[WEB4LIB] Is Netscape dead?

[josh at saratoga.lib.ny.us]

> But, seriously, are most others in agreement with Dan Lester's post
> (portions below) and is there really no other choice but IE?  I for one am
> not willing to let go of Netscape that easily...yet.  I find some of the

No, NetScape is not dead. There are many alternative browsers. I find
myself using Lynx more and more, believing that if I can't view a site
with a text based browser it is not worth looking at. There are also
numerous alternative browsers: opera, amaya, arena, icab, tango,
etc. The only reason MSIE is gaining is because of Microsoft's lock on
the pre-installed operating system market. The test of a browser
should be foremost in its ability to correctly display HTML. The
authorship is irrelevant. The web site,
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/howclock.html, which shows how to get an
accurate clock on a web page is one of many, that points out something
that NetScape got right that MSIE didn't. (I haven't checked this against
the latest version of MSIE.)

That said. I did do a custom install of MSIE with all the Global IME
features for foreign languages and I was impressed. (It was 45MB and
the installer required a live internet connection - did work through
my squid proxy running on Linux, though.) I will contact Netscape and
see what they say about foreign language support. 


-- 
Josh Kuperman                       josh at saratoga.lib.ny.us
Saratoga Springs Public Library     phone (518) 584-7860 x 211
49 Henry St                         fax   (518) 584-7866
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866