Netscape, the once mammoth browser, which roamed the internet freely and widely, has finally been discontinued. AOL has announced that they will stop supporting Netscape browser beginning February 2008. In the heated market of web browsers Netscape could not defend its turf against Internet Explorer and Firefox.
From Nescape Blog … While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
…
AOL’s focus on transitioning to an ad-supported web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be.
Netscape blog puts everything quite clearly that no more security patches or updates will be provided after February 1st 2008. They advise users to adopt Mozilla Firefox as an alternative to Netscape. In fact, Netscape browsers once dominant 90% market share has currently dwindled down to a meager 0.6% A quick look at traffic pouring in to Netscape’s website sums up the trend quite well.
Click image of graph to zoom.
Source: BBC
Firefox 3 has now officially been released. It is still in Beta1 state but that has not stopped several thousand downloads and great reviews. The Firefox browser comes with a slew of attractive features which makes it an excellent candidate to Internet Explorer. The beta release came yesterday and was announced on Mozilla Blog.
What’s new in Firefox3?
The new release of Firefox includes various updates from improved security features to ease of use and new graphics and font rendering engine. All the new features come on top of the fast performance and reliability that most users have associated with Firefox. For more details about what security changes were implemented and how the new version will provide an improved platform for developers check out the release notes. From the Mozilla website …
- Improved security features such as: better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plugins.
- Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista and Mac OS X.
- Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart search bookmark folders, direct typing in location bar searches your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
- Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.
- Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 300 memory leak fixes, and a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks.
Is Firefox3 for everyone?
Quite simply the answer is no. Keep in mind Firefox3 is still in beta1 state and has quite a few bugs. Most notably Non-administrator Vista users are unable to launch Firefox if Vista Parental controls are enabled. I came across this bug during testing and was quite difficult to troubleshoot.
Overall Firefox3 offers a lot more features and when built upon the surprisingly fast performance and low use of system resources it is a definite winner. Being open-source also helps the community to build more on the existing framework. I will end this post with a Firefox video from firefoxFlicks.com Enjoy!
Avant browser is a relatively lesser known competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. But it has quite a few interesting features that make it an attractive alternative to IE 7 and undoubtedly a winner over IE 6.
Why I chose Avant over the XP’s built in IE 6?
Avant offers several significant enhancements over IE6 such as tabbed browsing, integrated search, delete browsing history and temporary interfiles with one click, integrated password manager and several others. Al of these features combined make it a very attractive alternative to IE6. From download.com review:
… options for blocking the download of Flash media, pictures, video, sounds, and ActiveX components, so users can efficiently use their bandwidth and speed up page loading. All opened pages can be stopped, refreshed, closed, or arranged with one click. It also comes with built-in RSS reader.
Why choose Avant over the Vista’s built in IE 7?
Both have tabbed browsing features and pretty similar looks. In fact Avant uses IE’s core - this means under the hood Avant is basically Internet Explorer with a few extras. But the primary reason why I chose Avant is speed. And not just millisecond speeds. Avant takes just an eye blink to open since the time you click on its icon.
Unscientific Experiment
I tested both browsers on a 2 year old Dell machine running XP with a 3GHz processor and 1GB memory. IE took anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds depending on how soon after computer start up I clicked on the shortcut. Avant on the other hand took less than 1.5 seconds - even when I clicked the shortcut directly after computer startup. I understand this is not a scientific test by any measure. But according to CNet statistics downloads for Avant has crossed 18 million mark while Firefox is at 11 million. Obviously I am not the only one noticing an advantage by using this browser.
Features
Avant also has a bunch of other features. I will let the Avant site say it like it is. The several awards received by Avant are displayed on a dedicated page. It has also been featured on Download.com and has a 4.5/5 score.
Top Rated Features of Avant Browser (from Avant’s site)
Online Profile Storage
AutoFills
Flash Animation Filter
Built-in AD/Pop-up Blocker
Built-in RSS/ATOM Reader
Additional Mouse Functions
Multi-Window Browsing
Real Full Screen Mode and Alternative Full Desktop mode
Built-in Search Engine
Full IE Compatibility
Control Your Privacy
Safe Recovery
Customizable Skins
