Netscape 6 PR3 No Workee!

[glc]

Spent a couple of hours downloading the whole shebang (22 megs) as I despise active setup type routines. Installed it on my NT4 SP6a workstation and it promptly crashed with a Dr. Watson. Rebooted - tried again - same thing.

Went to the Netscape beta newsgroup - someone else with NT is having the same problem. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

First beta of NS 6 that I have tried - and it does this to me..............I want *SO* much for this software to be all it's supposed to be!

Hey fredwest - if you are out there, how about downloading it on your T1 at work and trying it on your NT box - just change the install path so it won't overwrite your 4.7x. Lemme know what happens, please. Anyone else with NT that feels daring, try it and please give us your feedback.

[Xayd]

Just downloaded it to my 98FE machine at home. If you get it working under NT you guys are gonna love it! It actually seems FASTER than the previous releases, if that's possible. Much faster than IE 4 SP2. They seem to have plugged up quite a few memory leaks as well. It's not swapping much, even after I just finished playing UT for an hour or so. They also fixed the minimize thing. I'm gonna check and see if the selective cookie blocking works now, I'll post back later on that.

BTW, got a new look to the thing, check it out...



Xayd

[Xayd]

Oh, and is it coincidence that the new PCMech board images just HAPPEN to be exactly the same color as the new NS6, enough so to make one think that the forum is part of the browser? I think not, long live the lizard!

Xayd

BTW, selective cookie blocking works now. I blocked all ad servers I'd come across from writing cookies as I deleted the previous cookies individually, and they didn't come back.

[Edited by Xayd on 10-05-2000 at 07:30 AM]

[glc]

I got it working. I updated my Crescendo plugin on 4.75 to version 5.1, shut down all nonessential NT services, and installed Netscape without the Sun java plugin. First time I loaded a site, it wanted to install the java plugin, and I let it - it installed fine and still works.

http://bbscomp.com/george/NS6.jpg

(Not using the "img" tags on purpose - don't want to have a 130K image slowing the thread loading)

[glc]

Used PR3 all day yesterday. I don't like it. It takes forever to load and according to Task Manager, it uses almost 3 times the memory as 4.75. The *only* advantage I can find is that I can still surf in another browser window while Java is loading, which 4.75 won't let me do. Maybe it's snappy on a fast machine, but on my 200 MMX with 96 megs ram it's a slug - 4.75 is MUCH faster. As far as how the pages *look*, it looks like a super slow IE.

It has serious memory leak problems too - after surfing for a few hours with 2 or 3 windows open, it grinds to a halt - Task Manager says it's using over 40 megs ram and I have to end process. I have *never* had 4.75 use more than 20 megs no matter how hard I abuse it.

Unless 6 is majorly fixed before release, I guess I'll just keep using 4.x till it's no longer supported.

[SARGE]

glc, thanks for info. I was debating getting it, but past experiences since 4.x.........Fred must be holding his tongue just right for all these different versions to work so well.

[Xayd]

Those sound like NT issues glc. I've been running it for a week now, both on my home machine (Duron 750, 128 megs of RAM) and my work machine (P2 350 and 64 megs of RAM) and PR3 seems faster than PR2 on both. The work machine is 95B and my home machine is 98FE.

Seemed to me from using it that there were more memory leaks in the last release than this one. The new one doesn't swap much at home, and swaps less than the last one at work.

Xayd

[lil Jimmie]

I've been using Ns 6pr3 for a couple of days and it is slower on my pc than Ns 6pr2. I even went back to Ns6pr2 for a day just to see and all was well, so setup Ns6pr3 again and the same thing slow. Ns6pr2 is alomost as fast as IE5.5 on my pc

[glc]

There seems to be a common thread on the Netscape beta newsgroup - 6 is dog slow on slow machines, but is very fast on powerful ones. Seems the rendering engine IS a big memory hog.

[M. A. Dockter]

Whoa...to me NS6 looks a lot like Mac OS X

[fredwest]

Hi guys,
Yeah I've got PR3 on my NT box. Mind you mine is a P3 550 with 192Mb RAM. It's quick but I liked PR2 better. Here is a link to the my post in the Technews section => http://206.161.202.65/forum/showthre...?threadid=4494.

After reviewing that post here is what I think:

I don't like how it sets up (for mail and network connections) and it does seem to crash now and then for no apparent reason. I still hold my breath when I use it and like glc, I have to update 4.75 FIRST and then copy the plugins to PR3 plugins directory. This was the case also with PR2....and I don't like this problem either.

I too REALLY hope that this will be a 'better' browser when it's officially released. I still use 4.75 for 'mission critical' surfing.

IMHO PR2 was a better beta than is successor, PR3. Above all there HAS to be functionality. I don't care how good a app looks if it just doesn't 'function'....

I'm prepared to wait with an open mind for the release of NS6. If it sucks then I just won't use it. However if these potential problems are documented and FIXED then I would be prepared to put up with the odd bug or two until then.

I'm not going to dismiss NS6 outright. It does work and work quite well (on my DELL anyway)....but as I've said before, I wouldn't let it near my home P3.....at least not yet. Crashes within 95b can, IMO, be worse that with NT4.

Still, the possibilities for this browser are fantastic! Let's just hope that the balance between form and function is achieved.

That's it.


Yours

Declan (aka fredwest)