PDA

View Full Version : Anyone use Netscape anymore?



SZF2001
October 12th, 2007, 02:53 AM
I'm just wondering.

You could argue the fact that it's basically Firefox, but then again, I really don't think so - I'm using Debian, btw, but this seems to be one of the most active Linux forums ever so I'll just throw up my two cents here.

Debian comes with Iceweasel, which is basically Firefox. Why Iceweasel? I'm not sure. Maybe because it's supposed to be modified to be faster or... something. Information on that would be great.

So for simplicities sake, I'll just refer to it as Firefox.

Really, Netscape 9 is really close to Firefox. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it really was. But here is the thing - while running Firefox and Netscape, I've found Netscape to be faster.

So here's the thing I like - I can have my Firefox extensions on a faster browser. That's a definite plus for me. But that's just me.

So if Firefox and Netscape have the same builds, how does Netscape manage to be faster? I haven't checked with Opera yet, but I don't really want to become accustomed to that browser just yet - that's another topic.

In my personal opinion, (and this is stuff I think, not know) someone on the Netscape team has managed to up the Firefox team on speed. The two projects split in half, but why not merge again? Someone knows something and they could both benefit.

Bungo Pony
October 12th, 2007, 03:04 AM
I haven't used Netscape in years. I quit using it on Windows since I noticed IE was faster and was crashing less (believe it or not).

Wait until you try Opera. It's easily the fastest browser I've used, just ahead of Konqueror.

rfruth
October 12th, 2007, 03:11 AM
I use Firefox as primary, Opera as secondary

p_quarles
October 12th, 2007, 03:14 AM
Debian comes with Iceweasel, which is basically Firefox. Why Iceweasel? I'm not sure. Maybe because it's supposed to be modified to be faster or... something. Information on that would be great.
The Mozilla Foundation wouldn't approve its trademark for the changes that Debian made to Firefox, so the Debian devs forked it.


Really, Netscape 9 is really close to Firefox. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it really was. But here is the thing - while running Firefox and Netscape, I've found Netscape to be faster.
Netscape and Firefox both use the same engine (Gecko), and platform (XUL), but they are different projects. Firefox has definitely gotten pretty bloated in the past couple years. The main problem is the way it manages memory. Supposedly this is going to be fixed in 3.0.

ryanVickers
October 12th, 2007, 03:38 AM
Make a poll on this now before it's too late! ;)

I just have this rule that anything collecting an opinion (when it is possible) should have a poll to easily show the data! :)

Kingsley
October 12th, 2007, 04:19 AM
The extensions and settings you have on Iceweasel are probably the reason it seems slower than Netscape.

-grubby
October 12th, 2007, 04:28 AM
no... I haven't seen it in years

Dimitriid
October 12th, 2007, 04:53 AM
I thought regular Netscape Navigator its owned and possibly controlled by AOL now and I wont go anywhere near AOL if i can help it.

vishzilla
October 12th, 2007, 04:54 AM
last i used it was version 7, threw it out when firefox came. i never liked IE though i used it momentarily between netscape and firefox. now, with Linux i'm using Firefox with Opera as my 2nd preference

SZF2001
October 14th, 2007, 03:29 AM
Hm, something odd... Please, tell me, can Opera do this?

I'm not sure if it's a Debian and Ubuntu difference, but with Ubuntu, no matter what browser I used, I couldn't get encoded pages to work properly (see: http://www.ytmnd.com - yes, there are flash pages, and then there are still classic encoded pages).

On Debian, Firefox won't work with the encoded pages for some reason, but with Netscape all encoded pages work like a charm. I've listened to Cosby Bebop to confirm this in one of my Netscape tabs... Is this something the Firefox team could fix, or is it something entirely different? Ubuntu and Debian aren't too far off - last time I checked anyway, UB is an unstable release of Debian's unstable stuff, which isn't a bad thing, because it works out pretty nice. But still.

izanbardprince
October 14th, 2007, 04:12 AM
I haven't used Netscape since Communicator 4, in like 2001. :P

Mostly used Mozilla Suite til Firefox was out.

As for Netscape 9, it's literally just a rebadged Firefox with AOL spam and it'll take 3 times as long before they get around to posting security fixes.

SunnyRabbiera
October 14th, 2007, 05:01 AM
for me the new netscape is pretty good, sure yes its a dressed up firefox but it feels faster and intuitive.

AMDBuntu
October 14th, 2007, 06:32 AM
Try Opera - small & fast, has built in email and torrent.

FredB
October 14th, 2007, 06:52 AM
Try Opera - small & fast, has built in email and torrent.

Ok. But what the interest of having a torrent client embedded ?

