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created 4 Oct. 2000

Netscape 6.0 PR3: Some small improvements, one huge mistake

Well, I just took the time to install Preview Release 3 of Netscape version 6. So, for any of my comments, please bear in mind, it's a beta, and nothing is fixed in stone.

It installed correctly the first time, no crashes. It starts much faster than PR2 did, by about a minute on my 400MHz PowerBook G3 Series '99. The web page rendering is very fast, the text appearing almost instantly images following not long after. It did seem to have an odd problem with one table on my intranet, but that could be the HTML on that page too, so I'm not going to get excited over that. It handles pages from Xerox's Docushare document control product very well, better than Netscape 4.75. In some side by side comparisons, PR3 is sometimes faster than IE 5, sometimes not. In any case the speed difference was less than three seconds for me, so I'm not going to worry too much about that. There are some slowdowns, especially when resizing frames. The redraws are slow enough to watch the frame border redraw two or three times in the course of moving it about 2 inches. Java support is still spotty, with the functionality not as consistent has it needs to be.
The interface is a little cleaner, and feels less cluttered. The colors are easier on the eye, or at least my eye, and it is easier for me to find things in general. The pseudo -integration with Sherlock is nice, although it seems to me it would have been better just to do an Apple Events link to Sherlock, but when you are rigidly cross-platform, you loose good and bad both. Although not a new feature, it also gets rid of Netscape 4.7X's insistence on redrawing the page every time you resize the window. It's also nice to see that Netscape has copied some of IE's better features, such as its improved autocomplete and password manager. There is no KeyChain support, so both browsers still loose to iCab here. The window redraw takes a bit longer than I'd like, but for a beta, it's liveable. PR3 also appears to completely ignore my interface settings as far as scroll arrow settings, etc. I really, really dislike it when a product creates its own interface standard. I'm using it on a Mac, obey my Appearance Manager settings. In addition, many of the Netscape standard key combinations are gone, or changed. So in the address book window, cmd-I doesn't give me information on the selected address book, but rather tries to fire up the instant messaging function. Cute, but cmd-I is always 'Get Info'. Don't muck about with things like that.

There is also no Internet Config support, which, considering it finally showed up in version 4.75, means that once again, you have to maintain separate lists of file and protocol handlers. The AppleScript support is unchanged from 4.75, so it's still very lacking, especially when compared to other applications, such as Outlook Express, Eudora, or even Emailer.

The email client is somewhat improved from PR2 as well, I can finally get a good download on my IMAP mailbox headers in PR3. PR2 would just die at about 1000 headers. Considering I have some IMAP folders with over 4000 headers, that was a bad thing. Header download speed is somewhat slower than Netscape 4.75, but still quite fast, taking about 3-5 minutes for over 4200 headers on a 100Mb Ethernet connection. Reading messages is reasonably fast, although a the screen redraws are a bit jerky. I'm not happy that Netscape doesn't give me an option to not view HTML, or turn off external links in email messages. This is, in one form or another a feature of most other email clients, and is an important one if you are in a secure environment, where unauthorized web connections are prohibited. This ability needs to be added in, preferably before the next PR release. The email message filters, while allowing for many more filtering criteria than 4.75, still only allow for one action to be taken per rule. Compared to products like Outlook Express, Eudora, or Entourage, Netscape's filters are pretty weak.

The address book functionality is, however, broken. There is no capability to search local address books. For someone like me, who has hundreds of entries, and who uses their address book as a contact manager, I need to be able to find phone numbers, addresses, etc. A full-featured find capability in the address book is needed, not just email address autocomplete. But that's not the worst part.

There is no direct connect LDAP capability whatsoever. The only LDAP capability appears to be a one-time LDAP dump to a static LDIF file, but only if you had predefined LDAP servers in 4.75. This is, especially for IMAP or enterprise customers, an astoundingly critical thing to omit. LDAP is the addressbook standard used by too many companies and schools to count, and it's used by many of the public directories on the Internet. In addition, more and more companies are using LDAP as their main employee database, so if anything, it's more prevalent than it was when PR2 was released.

Almost every other email client on the Mac, and any other platform supports LDAP, and indeed, Netscape was one of the pioneers of using LDAP. They made, and Sun took over, one of the best LDAP servers on the market. Especially for mobile, or IMAP users, who may connect to their email from many different computers, LDAP is essential. Considering that every other directory service, including Novell and Microsoft both tout LDAP compatibility if not outright integration, Netscape's removal of LDAP from PR3 is a blunder, and borders on outright stupidity.

The LDIF file dump is unacceptable, as directories change content constantly, so the LDIF dump would have to be done every time you opened Communicator. If you are talking about a directory with 20,000 or so entries, this is going to make starting Communicator an all-morning affair over a modem.
I am also aware of Netscape's online address book features, but a) I don't want to have to join yet another portal to get a feature that had no business being yanked, and b) I don't feel comfortable with placing all my company's address information on an external server, and I am not in a terribly high-security configuration. For companies that are, the online option isn't viable, but LDAP via SSL is.

Between no search capability, and no LDAP capability, unless this is fixed, and quickly, Netscape has just given up the corporate email market, as any IS/IT manager that tries to put this out as the standard email client will at best, get their head handed to them. On a personal note, if this is not fixed, then I will, not may, but will be replacing Netscape as an email client, most likely by Eudora on PCs, OE/Entourage/Eudora/PowerMail on Macs, and I don't know what yet on Unix, although suggestions are welcome, and yes, we already use Pine and Elm.

In conclusion, with the exception of the address book mistake, PR3 is a nice improvement over PR2. Basic functionality is in place, and it's time to speed it up. The lack of LDAP capabilities though, is a stake through the heart if AOL/Netscape want anyone other than strictly home users to ever run Communicator 6. LDAP is just too critical to business and education to be able to function without it. I really hope this is fixed, otherwise, I will have no choice but to replace Netscape with some other email client. And if the only thing I use Netscape for is browsing, then why bother when I can use IE, Opera, iCab, or Omniweb?

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