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This is not a Firefox thread

By house ·
Recently, I've seen a lot of MS bashing on this site. I've never been too concerned with the browser I use; home, office, or corporate. I've never laughed so hard, while reading serious discussions, in my life.

I'm starting this thread to allow everyone to ignore the Mozilla suite for a little while, and to sell me on Netscape 7.2.

I've read a lot of good things about it and would like to hear it from everone directly, rather than scattered info within the Firefox mess.

Two questions to kick it off...

1) Has anyone used or seen NS 7.2 in a massive corporate implementation?

2)Does anyone defend IE?

(please hold your comments about #2 to "informed", "intelligent", and "NO OPEN SOURCE BASHING" posts)

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Answers to your questions

by BFilmFan In reply to This is not a Firefox thr ...

Here are my replies to your questions:

Question #1: No.

Question #2: IE is easy to manage via GPO and thoughtfully built right into Windows. And since it is insecure, crashes, etc., Microsoft keeps me and a large number of professionals employed. Keep up the good work Microsoft, as I'd like to retire before I am 75!

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GPOs are very important

by house In reply to Answers to your questions

I agree that policies are very important in a large environment. This is one of the main reasons why IE has always been the browser of choice for our clients. It allows us to significantly reduce the help desk calls related to the internet explorer. The problems are usually narrowed down quickly to physical layer issues. Sometimes it is a spyware issue though, but these are scattered and almost insignificant to us. Our users are well informed on the utilities available to properly maintain their PC. Also, we block known IP addresses, ports, and we have strict corporate policies (on paper)about funky websites...our users cannot even access MSN.

I thank MS for keeping me employed too.

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Netscape = Mozilla

by TheChas In reply to This is not a Firefox thr ...

I have all but stopped using Netscape.

Netscape since version 6 has been built on the Mozilla code with added "AOL" features.

My first negative about Netscape is that it is over twice the size of same revision Mozilla code.

My second is that the Mozilla code in Netscape is at least 6 months behind the Mozilla release.

Three, "AOL Messenger"!!!

The only "feature" of value in Netscape over Mozilla is that with Netscape you can download the mail from a Netscape web mail account.

If you are looking seriously at Netscape, give Mozilla a very serious review at the same time.

I myself use Firefox for over 98% of my web browsing. There are just a few pages that I visit that don't work properly under Firefox and require using IE.

IMHO, IE, and to a lesser extent Netscape, are just bloat-ware. The more lines of code in a program, the greater the chance for an error or security hole. Plus, the more system resources required.

On a corporate network, behind a well maintained firewall, the overall security of the browser is not as important as it is for a home system.
Since you cannot eliminate IE, and since IE is a bit easier to lock down than Mozilla, it may be that IE is the most cost effective browser to support.

Chas

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ok, we can talk Firefox too

by house In reply to Netscape = Mozilla

I starting using Mozilla when Red Hat 8 came out. Aside from basic functional use, I didn't really work with it that much. When I started with 9, I discovered the Firefox and Thunderbird releases. I loved them from the start and used them exclusively on my Linux installs.

When I found out that Firefox was available for Windows, I immediately jumped on it. I used it for quite a while. I soon realized that although settings were migrated from IE (and outlook to thunderbird) that was as far as it went. Maybe this might sound like a stupid question...but why couldn't the bookmarks and favorites be one entity? I would flip between browsers to find my references. Oh, and the install did not automatically set Firefox as my default browser...easy to fix...but easy to automate as well.

I don't dislike Firefox, but since I removed it, I really only miss the Linux style GUI. I haven't tried it since before its public release though.

Thank you for the brief on NS. This is the kind of info I am looking for. Nothing too technical, just historic development, annoyances, interoperability, and general function. Treat me like a "user" when it comes to NS.

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Alternative answer to your questions

by antispock In reply to This is not a Firefox thr ...

1) The agency (2000 employees) I work for deployed Netscape from 4.75 through 7.1 and is very happy. 7.1 has pop-up blocker and tab browsing 2 features IE will someday have. Netscape user support is easy. Netscapes personal bookmarks work flawlessly.

IE's Personal links don't size well and have to be dragged around the toolbar depending on the size of your browser..

2) Personally I find it hard to defend IE. Security holes. Less functionality. I have the option to use IE but always use Netscape or Firefox.

I have found that IE set at high security (no active X), the sites that don't work in Netscape don't work in IE either. There may be sites that display better in IE but I am not aware of any.

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Good enough for me

by house In reply to Alternative answer to you ...

Good enough for me. I am currently downloading NS 7.2 to use for a few weeks at home.

I am actually impressed now with the "full" Firefox release as well. I had previously installed betas on a 2k and was turned off by certain issues.

The mozilla suite has no hanging issues and the load, when compared with ie and outlook, is significantlly less.

I am still concerned though when we are talking about policies and security in a corporate setting. I configure the IE admin template almost religiously when creating our standard images for rollout.

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