music_beans
12-06-04, 08:32 PM
As you probably have heard, Netscape looked for testers for its new web browser prototype based on Mozilla Firefox, and one of those testers, ME :) , has gathered enough info and experience to give you a nice little preview of whats to come for Netscape.
First of all, Netscape's UI has a wild new look, as seen in attachment NSB_1. It has active components, such as a weather button, and a news ticker, which is really handy. Notice that the menus are over on the right side of the screen, which works for me, but not everyone unfortunately. :( Another good thing is that the toolbars are completely customizeable (as seen in attachment NSB_2, which is what I did to achieve the arrangement of the various things on the toolbars in the pic.
Second, NS has this new feature called Site Controls. With this, you can manage security levels (Low, Medium, High) for websites individually. You can choose to have one site not to use JavaScript or open pop-ups, while you can have another site able to use JS or open pop-ups. Another good (but still buggy) feature is the opportunity to use either the NS Gecko Engine or the MSIE engine. You can set up different sites to use either Gecko or IE, as this is also managed in the Site Controls. Its useful for sites that are built around IE. The one problem with this though is that when switching to the IE engine, NS quits without any warning. It did however, work the first time I installed it, but not long after that.
The final attachment (NSB_3) is the final theme design concept for NSB final, directly from NS themselves. (I got it from the NSB community forums, and don't even ask me how the managed to get a Google page in a window that says Netscape.com - Netscape Browser!)
Hope this review is helpful.
First of all, Netscape's UI has a wild new look, as seen in attachment NSB_1. It has active components, such as a weather button, and a news ticker, which is really handy. Notice that the menus are over on the right side of the screen, which works for me, but not everyone unfortunately. :( Another good thing is that the toolbars are completely customizeable (as seen in attachment NSB_2, which is what I did to achieve the arrangement of the various things on the toolbars in the pic.
Second, NS has this new feature called Site Controls. With this, you can manage security levels (Low, Medium, High) for websites individually. You can choose to have one site not to use JavaScript or open pop-ups, while you can have another site able to use JS or open pop-ups. Another good (but still buggy) feature is the opportunity to use either the NS Gecko Engine or the MSIE engine. You can set up different sites to use either Gecko or IE, as this is also managed in the Site Controls. Its useful for sites that are built around IE. The one problem with this though is that when switching to the IE engine, NS quits without any warning. It did however, work the first time I installed it, but not long after that.
The final attachment (NSB_3) is the final theme design concept for NSB final, directly from NS themselves. (I got it from the NSB community forums, and don't even ask me how the managed to get a Google page in a window that says Netscape.com - Netscape Browser!)
Hope this review is helpful.