[WEB4LIB] Why upgrade to Communicator?

[Andrew I. Mutch]

Michael,

If your machines will support running the 4.0 version, there are several
benefits to running Navigator 4.0 over version 3.0.

Probably the biggest benefit is that you can run a stand-alone version of
Navigator that does not have any of the mail components that you find in
version 3.0.  This is often a source of problems for both patrons and
staff.

Other benefits of version 4.0 include:

Better support for running Java and handling Javascript
Support of style sheets (well, not really, but sort of!)
Ability to lock-in preferences using the prefs.js file
"Self-cleaning" caches

In general, I've found that version 4.0 Navigators perform better than 3.0
versions and that they can handle the wide variety of web sites employing
Java, Javascript, Dynamic HTML and other features that version 3.0 will
often trip up on.  

If you decide not to upgrade to 4.0, make sure that you are running the
most current version 3.0, which is 3.04 (last time I checked!).  It
handles Java reasonably well while earlier versions choke on it quite
often.

Andrew Mutch
Electronic Services Support
Northville District Library
Northville, MI


On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Michael Lucas wrote:

> 
> Are there any advantages to upgrading from Netscape Navigator
> to Communicator. I'm currently running Navigator 3.0 on all of
> our Internet workstations, but have yet to be convinced that
> there is a need to upgrade to the latest version of
> Communicator. If anyone has upgraded from Navigator to
> Communicator, I'd be interested to hear why and what were the
> reasons or advantages of upgrading.
> 
> Thanks, 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Michael J. Lucas
> Reference and Information Services
> Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
> Charlottesville, Virginia  22902
> Email: mlucas at avenue.org
> Phone: (804)979-7151, ext. 400 Fax: (804) 971-7035
>