Netscape Communicator 4.72

[Late Breaking: As this article was being published, Netscape posted an update to Netscape Communicator 4.73, which appears to be a minor security bug fix. You can download it from the link at the end of Part 4 of this article.]

Netscape's currently shipping browser, Communicator 4.72, is getting very long in the tooth, but it is also a paragon of polished stability compared with the much more roughly executed Internet Explorer. The full install of Communicator 4.72 is a whopping 25.6 MB, and 10.4 MB for the Navigator browser application itself, as compared to 10.2 MB and 4.6 MB respectively for IE 5. However, in fairness, Communicator includes email and Web authoring modules as well as a browser, and if you add Microsoft's Outlook Express 5 email client's 15.7 MB installation to Internet Explorer, you get a sum total of 25.9 MB -- bigger than Communicator, still no Web authoring application, and that also doesn't include the shared libraries and other junk the Microsoft applications dump in your System Folder.

Nor is Communicator 4.72 a sluggard compared with IE 5. Last month, MacObserver's Michael Munger conducted some "shootout" tests between Internet Explorer 5 and Communicator 4.7, and noted:

"From the speed test results, Explorer seems more powerful at handling complex pages with tables and images, but Netscape Communicator beats it to pieces when rendering text. Although the latter was faster on one more page than IE, it is hard to call a clear winner since each browser has strengths and weaknesses."

For a detailed breakdown of the test results, and the rest of Michael's review, visit:
http://www.macobserver.com/newreviews/bc/00/000331ie5final/ie5final.html

However, there is my long-standing list of Netscape annoyances to contend with. First there is the disappearing history problem. I am absent-minded, and frequently will hit a window close box without thinking, thereby losing the string of URLs from the last session of surfing. This can be extremely annoying.

Secondly, there is the bookmark problem. Explorer allows you to use a text editor to edit its Favorites file in the Preferences folder so long as you're careful about syntax. Netscape resolutely refuses to accept a bookmark file that has been edited. In fact I've found that Communicator won't accept Bookmarks files dragged in from other copies of Netscape, which is a source of frustration for me, since I often switch from one system to another. I can drag Favorites/Hotlist files back and forth between IE and iCab to my heart's content by simply changing the name. Communicator doesn't want to play this game. I understand that there are workarounds for this problem, but I can't recall what they are, and the point is that if Explorer and iCab can handle their URL libraries simply and gracefully with no hassle, there should be no reason why Netscape cannot.

Thirdly, I simply hate the way that Netscape takes control of your computer and brings everything to a dead stop while it dithers over what to do with a slow-loading page. Technically it hasn't crashed, but it does a great impression of a system lockup. More than once I've done a forced restart to make Netscape relinquish control of my computer so I could get on with my day. Eventually it either loads the page or quits trying, but in the meantime, you're stuck -- sometimes for a very long time on a slow computer with a slow connection. Pressing buttons doesn't do anything. Neither does clicking the close box. Of course, when Communicator finally does come alive again, it usually remembers all those buttons you clicked in frustration, and the window of the page it just took five minutes to load conveniently closes, simultaneously erasing your Go menu. Arrrgh!

Internet Explorer and iCab do not do this. If they get bogged down loading a slow page, either the Stop button or the Close button will usually respond. Explorer and iCab also share the happy facility of being able to gracefully surf the browser cache while you are offline, the convenience of which cannot be overstated for those of us who are obliged to live with slow dialup Internet connections. Netscape won't do this either.

As noted, Communicator is actually a suite of applications that includes email client and Web page authoring modules, named Messenger and Composer respectively, in the main application (the browser module is called Navigator). Messenger is a capable -- if a bit pedestrian -- email client that includes an integrated spell-checker, some filtering capability, and does a decent job if you don't mind launching a 10.4 MB, slow-starting program in order to check your email.

I doubt that very many users would miss Composer if Netscape left it out of Communicator. It's clunky, slow, and feature-challenged.

Communicator 4.72 wants 8192k of memory, more than twice IE5's suggested 4096k memory partition (with Virtual Memory or RAMDoubler enabled).

Navigator's browser window interface is familiar and time-proven. I find it functional and efficient, and it appeals to me more than IE 5's busy glitziness, but is not customizable. Navigator is also satisfyingly consistent. It's not the fastest or most feature-rich browser any more, but it's dependable and competent.

More --

Part 1 of 4: Internet Explorer 5
Part 2 of 4: Netscape Communicator 4.72
Part 3 of 4: iCab Preview 2.0
Part 4 of 4: Netscape 6 - The Future, and Summary

Charles W. Moore

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Saturday, 22-Nov-2008 05:50:50 EST