Latest version of Mosiac for Windows -Reply

[Shirley Lincicum]

I use NCSA Mosaic 2.0 (Final) almost exclusively (I check my pages in 
Netscape because most of the people on campus use Netscape, but that's 
about the extent of my Netscape use). I have yet to have any significant 
Win32s errors or other error problems with NCSA Mosaic 2.0 running on my 
Dell Pentium with 8 MB RAM running Win 3.1 using the Novell winsock 
(machines are on LAN Workplace 4.12). Occasionally I have difficulty 
loading pages into Mosaic, but it is usually the result of the 
Netscape-centric HTML coding or some other error, not Mosaic bugs. I like 
to use NCSA Mosaic because I'm used to it, the software is free and doesn't 
"expire" (as the "free" Netscape betas do), and I find I don't really lose much 
performance or functionality by using Mosaic. I must admit my bias, I worked 
tech. support for NCSA on Windows Mosaic for about 9 months when I was a 
student at the U. of Illinois, so I feel a certain attachment to NCSA 
Mosaic. I also like what NCSA Mosaic stands for 
philosophically--supporting open standards, working to improve a product 
not for commercial gain, but because it enables people to explore and do 
their work on the Web better. I do wish that NCSA could provide a little 
bit more support for their product and communicate their plans/progress 
in development a little more often. 

It is just too early to tell what browsers and standards will emerge as 
the "Microsoft" of the Internet/WWW.  It behooves those who want to use 
the technology to keep abreast of all the new developments, and I think 
it's not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket at this point. 
The fact that it sometimes feels like people are doing that with Netscape 
worries me.  We need to keep our options open and encourage developers to 
continue to develop and use open standards. 

Shirley Lincicum
Assistant Professor/Catalog Librarian
University of Oregon, Knight Library
lincicum at darkwing.uoregon.edu