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For some reason I haven't seen anyone with anything good to say about IE and spyware and adware recently, probably because those problems tend to be directly connected with IE usage. But IE is OK, it's adequate, if it didn't let spyware and adware install itself so easily, and if it didn't need to be patched to fix what should never have been the case in the first place, and it it didn't require that users turn off things like active x and javascript to make it secure, when users don't even know that things like that exist, let alone can be turned off or on, it would be a fine browser.
Replace 'netscape navigator' ( I assume you mean the new netscape mozilla browser, not the old netscape navigator 4 version ) with 'Firefox' then look through these threads, Firefox is the current most uptodate release of Mozilla, and Netscape is just a slightly repackaged and out of date version of Mozilla, with some added garbage thrown in like aol icons on your desktop etc, no reason to use it that I can think of.
Use Mozilla if you want the whole package, email, html editor, etc, use Firefox is you just want the browser. Considering how buggy Thunderbird, the email client, still is, I would wait until version 1.0 comes out. Search these threads for Thunderbird too if you want information on that.
Opera and Firefox by consensus are two great alternatives, with passionate feelings about each, although both just have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it's best to just pick the one you like best and leave it at that.
Let's see, right off the top of my head I can't think of anything good about IE 6, I like IE 5.5, that's my favorite IE browser, MS development of their browser is stagnant now, which is costing them bad press.
This is for a friend's kid about to go to college. He has a choice of Netscape 7.1 or the latest IE.
After that all you're doing is installing a program, like any other program. If you are looking to install a different browser, then download Firefox 0.9 from mozilla.org [mozilla.org], or have your friend do it. Or try Opera, whatever, it doesn't really matter.
Firefox requires some further additions to work, flash, adobe acrobat reader, etc, for standard web browsing. Firefox is much faster and leaner than Netscape 7.1, and it's also the newest gecko, whereas 7.1 is gecko 1.4 or something, can't remember. The latest netscape is 7.2, which is just Mozilla 1.7, exactly, plus some packaging stuff.
Actually, I used Firefox on the University intranet, because it was one of the few browsers requiring no installation at all -- which was ideal for a locked-down PC.
Personally, I like the Outlook / Firefox combo, but Netscape 7.x / Mozilla provide a pretty good integrated solution. I wouldn't wish IE on anyone.
I guess it depends on how computer literate the kid is.
I don't know. I only know his father (they are on vacation this week and I can't contact them) but I don't think that he is very experienced, or interested, in computers. I do know that he will be busier than his father thinks appropriate with classes and sports (not to mention nightlife :-) so he does not want to spend much time doing anything with his computer.
When I went to University, the IT department only provided official support for Netscape 7...When I went to school we carried large stacks of punch cards to the computer center for our math projects and communications was the phones at the end of the dorm hall. Things have changed.
I was just looking for a few other opinions. Next time I talk to them I think I will suggest downloading Netscape. At least then I can try it and IE and see for himself which he prefers. I use an older version of Netscape on an old computer just to check my websites, I have never tried ver. 7.
Thanks
For the average user (the one who just wants it to work) I'd have to advise using the browser most people will ASSUME he's using, which would probably be IE, that way there's less of a chance that the school intranet materials and applications will give him trouble (which, if I'm remembering MY school intranet applications and the IT department that ran them, they are likely to do at the first possible convenience).
My guess is that if the kid doesn't care much about computers, he really won't care or notice much difference between IE and Netscape.
This is probably the case here. I was thinking about e-mailing my friend, the father, to suggest that he use IE but to check when he gets settled at school about the support for Netscape. There is some kind of courseware (plug-in possibly) that supports IE and Netscape. However, if stats on my site from visiter from .edu domains are any indication, about 90% use IE. I don't know what school he is going to.
The computer he will be taking is brand new. On his old computer, soon to be his siblings computer, he had quite a bit of trouble with adware and other scumware and IE, and IE still doesn't work well (no details known).
Is Netscape less susceptible to scumware as IE? (Things like changing home page, default search, filling the screen with popup when a Google search is done, etc.)
This is for a friend's kid about to go to college. He has a choice of Netscape 7.1 or the latest IE.
Any chance of getting the IT person at the school to catch up on things by a year or two? It seems odd that those are the only two choices... most people who know anything about computers know that IE is an invitation to problems, and that Netscape 7 was superceded by Firebird, and then Firefox, quite some time ago.
Any chance of getting the IT person at the school to catch up on things by a year or two?
I doubt it. I don't know which school it is, but given the budget situation in most colleges I doubt if the IT department will have the resources to support less used software.
most people who know anything about computers know that IE is an invitation to problems, and that Netscape 7 was superceded by Firebird, and then Firefox, quite some time ago.
Maybe they know it, but they don't seem to practice it. A check on my logs indicate well over 90% of hits come from a combination of IE and Netscape (mainly IE). And these are mostly engineers who work with industrial computer control systems (but who think of their PCs as tools just to get the job done). IE has problems, and Netscape may not be the latest thing, but they get the job done.
