5104 I was delighted when Netscape restored Mac OS support with Navigator 9 after skipping the Mac with Netscape 8, and I really like Navigator 9 - the clean and attractive aesthetics of the Interface, plus several useful features this browser has, such as LinkPad and Sidebar Browsing, that the others don't. The downside for Mac users is that Navigator doesn't support Cocoa features, notably OS X Services, so if that capability is important to you, Camino, Safari, Shiira or Opera will be a better choice.

However, the biggest issue I had with Navigator 9 beta is an apparent bad bug in that causes Internet throughput to slow to a crawl or seize up altogether - not just in Navigator, but in all browsers and email clients, when Navigator is running. This behavior manifests and is repeatable on both my G4 17" PowerBook and my G4-upgraded Pismo (both running OS 10.4.9) and was bad enough to dissuade me from using Navigator routinely, even though I really like its looks and some of the new features. I don't know whether this would be an issue on broadband or on other Mac system or not, but I hoped that it would be it's fixed in the next release.

Unhappily, it hasn't been in Navigator 9.0 beta 2, released last week. In fact it's worse. With beta 2 running my Internet connection pretty much grinds to a halt. Quit Navigator, and everything returns to normal. Start it up again, and even POP 3 email won't work, in any application. In fact, I've been unsuccessful in getting any web page to load using Navigator beta 2, and even after I quit the program, I have to log off the Internet and dial up afresh in order to restore throughput. The screenshots in this article are of Navigator beta 1, which did work sporadically.

I've never experienced anything like this with any other browser, including Navigator's Mozilla cousins, Firefox, Camino, and SeaMonkey.

I would be very interested to hear from others about their Navigator 9 experiences, especially anyone who is using it on a dialup connection. Since it's affected the first two Navigator 9 betas on my setup, but I haven't run across any other similar complaints, I'm provisionally guessing that it may be some incompatibility with my dialup ISP service.

Aside from that ( a big qualifier) Navigator 2.0b2 is an evolutionary update of what would otherwise be a very nice browser. To recap, here are some of Navigator 9's features:

Social Integration
• Share and vote for webpages that you find interesting.
• Add friends and get their favorite stories in your sidebar.

News in the Browser
• Follow the latest news directly from your browser.
• Customize your News menu to only show your favorite sections.

URL correction
• Let Navigator fix common typing mistakes in URLs.
• No more .cmo, .ogr, or htp:// !

• Save interesting links for later without cluttering your bookmarks.

• Sidebar Mini Browser

You've always been able to have bookmarks open in the sidebar, but this functionality has been enhanced in Netscape 9 and extended it to all links, not just bookmarks. There is also a new navigation toolbar to the sidebar for easier split-screened browsing. Just right-click on a link and select "Open Link in Sidebar" to get started.

Minimum System Requirements:
• PowerPC G3 processor
• 128 MB of RAM
• 75 MB of free disk space
• Mac OS X 10.2.x

Recommended Configuration
• PowerPC G4 or Intel processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 150 MB of free disk space

System Support:
PPC/Intel

Free

For more information, visit:
http://browser.netscape.com/

Tags: Reviews ï Internet Reviews ï

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