Author:
Warren C. E. Austin
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Date Posted: 12:34:13 06/28/03 Sat
Rick
News I thought you, and your visitors might find informative.
With Netscape Communication Corporation's "load-balance" testing early this week of their FTP-Servers, and their, as a consequence having made available a preview release of Netscape 7.1, I feel it somewhat politic to revisit a topic I've addressed before, some months ago.
There is a World-wide technological revolution under way, one which unfortunately does not include adopters of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Any recommendations I make here regarding one Browsing Technology, over any other, are not intended to foster debate of Microsoft, nor its' products, especially Internet Explorer, but has more to do with emerging trends which will have a profound effect on our abilities to access and assimilate information through the media of the Internet.
The harsh reality of it all, and one only now being recognized by Microsoft in particular, and a host of others who have sought to control our access, is that Microsoft, and these others do not dictate the terms of how information is, will be, and should be transferred amongst us.
The World Wide Web Consortium ["W3C Org" for short and to be found here: http://www.w3.org/ ], dictates those terms setting the standards that everyone who uses the Internet must adhere to, with Microsoft, and others being simply member components of that organization.
Microsoft recently publicly announced there will be no further "stand-alone" Internet Explorer releases. Version 6 SP1 is all she wrote folks. And further enhancements to the technology will likely only now ever be made through the auspices of their Windows Operating System. That they had previously integrated Internet Explorer into their Windows OS was, and still is, as many of you here may be aware, the subject of a massive legal battle in the U. S. these past couple of years.
So what alternatives are you and I, the end-user, going to have made available to us in lieu of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft's decision to freeze its' development. There are several, each with their own specific strengths and weaknesses, with ALL BUT ONE complying with the standards as set out and proscribed by W3C Org. The one remaining hold out, is ironically enough Microsoft, and their imbedded Internet Explorer technologies.
Given recent announcements at Netscape Communication Corporation, and its' parent company AOL/Time-Warner, it's not known at the present time whether further development upon the Netscape Browser Suite will be undertaken. What is now known, and will be readily apparent to all any of you that do download, and install the "new" Netscape 7.1 when the FTP-Servers are opened to the general public, probably sometime next week, is that long awaited change has finally come; if for no other reason than its' "newly instituted" dynamic and astoundingly awesome "Junk-mail and SPAM" filtering capabilities, whereby the Browser Suite is now capable of "learning" your e-Mail behaviour and handling your incoming e-Mail accordingly. With the release of Netscape 7.1, Netcape, and Mozilla have matured beyond belief, and do really and truly deserve your taking a first, if not second look. There are so many desirable, and needed features, to be found within the structure of the Netscape/Mozilla Browsers, so many in truth, that I cannot name them all; but, other than the "Junk e-Mail" filtering, alluded to above, there are discrete "text" and "image" on-the-fly re-sizing capability; a fully customizable User-interface, whereby each and every element of what you see on your screen may be determined, not by others, but by you the end-user, as you are using it. Gone forever is the era of unauthorized "pushed" content, and "pop-up" windows; making it's first appearance in 10-years, is the ability to surf in "text-only" mode which dramatically reduces screen-viewing time, especially when searching for information, and not simply, and idly surfing, or browsing. Gone forever, too, are the days of undesired advertising, with the end-user now able to control, all, or any, advertising which may appear on the screen. In addition e-Mail encryption is now a seemless, and easily integrated function of the Browser Suite.
Those interested will find the U. S. English-language version of the Netscape Browser Suite here:
[ ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape7/english/7.1/windows/win32/sea/NSSetupB.exe ]
This above link is for the "full" stand-alone archive with built-in installer, and will be in the neighbourhood of a 30 Mb download. For those with a standard Dial-up, and not wanting to dedicate the resources necessary to download a file of that size, the Internet installer will be found here:
[ ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape7/english/7.1/windows/win32/NSSetup.exe ]
Other language versions will be made available too, with them being added one at a time shortly after the "official" release of the U. S. English-language version, and will be found here:
[ ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/ ]
In addition, whether Netscape continues the development of their "Branded" Browser, or not, the Open-source Community, the life blood behind the "Mozilla Project", and the parent to the Browser being marketed under the Netscape name, will continue its' work and enhancements to the "Gecko Rendering Engine" is assured. This same technology is currently featured in a goodly number of other alternative Browsers, information about which will be found here:
[ http://www.mozilla.org/ ]
The most significant of these being Beonix, Firebird (previously known as Phoenix), Thunderbird, Camino (formerly known as Chimera), K-Melon, Skipstone, and of course Mozilla, the grand-daddy of them all, itself.
Opera Software Corporation, a small all most unknown company, based in Norway is doing remarkable things with their entry into the alternative Browser field, and it, too, is worth taking a look at. You'll find more information here:
[ http://www.opera.com/ ]
What does the future hold for Internet Explorer? At this juncture, no-one (other than maybe Microsoft itself) knows. What is known is that the Internet Explorer (and Outlook, Outlook Express, et al) technologies are non-compliant, and will not in future be tolerated by the web-community, especially they interfere with the free access by all, to information, and services.
Microsoft and AOL/Time-Warner recently settled their long running dispute over AOL's access to Microsoft's technology, and it remains to be seen whether the "Gecko Rendering Engine" makes an appearance in the Windows Operating System sometime within the next few years; or whether Microsoft will attempt to stand alone in the face of the World's disaffection with any entities monopolistic behaviour.
In the mean time, for continued assurance of your "privacy", and the security and integrity of your computing environment, I suggest you consider one of the alternative now available.
Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada
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