[WEB4LIB] Mozilla goes to alpha

[Andrew Mutch]

I've been a quiet booster for the whole Mozilla effort and I've, in general,
really liked the Netscape products.  However, as I've worked more and more
with IE 5.0,the deficiencies in 4.x versions of Netscape have become more and
more apparent.  Also, where IE 5.0 seems to integrate a lot of options to
secure the browser, I haven't really heard anything from the Mozilla effort
that indicates the same effort is being made at their end.  Granted, the open
source nature of the product makes it more likely that a 3rd party developer
can create a locked-down browser without a lot of trouble but I wouldn't need
to go that route if I moved to IE 5.0.

Also, I have concerns about the interface itself.  I wonder how many people
working on Mozilla have a good UI background??  There seems to be a lot of
emphasis on looks and effects but if the interface doesn't work, all the
glitz in the world isn't going to save you.

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI

Thomas Dowling wrote:

> Mozilla released their Milestone 13 version last night.  If the
> terminology means anything, they're calling this their Alpha release and
> suggesting that testers will find it ready for everyday use.  That
> probably means the M14 release will come in the first or second week of
> March; the mozilla newsgroups report that Netscape is planning to build
> the first Communicator 5 alpha around M14.
>
> My confidence that Mozilla's labor will ever give birth to a real browser
> waxes and wanes; I've played with this program long enough that I'm ready
> for it to be ready, and it's hard to stay patient with the alpha-quality
> flakiness.  It looks like the underlying technology is firming up; the
> question for me is whether A) the mozilla folks are really going to nail
> the user interface or B) Netscape can be trusted to do that without just
> making it a funnel to pull people toward their e-commerce operations,
> which is how I increasingly see Communicator 4.
>
> Thomas ("Still no sign of Opera 4.0b, though") Dowling
> OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
> tdowling at ohiolink.edu