Why has Netscape become so craptastic?

[DiscoLando]

What's so wrong with using IE? It works, it's standards compliant (5.5), it's fairly fast (although Opera does blow it away, but Opera falls very short of standards compliance) and you know it's manufacturer isn't struggling to keep above water.

[edwelly]

I like IE 5.0 but didn't like 6.0 at all. i know it is the beta version but it didn;t seem to want to work right. When I tried to uninstall it, there was no uninstall option. That sucked!
So what is this Opera thing you guys are talking about?
---erik

[Beemer]

I figured MS has hurt NS so bad financially that NS can't afford to hire good programmers now and for the last 1 and a 1/2 years.

Cheers!

[Vagabond]

I to am a NS person and having issues with it. I have looked into Opera but have not made the switch yet....

[Virus]

Just to clear up a misconception.

Netscape 4 is netscape standard compliant.

IE 5 and 5.5 are MS standard compliant.

IE 6 is MS and W3C standard compliant.

Netscape 6 (gecko browsers), Opera, Konquorer are W3C compliant.

Opera is very strict in their W3C compliance. So much so that they won't add support for functions that aren't part of a W3C standards (overflow: scroll, zindex). While other browsers include support for these functions.

W3C is an open industry standard while MS is not.

[skuz]

I have been a faithful user of Netscape since 2.0 up to 4.77 and I now use Opera and I'm completely addicted. As a slow dial-up user I'm always looking for ways to improve, even a little bit, my surfing speed. And Opera does.

I must admit it was hard to configure at first, but now it's fine. Just about EVERYTHING is configurable in this browser. Plus, I don't need GetRight anymore.

One downside : Opera rarely crashes, but when it does, it brings down the entire OS.

[scotter]

well lets see who bought netscape ?

if memory servers me right I do believe it was AOHELL ?

mabe thats why it sucks big ones now ?

[samwichse]

edwelly:

Opera is an alternative web browser (that I personally now use about 95% of the time). It's only a 2.5 meg download if you already have Java installed, and it's way faster than either Netscape or Internet Explorer. Also, once you get used to it, the windowing system is a bit more efficiant (it keeps all the windows in one place for me).

Plus, it's neither a Microsoft nor an AOL (Netscape) product.

Oh, and if you're worried about plugins, it seems like, on my computer at least, Opera uses plugs that I've already installed from both IE and Netscape.

[c0r3file]

Gah. FOr about 7 years I was a fanatically devoted Netscape user. I mocked and berated any Internet Explorer users I could find. About 8 months ago, that changed. It seemed every five minutes my Netscape 4.X was crashing or hanging due to what I suppose was java. Finally, in disgust, I swallowed my pride and started using IE. No problems.

*sigh*. I guess MS wins again. I wonder why Netscape is having so many issues? I didn't even see that much complaining on the web about it, but maybe everyone else has already moved to IE and I was one of the last holdouts? =) Granted I never upgraded to Netscape's latest version (what was it, v.6-something?) but I heard it suxx0red, too.

c0r3file

[emcron]

You could always use opera if you dont like ms.