Opera was great, when it was in version 3.6. SInce, it is no more than a bloatware.

Netscape ? Last time I used it, it was about... 7 years ago, with the crappy 6.0 version.

bonzodog
October 14th, 2007, 09:06 AM
Ok. But what the interest of having a torrent client embedded ?

Opera was great, when it was in version 3.6. SInce, it is no more than a bloatware.

Netscape ? Last time I used it, it was about... 7 years ago, with the crappy 6.0 version.

So, hold on. Firefox is bloated, netscape is crap, opera is bloated; what do you use?
I have heard a lot about kazekahase being amazingly fast, but haven't tried it yet. personally, I am waiting for a gtk2 browser that does not use the Gecko engine.

fuscia
October 14th, 2007, 09:51 AM
Hm, something odd... Please, tell me, can Opera do this?

I'm not sure if it's a Debian and Ubuntu difference, but with Ubuntu, no matter what browser I used, I couldn't get encoded pages to work properly (see: http://www.ytmnd.com - yes, there are flash pages, and then there are still classic encoded pages).

On Debian, Firefox won't work with the encoded pages for some reason, but with Netscape all encoded pages work like a charm. I've listened to Cosby Bebop to confirm this in one of my Netscape tabs... Is this something the Firefox team could fix, or is it something entirely different? Ubuntu and Debian aren't too far off - last time I checked anyway, UB is an unstable release of Debian's unstable stuff, which isn't a bad thing, because it works out pretty nice. But still.

that page worked fine for me in firefox and i don't use firefox (meaning, i haven't messed with it at all).

have you tried epiphany?

and +1 to whoever mentioned a gtk browser that doesn't use gecko.

-1 to kazehakase (weird and slow)

andrewpmk
October 14th, 2007, 10:42 AM
Netscape = Firefox + added junk so I haven't used it for years. I remember having to convince my mom though (who uses Windows, and who is practically computer illiterate) that Firefox is better than Netscape.

plb
October 14th, 2007, 01:20 PM
Netscape was more or less the only decent browser for *nix back when I first started with Linux in 1999. There were of course other browsers but netscape was like the defacto one sort of how Firefox is these days.

disturbed1
October 14th, 2007, 02:21 PM
Didn't even know version 9 was out for LInux :(

Opera is nice but a little clunky to me. Firefox is 90% perfect but eats the RAM. For me I'm torn between Epiphany and Galeon. Been using Epiphany for the most part. Though there is that odd page now and then that just doesn't display correctly, but works fine in Firefox.

I'll try out the new Netscape, if it uses less RAM than Firefox.......... doubtful that'll happen though ;)

Andrewie
October 14th, 2007, 02:34 PM
My dad was using the Linux version 7 until I convinced him to use Firefox.

FredB
October 14th, 2007, 03:17 PM
So, hold on. Firefox is bloated, netscape is crap, opera is bloated; what do you use?
I have heard a lot about kazekahase being amazingly fast, but haven't tried it yet. personally, I am waiting for a gtk2 browser that does not use the Gecko engine.

Firefox, bloated ? Maybe with trunk version I am using every single day.

Gtk2 and no gecko ? Just try epiphany + webkit in google ;)

disturbed1
October 15th, 2007, 09:03 AM
Netscape is pretty nice. I'm actually digging it.

Feels lighter than Firefox. After a few hours of browsing flash and java enabled sites, Firefox jumps upto 120-130MB of RAM, Netscape hit 90-110MB. No extensions enabled on either.

So thanks to the OP for pointing this out.

SZF2001
October 16th, 2007, 10:38 PM
Thanks disturbed, someone actually tried out the damn thing. Yea, some of these people seem a little crazy.

"OMG IT'S VERSION 9 AND I REMEMBER BACK ON VERSION 6 IT WAS CRAP SO I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO BOTHER WITH THIS NEW VERSION LULZ"

"THERE MUST BE AOL CRAP PLASTERED ALL OVER TEH BROWSER I MEEN SRSLY!"

Riiiight. Using Linux and Windows, both with Netscape, I haven't seen one ad for AOL or one link in the bookmarks pointing toward anything AOL related (and you can just delete those).

The only AOL icon I've seen on my desktop (Windows) is after installing STARSIEGE: Tribes, and that game is dinosaur old and that's back when they plastered the ******* all over your computer. AOL has toned it down since then.

Yes. It really feels like Firefox. And now that someone can actually agree it feels a bit faster, and I've got my extensions going which hasn't slowed anything down, I'm sticking with Netscape 9.

There was a recent update, too. Nifty little things - like this text box I'm typing in; I can resize it how I see fit. Of course, it's like Firefox, so you guys got the update, right? Just wondering.

