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created 9 Aug. 2000

Netscape PR2...not even close

Well, I've just finished playing with both the M18 release of Mozilla, the open source pre-release version of Netscape Communicator, and PR2 of Netscape version 6. In the case of PR2, attempting to play with it would be the better choice, as I never actually got it to run. On the other hand, M18 installed fine, started up, and acted like a somewhat functional beta. Unfortunately, I still cannot add new LDAP directory entries for email address lookups, and since my company uses LDAP for our corporate address books, I really can't do any email work with M18.

But as I was sitting there, staring at what has to be the most horridly non-mac interface of any application I've dealt with in years, I suddenly realized what was making me so mad about Netscape. It wasn't that the beta didn't work right, although in my testing experience, a beta is feature complete, yet buggy. If the features aren't all present, and basically functional, then it's an alpha, and a public preview release should at least start up without causing Macsbug screens. But that wasn't what was making me angry, something else was.

The way they've treated their Mac users over the last few years.

As a network administrator, I've spent more time dealing with new versions of Netscape across three platforms over the last year than Windows patches by far. Now, thanks to yet another bug in Communicator, I have to tell my Netscape users on three platforms to disable Java, because Netscape managed to make it into a whopping security hole. So now, my Netscape users have to deal with a large loss of functionality until Netscape releases the patch, and we can get it installed.

And yet, in the Mac community, Netscape has this exalted place as the leader of the fight against the Microsoft Monster.

Why? Why do we support a company simply because they exist?

Oh certainly, they had a good product at one point. But what has Netscape done for the Mac in the last year? Their Java implementation on the Mac is a joke. Everyone else on the Mac is able to use Java that runs with the 1.1.8 JDK, Netscape is still back at 1.0.X. It's so bad that if you use the document control features with Netscape's web server, you can't browse your hard drive to find the files you want to upload. You have to enter the path. Not only that, but after 4 releases since version 4.7, and many more since version 4.5, Communicator *still* doesn't support Apple's MRJ java implementation.

But that's not all.

Netscape ignores Internet Config/Internet Control Panel settings, so even though I spent many hours creating a Internet Preferences file that is perfectly tuned for our users, for Netscape I have to manually tell it things like how to treat Word files, not to use Sparkle for MPEG movies, etc. It still can't handle multiple POP accounts unless you create multiple user configurations, one per POP account. It has essentially no XML support, and feature-wise, it can't even match the Windows version much less anyone else's browser. The AppleScript support for the Mac version of Communicator 4.7.X is horrid, and I didn't see a point in looking at the PR2 version. Their menus still don't comply with the Platinum interface, which has been the standard for around three years now. They still don't support Navigation Services, which has been out for the last two years or so. If I'm reading email in Netscape, and click on a link, there is no easy way to tell Netscape to always automatically use a different web or FTP application. The list goes on.

Here's a company that had an absolute lock on the Mac browser market, and now the Mac version of their shipping client is the worst one they ship. And when my Mac users complain, my answer has been, until now, "Well, Netscape 6 will fix this."

No more. There's a company that is shipping the best XML browser available, it supports Internet standards better than any browser that isn't in beta, it's smaller than Communicator, needs less memory to run, integrates better with the MacOS, and crashes less. This company also is shipping a better email client that has some of the best AppleScript support of any email client, and they are about to release a full-featured email client/PIM as part of another product that is just fantastic. Who is this company?

Microsoft.

Yes, I know they are the evil ones, Bill is the devil, I've heard all the rants. But when it comes to their Mac products, the rants are hollow. I did some checking on my hard drive, and right now, the combined size of Internet Explorer 5, Outlook Express 5, and AOL Instant Messenger, (the three products that essentially give you all the features of Communicator) is less than the size of Communicator 4.7.X . I've also realized, from talking to the Microsoft developers, that the Mac Office, OE, and IE development teams are as big a group of hardcore Mac heads as you will find anywhere. They love the Mac platform, and are on a mission to write the best Mac applications in whatever market they are writing for, from email to word processing. And it shows.

Internet Explorer has the best XML support of any commercial browser, it's also fast enough that the differences between it and Netscape are minor, it uses Apple's MRJ for Java, which while not current with Sun's, is better than Netscape's by far. It uses Internet Config settings, has allowed me to auto-fill online forms since version 4.5, and is more stable for me and my users than Netscape. It also maintains my browsing history even after I close my current browser window. It tracks my online passwords for me, and allows me to view and edit the ones I have it tracking. It may display HTML marginally slower than Communicator, but it's other features more than make up for that time by the end of my day. In short, it's a better Mac application.

Outlook Express has excellent Applescript support, phenomonally powerful filters, handles multiple POP and IMAP accounts with ease, supports LDAP, and while not as fast as Netscape for certain IMAP functions, has more features that my users and I need, and uses less RAM than Netscape. Outlook Express is simply a better Mac application than Communicator.

Their upcoming Entourage product, which I have been testing, is honestly a joy to use, and it beats Netscape in too many ways to list here. It, like Communicator 6 is a beta product. Unlike Communicator 6, it isn't over a year late, it is feature complete, it conforms to MacOS interface rules, (yes, I know about skins, but I find it annoying that I need a third party product to make a Mac application look like a Mac application. Also, I have to deal with many more people than just myself.) and it has a PIM feature set that is one of the best I have ever used. It supports Internet messaging, news and calendaring standards, (it's amusing to note, the only way Entourage, can connect to a Microsoft Exchange Server is via Internet protocols such as POP, IMAP, or iCal.) It also handles Netscape's vCards better than Netscape does, gives me almost unlimited ways to view my email, and the AppleScript support is, not surprisingly, excellent. This is unlike Netscape, whose AppleScript support for email functions is so bad as to be better off being removed completely. Entourage also has Palm support for its calendar and contact list. Netscape has yet to be able to get any Palm support into any Mac version of Communicator. But the Windows version of Communicator has it. Once again, Microsoft has made Entourage a better Mac application than Netscape has done with Communicator.

The point to all of this is, Netscape's free ride, at least in my small domain, is over, done, ended. No longer will I make excuses for a currently bad product, hoping that the next version will work better. I certainly don't do it for Microsoft. They want to be my recommended product, they now have to earn it like everyone else does.

As an example, until recently, Outlook Express couldn't sort IMAP email into folders that weren't local folders. I helped beta test that product, but I couldn't use it without that feature, and was quite up front in telling the OE team why. They fixed that, and I started using it.

If Netscape Communicator 6 turns into an excellent Mac product in all the ways that are required for a Mac product to be excellent, and is better than the other products available, I would have no problem in using it, or recommending to others that they use it. But right now, I can't do that.

Netscape cannot succeed simply because they aren't Microsoft. Frankly, if that's the best reason they have for being, they don't deserve to succeed. I'm not going to use a product because of what it isn't, or who the company that makes it is not. The product either helps me and my users do what we need to do better than its competition, or we won't use it, no matter who makes it.

I have no company loyalty, I have no product loyalty. I use OE and IE, because for the way I work, they are the best products out there. If iCab or Opera release a browser that is better for me than IE, I'll stop using IE. Simple as that. If Netscape 6 turns out to accomplish those goals, then they will have earned their place as my web and email applications of choice.

Until something better comes along.

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