"Other" bests NN4

Zeitgeist proclaims the witch is dead?

[Slud]

Check out the bottom of [google.com...]

Too bad there isn't some NN4 self-destruct button we could hit.

[papabaer]

One of the big stats monitoring services (400 million per month) saw a net (adjusted) decline for NN4 of 1.6 million just from April to May. Opera had a net gain of 200,000 users, Mozilla, 250,000 users, while NN6 saw a net loss of 30,000. Keep in mind, Opera is probably vastly under-reported because of the default ID feature. More and more savvy users are moving to the new more powerful browsers. The "popular/cool" features of Opera are making inroads into the "skinned browser" market. It is just a matter of time....

Unfortunately, there will be niche markets that will refuse to upgrade for whatever reasons. They are likely to be around for a while yet.

[Slud]

Now that Moz 1.0 (and almost 1.1) are out, what advantages does Opera still offer?

[papabaer]

MDI mode, Quick Preferences, better side panel, easier skinning, easier User CSS, Linked Windows, W3C Validator Link, easier pop-up control, HOT CLICK (search with, dictionary, encylopedia, translate), easier and more extensive customization, much smaller install, much less demanding of system resources, faster rendering, customizable auto reload, better bookmark control, excellent download manager, easier mouse and keyboard control... probably more. Moz is very good, no doubt. But it's not Opera.

[rewboss]

There are still many organizations that have Netscape 4 only. One site I recently took a look at broke down completely in NS4, which was a shame because one of its primary target audiences was students in Berlin -- and Berlin's second largest university has a strict Netscape 4-only policy.

Netscape 4 boasts, among other things, far better security than MSIE. Various people's webstats show Netscape 4 at anything between 5% and 20% of the total, sometimes even more. This may be more true in Europe than in America.

[rjohara]

My academic site still gets about 10% NS4.x visitors, and I use NS4 much of the time myself because I like its mail reader. (Google and WmW both work fine with NS4, and what else is there to look at?) :)

Mac Opera and Mozilla have some bad display bugs, I'm afraid, so I haven't gone over to them completely. A lot of university users have older equipment (except in the administrative offices, where all the money is).

[starway]

Moz is very good, no doubt. But it's not Opera.

Papabaer, I sign under every word of yours!
You didn't mention one of the most important things: speed!

Regarding organizations using old browsers (old is not only NN4):
does somebody know any particular names? Maybe we can collect a list of those and make an appeal titled "Upgrade!". Something like on webstandards.org but personalized to those who we find.
What do you think?

[rewboss]

Bad. There are all sorts of reasons why these organizations want to stick with these browsers. We web designers have to live with that and accommodate them as best we can.

One of the worst mistakes on a website is to tell people to "upgrade or else". They won't, they'll just go somewhere else instead. Sending appeals by e-mail will be treated the same way all spam is treated.

Want to know why I haven't upgraded to MSIE 6 yet? Mainly because there's little point if you don't have XP installed, and if I want to install XP I'm going to have to get a faster PC. No way am I spending €1200 just to indulge a few web designers.

[dcheney]

At least in this area I've noticed that lots of libraries use NN4 on their public computers.