SunnyRabbiera
October 16th, 2007, 10:41 PM
Ok. But what the interest of having a torrent client embedded ?

Opera was great, when it was in version 3.6. SInce, it is no more than a bloatware.

Netscape ? Last time I used it, it was about... 7 years ago, with the crappy 6.0 version.

Well opera has gotten better ever since it dropped the stupid adds.

disturbed1
October 19th, 2007, 01:40 PM
Thanks disturbed, someone actually tried out the damn thing. Yea, some of these people seem a little crazy.

"OMG IT'S VERSION 9 AND I REMEMBER BACK ON VERSION 6 IT WAS CRAP SO I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO BOTHER WITH THIS NEW VERSION LULZ"

"THERE MUST BE AOL CRAP PLASTERED ALL OVER TEH BROWSER I MEEN SRSLY!"

Riiiight. Using Linux and Windows, both with Netscape, I haven't seen one ad for AOL or one link in the bookmarks pointing toward anything AOL related (and you can just delete those).

The only AOL icon I've seen on my desktop (Windows) is after installing STARSIEGE: Tribes, and that game is dinosaur old and that's back when they plastered the ******* all over your computer. AOL has toned it down since then.

Yes. It really feels like Firefox. And now that someone can actually agree it feels a bit faster, and I've got my extensions going which hasn't slowed anything down, I'm sticking with Netscape 9.

There was a recent update, too. Nifty little things - like this text box I'm typing in; I can resize it how I see fit. Of course, it's like Firefox, so you guys got the update, right? Just wondering.

No problem. I presume most people don't know the relationship between Netscape and Mozilla. If they (Netscape) hadn't open sourced the code, we wouldn't have Firefox as we know it today ;) http://sillydog.org/netscape/kb/netscapemozilla.php

Don't really understand the bias towards AOL either. The internet is what it is today because of AOL. I don't like, use nor condone AOL, but I do give respect where respect is due. AOL is moving away from being an ISP, and to a content provider. Which is great for 50-60% of those online (children and older adults).

I guess disturbed1 != Ub3R-l33t b4D4sS h4X40Rs

SZF2001
October 19th, 2007, 03:58 PM
I don't mind people using different standards, and whatever you want to use is fine by me. Hey, you don't even have to like something, you could loathe it, whatever, you know?

It's just that when people post their logic and reasoning for why they don't even try something - example, people saying how bad it is on version 5/6/7 when they haven't even tried 9. That's like people who diss the PS3 and they've only had experience with a PS1 and/or PS2. I know a lot of us wouldn't have the money to get one anyway (including me - for now anyway) but it just makes you seem as though you have the intellect of a GameFAQ member.

I'm too sleepy to post the rest or give another **** at this point.

crimesaucer
November 27th, 2007, 10:54 PM
Thanks disturbed, someone actually tried out the damn thing. Yea, some of these people seem a little crazy.

"OMG IT'S VERSION 9 AND I REMEMBER BACK ON VERSION 6 IT WAS CRAP SO I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO BOTHER WITH THIS NEW VERSION LULZ"

"THERE MUST BE AOL CRAP PLASTERED ALL OVER TEH BROWSER I MEEN SRSLY!"

Riiiight. Using Linux and Windows, both with Netscape, I haven't seen one ad for AOL or one link in the bookmarks pointing toward anything AOL related (and you can just delete those).

The only AOL icon I've seen on my desktop (Windows) is after installing STARSIEGE: Tribes, and that game is dinosaur old and that's back when they plastered the ******* all over your computer. AOL has toned it down since then.

Yes. It really feels like Firefox. And now that someone can actually agree it feels a bit faster, and I've got my extensions going which hasn't slowed anything down, I'm sticking with Netscape 9.

There was a recent update, too. Nifty little things - like this text box I'm typing in; I can resize it how I see fit. Of course, it's like Firefox, so you guys got the update, right? Just wondering.

I found Netscape 9.0.0.3 yesterday, and so far I've found it faster than Swiftfox, Swiftweasel, Opera, and Epiphany... and definitely faster than regular Firefox 2 (and even Firefox 3 beta 1).


The only thing I've seen "AOL" was the installed Netscape/AOL home page, which I changed to my own iGoogle page.


Most of my important extensions work (Fasterfox, AdBlock Plus, Tabs Mix Plus, Stylish, Better Search, Gmail Notifier... ), and the ones that don't work will be upgraded soon. (Cute Menus SVG, ForecastFox Enhanced... ).


I like the fact that Netscape is almost exactly like Firefox (easy to customize), except it loads pages with that stable feel of Opera, and it seems faster than Opera and Epiphany.


The Link pad seems like a good idea, and maybe I'll get used to the mini-browser.