# Upgrade from Netscape 4.7? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288 "2002-08-04T13:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/1 "2002-08-04T13:31:07Z")
My wife uses Netscape 4.7 on her Win98 machine. She is finding more and more web sites that she cannot open or read properly. I have heard that Netscape 6 is impossibly buggy and she is afraid that if she upgrades to IE she will lose her bookmarks (over 50 of them). I use IE 6.0 on a Win2000 machine and while I am reasonably happy with it, I don’t want to impose my preferences on her. Any advice? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/2 "2002-08-04T13:43:36Z")
Exporting bookmarks is very easy. [Download.com](http://Download.com) will have numerous free bookmark converters that will work. Netscape 6 is better than 4.7 but I found it quite slow. However, I would certainly encourage your wife to upgrade to something other than 4.7; even if websites work, 4.7 has awful support for increasingly common design tools and standards (such as CSS). ---
**Author:** ![Snetho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@Snetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snetho)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/3 "2002-08-04T14:47:50Z")
From the help pages of IE 6: Internet Explorer automatically imports all your Netscape bookmarks. On the Favorites menu, click the Imported Bookmarks folder to view them. To import bookmarks or favorites, on the File menu, click Import and Export. To export favorites to bookmarks or favorites on the same or another computer, on the File menu, click Import and Export. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/4 "2002-08-04T15:38:22Z")
Thanks. I just did the upgrade (she also had IE4.0) and it worked smoothly and all the bookmarks were imported. More to the point, the scrolling page that she is commissioned to translate (she is a professional translator) now scrolls. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/5 "2002-08-04T15:47:59Z")
The newer version of netscape is a big improvment over 6.0 and is not all that slow or buggy. That said netscape 4.x and 6.x are so different that it’s like 2 different programs so if she switches to 6.x or IE there will be about an equal learning curve. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/6 "2002-08-04T15:48:03Z")
Try [download.com](http://download.com) search for ‘bookmarks’ you can find programs to deal with them even though as you noticed Netscape has plenty of import/export functions for them. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/7 "2002-08-04T16:23:14Z")
Use Mozilla 1.0. ---
**Author:** ![TVGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@TVGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/8 "2002-08-04T16:48:48Z")
I’m using Netscape 6.2.3 here and it works just fine. And since I’m not a big fan of Bill, I’ll always maintain that it works WAY better than any IE version… The only issue I’ve found with Netscape 6.x.x is that there’s a fair number of sites out there that can’t deal with it from a security standpoint (in other words, there’s a bunch of site operators who are happy with the LOWER security of IE and earlier Netscape versions and who seem unwilling to upgrade their end) - this isn’t a problem until it’s one of your credit card companies that behaves this way. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/9 "2002-08-04T17:14:16Z")
Unless you are somehow wedded to Netscape, try [Opera 6.04](http://www.opera.com/). It is more stable than MSIE or the newest release of Netscape (probably), and has a ton of features: [ul] [li]Cookie control: You can create a list of domains from which you _will_ accept cookies and refuse cookies from all others, if you so choose. This functionality is integrated into the browser itself, making extra cookie-controlling programs unneeded.[/li][li]Popup control: You can refuse all popups, accept all popups, or open popups in the background. In this case, ‘the background’ is an area inside the main browser window but behind the subwindow you’re currently viewing. (A common option in Opera is to have new windows open inside a large, main window, conserving RAM and increasing system performance.)[/li][li]Page style control: You can view pages either as the author intended or with your own style sheet, with user-selectable typefaces, backgrounds, and image options (full images, only images you’ve already cached, or no images at all?). This option alone makes Opera worth your time, as it can frequently render otherwise unreadable pages into something you won’t get a headache from looking at.[/li][li]Amazing right-click context menus: You can highlight a word and, with a right-click, get to a dictionary definition of it, an encyclopedia entry about it, or the results of various search engines (Google the default, but many others easily available). With the context menu, you can also choose to open a page view in the background (that alone has changed how I surf), add a bookmark (bookmarks contain much more information than in Netscape or MSIE), or email the page’s URL to someone.[/li][li]Searchable bookmarks: You wouldn’t believe how useful this can be. Search bookmarks just by entering letters from the title, and the list of matches will narrowed down as you type.[/li][li]Skinnable: It’s so easy in Opera. You can make any image your foreground or background skin through the right-click context menu. Simply amazing.[/li][li]OS independence: Opera exists on all of the major platforms (MS-Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD, BeOS, Symbian, OS/2), so you can be assured of getting the same level of reliability and functionality no matter what kind of computer-OS combination you go with next.[/li][li]Bookmark portability: You can port bookmarks from MSIE and Netscape simply and painlessly.[/li][/ul]I could go on. There is one downside: The free version has a banner ad in the top right. It doesn’t take up much room, and it isn’t in the way of any of the functionality, but it is there. On the Windows machine I sometimes use, I have found that [Guidescope](http://www.guidescope.com/home/) is effective at making the banner blank most of the time. There is a pay version without the banner. [ZDNet’s review of Opera 6.00. 