Before it was acquired by AOL, Netscape launched the Mozilla open-source effort that produced Firefox. AOL owner Time Warner spun off the Mozilla Foundation as a nonprofit last year.
With Tuesday's release, Netscape is betting that ensuring site compatibility through the IE option, providing general surfing security with the default Gecko engine, and offering an easier interface for some of Firefox's more advanced features will make the browser an attractive option for mainstream Web surfers.
"What this release allows us to do is offer the compatibility of having IE if Web sites are optimised for IE, but it also allows the user to have the control and security of Mozilla browsers," said a source close to Netscape's browser effort. "We've taken all the advanced capabilities available in other browsers and made them more intuitive and usable."
The Netscape prototype, available to people who signed up in recent weeks on the Netscape portal, doesn't actually include a copy of IE. Instead, it takes advantage of the IE version installed with most Windows operating systems to let people view specific pages in IE by selecting a drop-down menu option. Users also can opt to browse with IE by default.
The prototype works only with Windows. Netscape has yet to decide whether it will support other operating systems in future releases, said the source close to the browser project.
New browser features
Features brought to the fore in the new Netscape browser include tabs, which open on the first installation of the software and absorb pop-up windows if users don't opt to block them. Starting up the browser also prompts people to use the browser's "Form Fill" application, which lets them store information frequently requested by Web forms.
The new browser's customisable interface uses Firefox's RSS (Really Simple Syndication) capabilities to scroll news headlines or stock tickers in the browser's toolbar.
Netscape provided a prototype copy to ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com, but a representative declined to comment on its release, when the final version was expected, how it would be named and numbered, or when the related Netscape portal redesign would launch.
Mozilla said it welcomed the release, which is based on pre-1.0 versions of Firefox. The final release of the new Netscape browser will be based on Firefox 1.0.
One leader in the Mozilla effort defended Firefox against Netscape's claim that it was geared toward more advanced users, and that features built into the new Netscape browser required the installation of plug-ins and extensions to work with Firefox.
Talkback
"...and Microsoft's Internet Explorer engine, which many consider the de facto Web standard."
What an idiotic thing to say. I think the W3C might disagree in very strong terms.
M$ deliberately try to derail the push for standards - how else do you get something so simple as the CSS box model wrong?
That's right folks, wrong...every single modern accessible standards-compliant website has to have special code in it to make allowances for IE being wrong.
The IE engine is not safe, its not secure, its not efficient, its not reliable...the only thing it IS is flawed.
So the idea that we should somehow make allowances for it to continue by 'switching to IE mode' in the new Netscape browser or for that matter Firefox is simply insane.
Use a standards based browser. If you don't know what that is - it's high time you found out.