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MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - AOL unveiled the all new Netscape 6 Preview Release 1 on Wednesday, April 5 of this tear to compete with the new IE 5.5 beta. Both will come out as final versions later this year.
This is the first major change of the browser since AOL acquired Netscape in 1998.
The creators of this program have decided to skip its release number from 4.7 to 6.0 and to change its name to what it use to have, Netscape Navigator. So instead of Netscape Communicator 5.0, the all new version is Netscape Navigator 6.0 or simply put, Netscape 6.
The browser has a new look, a new web page rendering engine, and some new features. The goal of Netscape 6 is a browser simple to use and with basic features and advanced features in a simple browser.
Although Netscape 6 PR1 was slower than IE 5 and the current version of Netscape, it has a new rendering engine called Gecko that loads complicated web pages faster and will definitely be improved in the PR2 and other test versions. The Gecko engine is much smaller in size than the current engine and is said to load web pages faster and better. It will eliminate the problems web pages face on different platforms or operating systems.
Netscape 6's new buttons are very basic, only Back, Forward, Reload, and Stop. Also the browser will let you change "skins" so that you can personalize how your browser looks (available in PR2). This frees up space and makes life simpler for some people.
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Another feature is the My Sidebar that you can hide with one click. It's a small panel on the left side of the browser that holds information and tabs that you can access quickly. Many major websites are letting you add their tab and information to My Sidebar. Netscape 6 comes with many tabs including CNN news and stock quotes.
Netscape 6 also comes with a very well integrated Instant Messaging System from AOL. It is better than the current Instant Messenger because it is in the browser itself, not a separate program, and makes accessing your "buddies" very easy.
Netscape 6's more advanced features include support for XML, CSS1, and DHTML. These are the new mark up languages for the Internet.
Other new features include user name and password storage and other autocomplete features. Netscape's new address bar also lets you do searches. There is also a feature that lets you translate web pages into different languages.
The download size for Netscape 6 is a lot smaller than current browsers, 8 MB without JAVA and 16 MB with JAVA. The size difference is partly due to the fact that Netscape 6 does not have the Netcaster and other very less used programs that no one ever uses. It still includes the core components, Composer, email and newsgroup reader, calendar, a new Net2phone software, and others.
IE controls about 80% of the browser market right now but if the antitrust case goes well, Netscape 6 is ready to win back its old users and try to dominate
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