PowerBook 2400c 96 MB RAM Chip and 320/400 MHz G3 CPU Upgrades
Hands-On Review: Netscape 6 PR1, The First 24 Hours: From Dana "M$ Free Zone" Baggett, our Ace Reporter, "I had pretty much ignored Navigator 6 PR1 when it first came out a month or so ago, thinking that it was likely to be similar to Mozilla 5 which I had downloaded one of its recent builds - and didn't like. It looked too much like a Windows product ported over to the Mac. Ugh!
But, an interview with 'Mr Netscape 6.0' Jim Martin, senior vice president and general manager at Netscape, in the latest (June 2000) issue of Time Digital caught my attention. The opening paragraph says that the new Netscape 6 '...isn't your father's Navigator...' and it might just change the way we use the WWW, both on and off the desktop. While warning that the present PR1 (read beta) version is buggy, the article quotes Martin as saying 'It's a ground-up, white-board, clean-sheet-of-paper browser.'
Hmm. I thought. Maybe I should take a look. And, Saturday being a rainy, overcast day here, I had a domestic dispensation from the usual yard work. Time for some beta testing.
Getting a good download proved to be the first hurdle. Netscape.com was unavailable from the hinterlands [meaning Maine]. But, I found several ftp download links. Fortunately, the first link I tried was to the installer stub application. I downloaded it and found that it functioned like the QuickTime 4 stub installer. When you implement it, it first asks that you determine where you want the full download located, on the desktop, on My Hard Drive, etc.It then lets you decide if you want a 'Typical Install' or a 'Custom Install.' The installer then returns to the ftp site for a download of the selected type. And, here was my first pleasant surprise. It was a Smart Download with Pause and Resume buttons. This download feature has been available in the Windows versions of Communicator 4.x but not for Macs. I found through 'scientific research,' a.k.a. blundering around, that it did indeed resume a download.
I ran the Smart Download stub installer more than once because the first time it started with the second of six files. It turns out that the first file is the primary installer and if you don't get it, the other five files evaporate after you have supposedly downloaded them. The second time I got all six.
Once the full download is finished - and it didn't take too long even with my dial-up connection running about 4 to 5 k/sec. because Navigator 6 is about 25% smaller than Communicator - the installer imported bookmarks and some preferences from Communicator 4.7.3 without disturbing the source files. If you have more than one set of user preferences, you can choose which one to use. If you did use a trial version of Mozilla, the Read Me says to ditch those preference files. Oops. Too late. But, no harm done. The installer runs through an impressive routine putting something on the order of 1,700 pieces here and there. Don't ask me what or where. And, once finished the installer stub file and the finished installation remains but no complete install application is retained.
Later, I downloaded the full 10Mbs installer file via ftp and installed a second version of Netscape 6 PR1 using it. I didn't think it was as good an installation. Some icons were generic while the Smart Download installed the same ones with proper appearance. But, both installations worked. Incidentally, Navigator 6 PR1 and Communicator 4.x can coexist.
Now that I am on the www with Netscape 6 PR1, I am pleasantly surprised with how stable it is - much more so than my experience with early released versions of Communicator 4. So far, using it intensively over for the last two days, I have had two crashes, both involving Mail. Neither crashed my iMac SL 350 running Mac OS 9.0.4. I just started PR1 again. It is slower than Communicator 4.73 but not ponderously so. I like the interface a lot. The next version PR 2 apparently will include optional skins to customize the appearance. I did find it necessary to get into Preferences to change the size of the fonts to 12 from what seems to be a much larger default size of about 16 pt. I changed the font dpi from a Windows typical 96 dpi to what is supposed to be a more Mac-like 72 dpi. (I read that suggestion elsewhere along with the reader comment that his preferences didn't hold; mine did.) I had to log into Netcenter with my name and password to get my personalized page and likewise with my Apple.Excite home page so Communicator cookies don't work with Netscape 6 PR1. By massaging the Preferences file, I got PR1 working the way I want.
It is obviously a beta version. Some of the drop down menu options are grayed out. I found in writing this piece on PR1 email that Cut worked from the menu but Paste didn't. But, keyboard Paste did work. I haven't been able to get SpellChecker to work. Netscape 6 Help indicates that it isn't routinely installed and suggests that a Custom install is needed. But, it is installed in my Netscape 6 file; it just doesn't work. There's plenty of Help and a Feedback Center is located under the Help menu bar. It didn't handle correctly an attempted download of itself once I managed to get to netscape.com today and I am not sure if PR1 can handle any downloads. There is obviously a lot more work to be done before it is ready for rollout this fall. But, it is just as obvious that it is not my father's Navigator.
I am encouraged enough with my initial experience to keep using it which is more than I can say about other beta applications I have tried. Surely, it will be compatible with Mac OS X and we don't know whether we can say the same for Communicator 4.x. It has lots of features and lots of promise. I'd encourage other readers to give it a try."
-- Weekend, May 13-14 -- [Last updated 2:30p ET 5/13/00]
[2:30p 5/13]
Corel Abandons WordPerfect for the Mac according to this Macworld.com article. This ends the saga that saw WordPerfect come from nowhere to unseat Microsoft Word as the principle enterprise Mac word processing application. However, its development on the Mac came to a screeching halt as Windows 95 and a faltering Apple led to the wholesale replacement of Macs by PCs in the 1996-97 time frame. Despite doing extremely well in the PC market against Word, the last update of Mac WordPerfect came in 1997 with version 3.5e. Our enterprise standard is WordPerfect 6.1 with a mix of about 30 percent Macs. I expect that this development will hasten the shift to Microsoft Word as the standard, a shift that the Mac users have heretofore successfully resisted on the basis of the interoperability ease of Mac and PC WordPerfect applications.
[9:30a 5/13]
Apple Multimedia Update 1.0 is available via Mac OS 9's Software Update control panel but is not yet on the download site. MMU 1.0 includes Apple Audio Extension 1.0.5 and five [we originally wrote four based on the installation in my G4] ATI graphics extensions. Apparently, it is just for newer Macs (e.g. iMac SL, iBook, B&W G3 and G4) as neither my 7300 nor my 2400c running Mac OS 9.0.4 found it. [Dana Baggett, Ace Reporter]
[Update: 10:00p] From the ReadMe:
Apple Audio Extension 1.0.5
- This extension provides improved support for playing audio CDs with virtual memory turned on and additional support for USB audio input devices.
New ATI Graphics Drivers
- These ATI drivers improve performance for Open GL games on systems using ATI Rage 128 Pro as well as certain Final Cut Pro display functions."
ATI Graphics Accelerator 4.9.9
ATI Rage 128 3D Accelerator 5.8.5
ATI Video Accelerator 4.5.2
ATI 3D Accelerator 4.9.8
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