[WEB4LIB] Re: Netscape 6.1 -- Print Preview

[Thomas Dowling]

> Thomas,
>
> I think you're being too charitable to AOL-Time-Warner-Netscape-Mozilla
and not charitable enough to customers.  If Ford came out with a new
Explorer built entirely on a new platform, and decided to eliminate the
outside rear view mirrors, automotive writers would lambaste them for the
omission.  Potential buyers expect that a new model with the same name will
improve overall, lose the Wilderness AT tires, and retain all the basic
features everyone is used to.
>

I offered an explanation, not an apology.  I've had little love for Netscape
over the years, and don't really care if they screw up Yet Again.  But let's
keep some perspective: if my new Ford loses a feature like rear view
mirrors, the potential downside is that I die in a fiery explosion.  There
are comparatively few browser features with so much at stake.  IE went for
years without Print Preview and many people found it quite usable
regardless.

> The heritage of NS 6 is informative, but it's inside baseball.  NS and IE
got Print Preview years too late.  IE 5.5 did it better, and it's improved
in IE 6.  By contrast, NS 6.x loses the feature.  AOL presented NS 6.x as
the next progression in the NS lineage. People using a Web browser on a
public terminal often want to print a gem they encounter. Leaving out Print
Preview encourages the few remaining NS users to stick with 4.7 or jump
ship. AOL should have held off on the NS 6 label.
>

On the list of problems facing Netscape, its future on library public
workstations is probably not what has the company shaking in their boots.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu