact same. Netscape still feels more solid like Opera and Epiphany, but Swiftfox does get a slight bit faster on some pages...


I don't know which I will use, since I really like the StumbleUpon button and the Forecastfox Enhanced weather reports (I'm a surfer so my life revolves around the weather and the current wind conditions).


I might just add a weather script for Conky, and disable the Forecastfox Enhanced toolbar... so I can still have StumbleUpon on a fast Swiftfox.