by @Macarlo
Windows 2000 Professional Beta Tester
(Screenshots by Namo Capture)

 Hi All.
People requested and I decided show some screenshots of the new Preview Release of Netscape 6.0 (PR2) running on my Windows 2000 Professional  de workstation of the a.k.a. operating system Windows NT 5.0. In the photo below you can see this new Preview running here:

New!>NS6 PR2 Buggy!

 In first, its necessary that you consider that this release is a Preview and you can compare it with a GA as Communicator 4.74 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, actually the best-in-show in the modern browsers universe. For a Preview I judge that Netscape 6 PR2 is running fine on Windows 2000 environment: is fast, reliable, intuitive and simple; do you must not an expert in surfing in order to browse the Net using this one. At this time Netscape 6 have yet some problems, as the "ability" of deform some tables, cells and forms. I noticed that when I load the main-page of my website using this new Preview the banner of my merchant partner Network Solution is excessively enlarged (4 x the normal size) because this browse have a bug and can't read correctly the newest code type of HTML generated by last generations web editor as Namo 3.08, that generates DHTML and manipulates Active X controls.

But as a general manner I consider very good the performance of this browser, that is very small if is compared with  a giant as IE 5.5 or Comm/4.74. I consider that the developers can introduces in the GA (I expect, yeah) a bottom for the user click it in the browse taskbar for immediate full screen display. At this time, in this release, if this ability exist it is very occult, because I simply saw not it. In order to enlarge my screen I discarded some toolbars in the head of this browser, in a very slows operation, clicking for three times the options for toolbars in the menu View.

Another problem is that this browser follow being the old and good Netscape traditional: simply don't read some background sounds on a simple code line such:

<bgsound src="musicopen.wav" loop="1">

that is recognized by IE 5.5 without problems. If you intend that Netscape 6 plays a background sound in a web page loaded this page must have an extensive Java script code as below:

<script language="Java Script">
//Modified by CoffeeCup Software
//This code is Copyright (c) 1998 CoffeeCup Software
//All rights reserved. License is granted to a single user to
//reuse this code on a personal or business Web Site.
<!--
function playWAV(name) {
    if (navigator.appName== "Netscape" && parseInt(navigator.appVersion) >= 3 &&
        navigator.appVersion.indexOf("68k") == -1 && navigator.javaEnabled() &&
        document.embeds[name] != null && document.embeds[name].IsReady()) {
    document.embeds[name].play(false);
    }
}
onerror = null
//-->
</script>

<p><embed src="musicopen.wav" width="100" height="100" border="0" hidden="true"
 name="sound1" loop="FALSE" autostart="FALSE" mastersound> <!-- End of Play WAV on Page Load --></p>

Here is a typical Netscape problem for webmasters that the Steve Case crew could've solved but didn't.

But this interesting new browser have anothers advantages, as a simple and efficient design, clean, that contains some exclusive utilities, as a Net phone and My Sidebar.

After the install of this browser you must be activate it and this operation consumes some time (and money) and I consider it unnecessary, an authentic loose of time. Note that if you are a Netcenter registered user you must choose another username for a new registration requested by Netscape 6 for the activation process.

Finally, stay tuned about the download using SmartDownload, because the perfect resume can be performed by automated methods only if you not reboot your machine. By default Windows 2000 store these kind of temp files in a /temp subdirectory inside Documents and Settings tree that is cleaned at the reboot. If you receive a dump by incorrect hardware access the system reboots automatically and all downloaded files are loosed!

SOME SCREENSHOTS ON WIN 2000 PRO

Photo above shows Setup installing the downloaded files (*.xmi)

Photo above shows the Manage User Profiles

Photo above shows the first activation screen

Photo above shows the second activation screen

RETURN TO NS 6 PR2 REVIEW

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

[TOP] [HOME] [INDEX]