Netscape 6 preview release 2 available

Submitted by djc on August 8, 2000 - 08:59.

I've posted both the M17 release and the new 6.0 beta in our browser archive. You can grab M17 here and get 6.0 beta2 for your platform here I'll be trying them out myself later today and will post anything interesting that I find :)

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Submitted by jaylard on August 8, 2000 - 10:19.

The heavy hand of AOL is becoming readily apparent with Netscape's latest preview release. Although the installation of AOL Instant Messenger (which Isaac mentioned above) is optional (unlike as with current Netscape 4.7x installations), other AOL hallmarks are not:

• the addition of a "Free AOL" desktop icon
• the inclusion of a Net2Phone link (which can't be removed as far as I can tell) on the personal toolbar
• A stocks sidebar which lists the expected DJIA, NASDAQ, S&P 500, and, oh my, AOL

Another irritation: Netscape Activation -- a sign-in screen presumably used by AOL/Netscape marketing to fill your Communicator mailbox with incredible offers.

An interesting quirk: in addition to the installation of an English (US) language pack, Netscape 6 PR2 installed an English (Germany) language pack. Any idea what that might be?

My recommendation: download the Mozilla M17 browser instead. The download is half as large (or less), and the AOL imprint is far less evident.

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Submitted by aardvark on August 8, 2000 - 11:32.

Looks better than the last release. The buttons are smaller, the address bar works better (no more weird selecting to get a URL in there), and the right click seems to be back to normal. As for features, I've noticed that 'title' attributes are rendered as 'tool-tips' for the win32 version, but 'alt' attributes do not appear as tool-tips (which is good, IMO). Forms seem to work pretty well, accesskey appears to be supported, but not the label tag. Tabindex seems to work, but I don't have a sufficiently weird form on which to test it. It also seems faster and more stable, at least for the sites on which I tested it. I do not care for the install method. Installing from the web has always annoyed,, and I hated MS for doing it with IE. Also, the gratuitous AOL crap is annoying. None of us are going to use it, just like an average AOL user isn't going to get the beta. Better off leaving it out. It did at least remember my preferences, even after blowing away the previous preview release. Finally, for those of you who care, this is the User Agent string for the win32 version: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; m17) Gecko/20000807 Netscape6/6.0b2.

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Submitted by djc on August 8, 2000 - 12:21.

Posting this from the 2nd preview of NS6.. First thing I noticed is how fast the CSS is. If there's a link that underlines(dunno what its called :) when you mouseover it, it just really seems to jump out. It also renders our new site, which is very CSS heavy, very well. Ya, the install over the Internet things sucks, I agree. Most of the install process after the download was pretty easy though. I only choose to install Java2 and Net2Phone(no AIM or other AOL stuff), and thats all I got. Someone on slashdot mentioned all that crap got installed anyways, but it didn't for me. The profile set up for email was spiffy, and should be easy for newbies. James - to address some of your points, I couldn't find the german language thing(although there was an option to install Japanesse language pack), I do see a 'market news' sidebar option, but didnt see any AOL reference(just looked like the financial news from my.netscape.com). As for the icon on the desktop and the inclusion of an AOL account into Messenger - what do you expect? :) IE/Outlook Express does the exact same thing(hotmail, MSN) so its really no suprise. AOL is going to go after MS with this new release, thats just the way corporations are.. The nice thing is that you don't have to take all the marketing crap ifyou dont want to. Download Mozilla as you recommended. Design for mozilla and it will still work with the AOL version of Netscape. I don't see an option like that from MS(neoplanet maybe), although it would be welcome..

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Submitted by garrett on August 8, 2000 - 16:10.

I would avoid the Netscape/AOL PR2 build, which, IMHO, does a great diservice to all the hard work that the people at Mozilla have been doing. Go straight for the latest nightly of M18 (linked to at the top of http://www.mozillazine.org). It's a league above the Netscape/AOL release. I've been playing with it for the past couple of hours and so far, it's fantastic. So good in fact it's become my default browser. Rock solid, no crashes, renders like you know what off a shovel, *and* they've included the classic Netscape skin *:)

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Submitted by emkay on August 9, 2000 - 06:52.

You _can_ download the install files, it's an option under the Advanced settings on one of the install screens (at least it is for win32) Although it seems to install as you download anyway?

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Submitted by jaylard on August 9, 2000 - 15:37.

I *think* I discovered a single-file download of Netscape 6 PR2 for Win32 at ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/6_PR2/windows/win32/sea/N6Setup.exe. It's big enough to be, anyway -- over 17MB, or about 3x the size of the plain Mozilla M17 download. Also, if you go to the Netscape FTP site and browse the xpi subfolder, you'll see the file langende.xpi (German English -- perhaps for the German-speaking minority in Pennsylvania? :)

I'll admit that my review of N6 PR2 was pretty snippy, but I'm afraid that the Netscape faithful are going to have a big pill to swallow when this thing finally ships. Whether or not it ultimately reaches its standards-compliance goals (and I sincerely hope that it does), it's going to be larded down with a pile of AOL garbarge. IMHO, with no intent to start a flame war, AOL's heavy hand is not one iota better than Microsoft's. In fact, I think it's much worse, since I have almost nothing positive to say about AOL. IMO, the heavy AOL imprint is more akin to Microsoft's Channels effort with IE4 (although at least you could *delete* those!).

On the positive side, the underlying Mozilla browser has been nicely improved. And the optional "Classic" skin is an interesting (though a touch painful :) reminder of Netscape 4.x.

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Submitted by aardvark on August 10, 2000 - 09:50.

Thanks for the link. I've added the full installs of PR2 to the browser archive for Linux, MacOS, and MSWindows. They weigh in between 12 and 17 MB.

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