Navigator 4.x now shipping.

Netscape Navigator 4.x is now out of beta test and shipping for both Macintosh and Windows desktops. The current version is 4.01, which includes the fix for the privacy bug found by the programmer named Orellana in Denmark. The same bug exists in Navigator 2.x and 3.x and fixed versions are promised but not available as I write this.

In future issues I will write more about upgrading to the new release. The terminology is quite confusing. Netscape is now pushing a suite of programs that are collectively called Netscape Communicator, with Navigator as the Web browsing piece. Other pieces include: Messenger (e-mail), Collabra (Newsgroups), Composer (HTML editor), Conference (real-time multimedia conferencing), Calendar (group calendaring), Netcaster (push), and AutoAdmin.

My recommendation to most people is to go slow, not to rush into this. The Netscape Communicator Web page is at
http://home.netscape.com/flash3/comprod/products/communicator/index.html
The interface for Navigator 4.01 is different, but not necessarily better. I'm reminded very much of the differences from Microsoft Word 5.0 to Word 6.0, in terms of a glut of features that many users have little use for. For some current musing on this phenomenon of bloated software and its attendant costs, see David Pogue's "Desktop Critic" article, subtitled "Stop the Madness", at the end of the current (August 1997, p. 206) issue of MacWorld Magazine. You can get it online at
http://www.macworld.com/pages/august97/Column.3819.html

Of course Microsoft's browser suite is designed to match or exceed Netscape's suite, which adds to the complexity and dizzying nature of this software race. I will write more about that when Microsoft's suite is out of beta testing.

Keeping up.

There are some excellent Web sources of information about Netscape and the browser race, if you can only find time to read them! Among the must-bookmark sites are:

http://www.browsers.com

CNET's browsers site. Loaded with up to date information, reviews, tips, etc., for Netscape, Microsoft, and related technologies.

http://www.netscapeworld.com

NetscapeWorld is an online magazine from IDG. The emphasis is on how-to features on using HTML, Java, JavaScript, CGI scripts, etc.

Lynx information.

Versions

Paul Sand and Robin Tuttle recently upgraded Lynx 2.6 to Lynx 2.7.1 on the central systems. We are not aware of any major new features, but it is easy to overlook how many features Lynx already has, including features to deal with HTML forms and frames.

Even easier to overlook are the the run-time options you can set if you access Lynx from the system prompt. On the central Unix systems:
% lynx -help
and on the central VMS systems:
$ help lynx options

Crawling

For example, with the following options you can have Lynx crawl a specified set of Web pages and retrieve them for you. Not as slick as commercial programs for the desktop (such as WebWhacker), but it works. For example, to go to this demo HTML page and retreive it, and the two pages linked to it, try this:

This will create six files totaling about 2500 bytes. Three are copies of the HTML files and three are ".dat" files reporting on what was and was not retrieved. It gives the retrieved HTML files sequenced names and puts the real title and URL inside the top of each file. If you wanted to take this a step further and automatically reassemble the working links with their original names, not just to have copies of the files, you'd need to write a Perl script to do the reassembly.

Macintosh

Lynx is now ported to the Macintosh and can be downloaded form the MacLynx site:
http://www.lirmm.fr/~gutkneco/maclynx
Why would you want to do that? Well, to speed text browsing over a dial-up line. Or to use a leaner browser. MacLynx for the PowerPC is 828K, MacLynx for 6800-class Macs is 721K, and both will run in 1MB of memory with 2MB recommended.

Browser humor.

People always like to make up humorous top-ten lists.
Here is a list from CNET (CNET DIGITAL DISPATCH: February 20, 1997, Vol. 3, No. 8):

...................................................................
7. TOP TEN NETSCAPE 4.0 FEATURES

Netscape's latest Web suite, Communicator Pro, isn't quite out yet,
but we have the advance word on how the browser giant plans to stay
ahead of Microsoft--to wit: the top ten features Navigator 4.0 has
that IE 4.0 can't (or won't) match.

10. Ebonics encryption built in!
9.  Included: a Net phone that calls collect
8.  Built-in support for all bad "Java" puns
7.  An IE uninstaller that works
6.  Free subscription to Slate
5.  Doesn't crash under the Mac OS for at least five minutes!
4.  Supports Internet, intranet, extranet, and now in version 4.0:
    fishnet, hairnet, and dragnet, too
3.  Support for the new HTML  ...  tag
2.  Version available for Amiga OS
1.  Way beyond "push" technology, Netscape now supports "squirt"
...................................................................

[end of CIS Browser.Watcher Issue.1]