May 25, 2002
Just downloaded Netscape 7's first public beta. It's based on Mozilla's 1.0 Release Candiadate 2, so it's not as out of date as the last version of Netscape was.
And it looks good. AOL took out the UI that allows users to block popup windows and images, but I can copy the necessary stuff over from my Mozilla profile -- it's only inactive, not removed. I'm using the Classic skin (made to emulate version 4's look) to be able to tell it apart from Moz, and Classic isn't as hideous as I remember. There's some extra AOL and RealPlayer stuff that gets deposited on the desktop, and I'd recommend choosing a custom install to avoid getting saddled with yet another copy of AIM. You'll also have to edit your preferences to remove some crap from your personal toolbar.
But if someone's afraid to try Mozilla due to its "eternal beta" status, I'd have to say Netscape 7 is a good choice. And if AOL starts using it in its client, "professional" webmasters will be forced to write standards-compliant pages (oh, the horror!). Here's to the reignition of the Browser War.
