Are you using some prehistoric era browser? Time to upgrade! The open source Mozilla v1.4 is released on many operating systems. Also, Netscape browsers are built from the Mozilla browser source code with some added extras and you can now upgrade to the Netscape version 7.1 that is based on Moz v1.4. One of the nicest features of these browsers is control of pop-up advertisements.
Popup Controls help you stop popups from taking over your browsing experience. (Popups are small windows that are served by various web sites and are often unsolicited.) The feature can be turned on from the tools menu. Additional settings in Preferences give you personalized control so you can "allow" popups that may be needed by an individual web site.
Mozilla and Netscape have improvements on their junk mail filtering capabilities.
Mail now has junk-mail context menu items, a "delete junk mail" menu item and many other usability improvements for junk-mail controls.
The Bayesian spam detection filter that was introduced into Mozilla v1.3 is now available on Netscape v7.1 as well. You will find more on Netscape v7.1 at Netscape DevEdge.
This release of Netscape represents a lot more than the v7.0 to v7.1 minor rev number change suggests. The underlying Mozilla source code has gone from v1.0 to v1.4 and that is a huge jump in terms of speed, bugginess, and features. Check out the discussion on Mozillazine on the Netscape v7.1 release. You web site developers please note the optional Developer Pack which includes the rather useful Venkman Javascript Debugger. See this list of advantages in v7.1 for web developers.
My favorite browser remains Mozilla Firebird (which was formerly known as Phoenix). With the latest Mozilla version now released we can shortly expect to see a new Mozilla Firebird release v0.7 that incorporates all of the v1.4 code. If you want to get the latest Firebird and don't mind living dangerously with nightly builds (and TechiePundit does live dangerously with nightly builds himself) then try the most recent Firebird nighly build.
Firebird does not come with an email program built in. If you want to get an email client to complement the Mozilla Firebird browser then try out Mozilla Thunderbird.
If you are still using an old Netscape version then it is time to move up. Any time I see a Netscape v4.x browser show up in my web logs I think "there's a person who needs my help if I only knew how to reach him". Your plight is heart wrenching. Please upgrade. If you have been using MS Internet Explorer then why not check out a browser that comes with many features that Microsoft doesn't deign to provide to its customers? The Mozilla project and the browsers that are built off it have made tremendous strides over the last few years. The results are worth a try.
Posted by Randall Parker at July 02, 2003 03:02 PM