[WEB4LIB] Netscape standalone

[Andrew I. Mutch]

Jacque, 

The most "current" version of Netscape standalone is 4.08. By current, we
are talking circa 1998. We had Netscape 4.08 on our public Internet
computers before we upgraded to Windows2000. While I loved the ease with
which I could "lock" it down, its performance was becoming increasingly
erratic.  There's several areas where 4.08 just doesn't cut it:

1) Standards-support: Its support for CSS1 is a crap-shoot at best. It
doesn't support CSS2 or any of the other more recently adopted standards.
Just visit some of the CSS2-focused web sites of more recent vintage to
see how it renders these sites. If the designers did a good job, it should
degrade decently. If they didn't, it will make a mangle of it. Either
way, it probably won't display the way that the designers intended.

2) Java: A regular occurance was the browser crashing on most sites that
used Java applets. I never traced down the root cause of this but the
patrons and staff weren't happy when it did.

3) Page rendering: Once you've run 4.08 against IE 6 or one of the
Mozilla-based browsers, I think you'll find that its page rendering is
painfully slow. 

When we upgraded, I installed Public Web Browser on these computers. It's
very easy to configure and is very secure. At some point, I'll be adding a
Mozilla-based browser to these computers as well. It most probably will be
K-Meleon, once we get a few more issues sorted out. I already use K-Meleon
on our OPACs and it has been the "perfect" browser for that use. I might
also look at Mozilla or Netscape 7 too. 

I've been asked to review a set of instructions on how to lock down
Netscape/Mozilla as tight as PWB or K-Meleon. Once I get a chance to test
those out, I've been given the OK to post those up as part of my help
pages. So, hopefully, I can get those up soon. Those might provide a good
alternative for those who want to stick to Netscape.

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



On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Jacque King wrote:

> Are any of you still using Netscape's standalone version (I think it is
> version 4.05)?  If so, are there any reasons you wish you weren't?
> 
> I'd like to use it on our new W2K public stations (since it does not have
> AOL, etc., integrated). We've been using Netscape 4.7x, but it is tedious
> to lock down so I'm hoping I can go back to the standalone version without
> any problems.  If you are currently using the standalone version, I
> would appreciate hearing from you (e.g. do you have any printing
> issues? any java issues? site freezes? etc.)
> 
> Many thanks!!
> 
> Jacque King
> Library Technical Support Specialist
> Fort Collins Public Library
> 201 Peterson Street
> Fort Collins, CO  80524
> (970) 221-6716
> king at julip.fcgov.com
> 
> 
>