Here is a real debate of our time: the web browser wars. Microsoft succeeded in crushing Netscape with its IE at the cost of an anti-trust ruling against it. Netscape/AOL is back off the canvas with Netscape 6. There is that pay-browser Opera that some people swear by. Then there are those that use offshoots such as Netcaptor. Maybe you favor simple Mosaic. Whoever is using AOL 5.0 I ask you: Why? Anyway, here are the choices. Let the chips fly (no monitor throwing please).
I use IE. Not because I paticularly care for it, but because a lot of websites I frequent don’t show up properly using Netscape. AOL? HAH! Get a real ISP and browser. I’ve never used any of the others so I can’t comment on them.
I use IE 5.01, and will upgrade to 5.5 when the final code is posted.
I cut my teeth on Netscape 2, 3, and 4. I even purchased 2 and 3. When IE 4 came out I tried it out of curiosity and was hooked. It rendered pages much faster than Netscape, perhaps because of its tight integration with Windows. After a while I’ve come to appreciate its unique features, customizability, and (with IE 5) wealth of plugins.
I am disappointed by BOTH browsers’ inability to hold to common standards, particularly cascading style sheets. I code for IE 5, but often it doesn’t render pages the way the code says they should be rendered, particularly with {A:HOVER} elements within frames.
Netscape 6 says they support all W3C standards. That’s nice (assuming it’s true), but they’ve arrived too late. IE holds 85% of the browser market now, and I doubt NN can take much of it back – unless AOL makes it the heart of AOL v.6. But that’s not winning over web users, it’s taking advantage of brain-dead AOLers.
I use both. I find that Netscape renders some pages better than Explorer, especially java-thingies. (I don’t understand that, but that’s what the error messages I get on Explorer say is the problem.)
I use Netscape. Not for any real functional reason (I think IE and Netscape both have their share of problems with rendering certain elements), but because I’ve just always been using it since version 2.
Since Windows 3.x didn’t come with a browser, I think we were all kind of forced to use Netscape (since that was the browser that came with most ISP bundles). When Windows 95 came out with IE3 built into it, I was so used to using Netscape that I just carried it over to 95.
I use Netscape (mainly), iCab (increasingly), and am waiting for Opera to be ported to the Mac. I cut my teeth with Mosaic back in the dark ages when the World Wide Web was a mass of text that included hyperlinks and no one had heard of frames, inline graphics, javascript, or even forms.
I use Netscape, always have. I grudgingly used IE for work as they didn’t have Netscape available but bitched about it to anyone who would listen. Netscape is cleaner looking and crashes less frequently IME.
–tygre
I’ve been using IE5 a lot more lately mostly because the network administrators have been trying to get rid of Netscape on all the computers. However, I prefer the way Netscape renders pages and it seems to give me less JavaScript errors.
I use IE4.XX on my computer. I just haven’t upgraded cause I got this setup working fine, and don’t want to ruin it. I’ve used everything from the original Mosaic and Netscape .99 :eek: to Netscape 6 and MozillaM16. I didn’t like Netscape, and Mozilla is okay, once you get a lot of the bells and whistles turned off.
Opera: why PAY for something? Sheesh. 
[Moderator Hat ON]
This seems to be mainly an opinion piece. I’m tossing it to IMHO.
[Moderator Hat OFF]
I use Netscape on my Macs because I found it to be much more stable. Also, as an HTML programmer I’ve felt that Netscape adhered to the W3C and java standards much better than IE, at least in the early days - I can’t speak for the current version of IE.
On my PCs I use Netscape for much the same reasons, but there’s an element of paranoia, as well. IE runs in a non protected environment supporting imbedded active-X which may mean that it’s only a matter of time before IE viruses start propagating on PC platforms. There’s also another thing that I don’t like about IE. I inadvertently launched it on one of my PCs once and it took me days before I could get Netscape working again. I don’t like dirty tricks and Microsoft seems to be full of dirty tricks…
I use the StarOffice browser at work. IE at home.
I prefer Nutscrape to Internet Exploiter, but only because I’ve been using Nutscrape since it first came out. Both are just as good (by which I mean "both are equally as much of a piece of shit as the other and neither really runs all that well.) and since I’m more comfortable with Netscape, that is what I go with. Nothing against Microsoft, really, I use Office…
I use IE5. Yes, I think its better. I always try the new flavor of Netscape, but I inevitably revert to IE. I beta tested NN6 (boy was that a nightmare). The new NN has a lot of promise.
Opera. . .used it for a week. Recycled it in a week. Why would anyone use that POS?
I miss the simplicity of the web when Mosaic THE browser.
From a technical standpoint, I think that IE renders pages better. Its integration of the DOM with stylesheets and HTML4.0 is more intuitive IMO. (I know it doesn’t match the standards exactly, but NN wasn’t even close until 6) I’ve found that IE tends to do what I want and NN doesn’t. In general, I have to work do arounds more often because of NN than IE.
kasuo said
If it is a newer version of NN (4+) it may be telling you have javascript errors in the status bar and not throwing up an alert box like IE.
LOL, work do arounds. Has anyone ever “worked a do around”?
Well, you guys are smart, you know what I was trying to say.
I use Netscape to protest the way that Microsoft bundles up it’s IE with Windows.
I only tried IE once, but I was too used to Netscape to switch at my ripe old age…
I use NetCaptor. It’s a modified version of IE that has a few features that I couldn’t live without now that I’ve gotten used to them.
If you keep more than one or two browser windows open at a time I HIGHLY recommend it.
Both, NN 4.5 and MSIE 5.0. Part of what I do is design websites so I need to see them on both major platforms. As much as I hate using Microsoft it does make my pages look better. I think it has slightly smaller type and a tighter layout. Otherwise they are much the same features. The differences in standards however, makes my life hell sometimes.
Netscape seems to have given up the fight, and why not, there is no money it now! I hope they break up MS, but I guess that is a topic for another thread. Go Linux!
Myself
I use IE5 to open local html and jpg files. This is because I don’t want to wait for NN to spend 2-3 minutes loading all its plug ins just to look at 1 file. If, on the other hand, I plan on doing some hardcore browsing, then I fire up NN and go to it.
Im a webmaster, I use both of them, often at the same time.