6.04 fixed most of the bugs mentioned in the article, so don’t take this review as completely descriptive of the current state of the browser.](http://www.zdnet.com/supercenter/stories/review/0,12070,543211,00.html) This review gives a lukewarm review, but I disagree. I think Opera is easily the best browser currently existing on any platform, bar none. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/10 "2002-08-04T18:18:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Urban Ranger \* > \*\*Use Mozilla 1.0. \*\* I agree, if you are going to use the latest Netscape, you might as well use Mozilla, which is what Netscape is based on. I’ve heard that Mozilla is a little ahead of Netscape, I’m not sure if that’s true or not. One thing; you can’t use AOL Instant Messenger in a sidebar with Mozilla, only with Netscape. If you MUST have that AIM sidebar, stick with Netscape. If you don’t use AIM or just don’t mind using it in the “classic” way, with its own application un-integrated with the browser, Mozilla is a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/11 "2002-08-04T18:48:18Z")
- - - IE doesn’t wipe out NS bookmarks that I can remember, and I _believe_ that it imports NS bookmarks. - If you install any later version of Netscape or Mozilla, they automatically import all of the IE bookmarks they find. - In my experience, IE runs everything correct the most. Yes even viruses, I know, but still. If you only want to use one browser, IE is _The One_. - Mozilla is my own preferred, but as I said, everything doesn’t work right with it. With WMP and RealPlayer, sometimes streaming audio/video works, sometimes not. I haven’t ever gotten Flash or Quicktime to work at all; it’s surprising how many morons use flash for their navigation menus and provide no alternative. Mozilla has may options such as not opening unrequested windows (so those annoying ads don’t pop up) but on some pages with those ad-windows, the page hangs the browser _and_ the OS and you have to do a hard OS reboot (-in Win98SE). - I don’t have the latest Netscape -7?, so I dunno’s how it is. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/12 "2002-08-04T19:33:26Z")
The bottom line is, of course, that you shouldn’t worry about keeping your bookmarks if you switch to IE if you do it properly. But… I don’t see any real need to switch to IE. I used Netscape 6 consistently until Netscape 7 came out; now I use version 7. I have to agree with **k2dave** that the Netscape browser is not an upgrade to the Navigator browser. (There is no such thing as Netscape 4.x.) I believe that Netscape the company even said as much - it’s a new program. I never found Netscape 6 impossibly buggy; I don’t know why they say that it is. I was oscillating between Netscape 6 and Opera 6 as my favorite browser, but when Netscape 7 came out, even though it’s not a final version, it fixed everything that one could complain about in version 6 (in my opinion) and so Opera is out. It’s as fast and easy-to-use as Opera, I find. It’s very standards-compliant, which I love, but in some cases, _too_ standards-compliant. It’s like what **TVGuy** said - there are some web developers unwilling to keep up with the times. Apparently Netscape also takes up a relatively small amount of hard drive, but this is likely not an issue for you. I have not tried Mozilla, but I would guess that it’s very similar. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/13 "2002-08-04T19:54:11Z")
> [@](#): > > (There is no such thing as Netscape 4.x.) the x in 4.x means any version of netscape that starts with 4. i.e 4.0, 4.3, 4.7 etc. Just like win 95 (& win 95 rc2) and 98 (along with 98 se) is sometimes collectivly called win 9x. I know I have seen this usage before and though it was pretty common. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/14 "2002-08-04T19:59:06Z")
- - - Speaking of Mozilla’s shortcomings, does anybody know how to stop it from adding its own file extensions? When I download a file named Somefile.zip, Mozilla renames it somefile.zip.exe. When I download an MP3 file, Mozilla renames it Somefile.mp3.php, and it will not let me specify the extension, or prevent it from adding any… In all instances of this I have to open a DOS window in order to set the extension properly…? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/15 "2002-08-04T20:07:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by k2dave \* > \*\*the x in 4.x means any version of netscape that starts with 4. i.e 4.0, 4.3, 4.7 etc… I know I have seen this usage before and though it was pretty common. \*\* Sorry, I was unclear. I know of this usage too and I believe you are right. However, my meaning was the browser is called “Navigator 4.x”, not “Netscape 4.x”. Similarly, it’s “Internet Explorer 4”, not “Microsoft 4”. It wouldn’t be a problem, really, except that there _is_ a browser called Netscape, and so far, it only exists in versions 6 and 7. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/16 "2002-08-04T23:33:09Z")
I also use 32BitBrowser sometimes, its tiny like under a half meg download. Works great. from [electrasoft.com](http://electrasoft.com) ---
**Author:** ![shunt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@shunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shunt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/upgrade-from-netscape-4-7/122288/17 "2002-08-04T23:36:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hari Seldon \* > \*\*My wife uses Netscape 4.7 on her Win98 machine. She is finding more and more web sites that she cannot open or read properly. I have heard that Netscape 6 is impossibly buggy and she is afraid that if she upgrades to IE she will lose her bookmarks (over 50 of them). I use IE 6.0 on a Win2000 machine and while I am reasonably happy with it, I don’t want to impose my preferences on her. Any advice? \*\* I highly recommend you both try Mozilla. I’ve had my stint with Netscape, use IE at work, and still find Mozilla better than both. I also tried Opera, but I think Mozilla is far more flexible. Mozilla is just as good IE, yet it offers more.