Eric,
Moving the browser discussion away from the other board...
Perhaps it doesn't make sense to those who like more recent browsers, but Netscape 3 is still my favorite for a number of reasons. It may sound odd, but I especially like the fact it checks my email for me while I'm browsing, at intervals I can set myself, and displays an exclaimation mark if something comes in. I may be mistaken, but I don't think there's anything since that edition that does anything like that. Netscape 3 is useless for any site requiring current encription and security certificates, but for garden variety browsing and checking email, I still think it's pretty hard to beat.
I tried Netscape 7 sometime back and my overall impression is it acted more like a virus than anything useful. It glomed on to all my settings, changed them to things I didn't like, loaded up my desktop with pop ups, and advertised blue light specials from K-Mart on half the screen. There may be a way to get around all that, but I finally gave up and uninstalled it with a sigh of relief.
For a more current browser to back up Netscape 3 I also have IE 5 with the recommended patches and updated security certificates. I really don't trust Microsoft products and try not to use them more often than absolutely necessary, but otherwise it seems to work okay. I also use Netscape 4 as a kind of happy medium between the two.
I downloaded an updated version of Microsoft's media viewer sometime back, and uninstalled it after reading the fine print in the user agreement. Among other things, the viewer collects information about every song you listen to and every movie you watch, then sends the information back to Microsoft. Aside from the fact it usually takes Microsoft a few years to find all the secutity flaws in every new version of their software, I really don't care for the idea of being spied on by Uncle Bill.
I've also found in general that installing any new software tends to preempt a whole lot of different programs on my PC that I like just the way they are. Icons are changed, default settings are moved to other programs, etc..
If I were more technically savvy, I'm sure there are ways to work around a lot of the garbage, but I've gotten to a point where I've had so many unpleasant experiences in experimenting with new releases, that I just don't want to play anymore. Plus, since most of what I do online is pretty basic stuff, I really don't need a lot of whistles and bells.
If there were a product identical to Netscape 3, that was updated to recognize changes in programming language and security, but without any additional nonsense, I'd be tickled to death to have one. It'd probably be a lot easier than pulling up different browsers depending on what I want to do. From comments I saw on the other board, it sounds like there may be a few more options available since the last time I paid much attention to what's out there.
Thanks for the Mozilla Firefox suggestion. I'll take a look at it when I have more time, but would probably hesitate to try it until it has a little more history behind it |
