Question: I am using Netscape Navigator as an Internetbrowser now, but there are so many ads pressuring toswitch to Microsoft Explorer. Can you run a columncomparing the two? I have also been unable to find out howmuch space Explorer takes. Since I have a small hard drivethis is a major consideration. --E.K.
Answer: That's a big question these days. Microsoftdesperately wants to own the Internet desktop. You see itwas caught with its pants down when the Internet camealong. Netscape popped up out of nowhere and not onlyjumped on the World Wide Web bandwagon. Its creatorsinvented the bandwagon.
Microsoft, desperate not to be beaten, ran down the Internettrack too and the war between the two companies began.Now with Microsoft's marketing engine revving loud, therivalry has all the makings of a holy war, similar to the onestill quietly waging between parishioners of the Church ofMacintosh and the congregation at the Microsoft Cathedral.
Before I compare the two browsers though, I'm going tocome clean at the outset and tell you I'm a NetscapeNavigator devotee. With that out of the way, here are somecomparisons.
Internet Explorer with the mail and newsgroup readeradd-on is 76 per cent larger than the base NetscapeNavigator install (which includes built-in mail andnewsgroups). Excluding the 979K add-on, the twoprograms are 5,285K vs. 3,539K. Netscape is also 39 percent faster, according to its tests published on its Web page.Microsoft failed to do the comparison. It also takes less timeto download (about half). There are also more Netscapeversions for more platforms. Microsoft offers versions foronly Windows-based environments and Macintosh.
There are also far more people out in Internetland usingNetscape Navigator than MS Explorer and consequently farmore people design pages for it. The latest version of bothbrowsers support the HTML 3.0 specification. That's to saythe coding language that is set by the Internet community canbe read and displayed by both browsers. Both browsershave specialty HTML tags that produce unique displayfeatures, but Microsoft is playing catchup, in my opinion.
As I said, I have a bias. Why? I use Netscape Navigatorevery day. It's simply the better browser. In my life outsideof writing columns I'm the online communications director atthe Southam New Media Centre in Edmonton and developinteractive web content for Southam's newspapers. I've triedExplorer and while I'm impressed with Microsoft's ability tojump out of bed to get to the Internet in time for lunch, Ihaven't seen any innovation worth mentioning. A majority ofExplorer's features have been copied from Netscape.
You see, software innovation is not Microsoft's strength.Marketing is. The company has been good at it from Day 1.It's why everyone uses Microsoft operating systems. Yousee a big part of marketing is about pricing. In the Internetfight, Microsoft's strategy is to give its browser away. As forNavigator, you technically need a software licence to use arelease version beyond the 30-day trial. Though, thanks toan eternal stream of beta versions there are enough triallicences available that it is free, too. But let's not dwell onthat. Buy a Navigator licence and support an innovativecompany.
If you want to read up on the two products and theirfeatures, check out the following two URLs:home.netscape.com and www.microsoft.com.
Cyberwalker notes:
This week I received a letter from two computertroubleshooters: Sine Abougoush and a fellow who simplysigned himself Jack. Both pointed to a problem with memoryleaks in Windows 95. Before you call a plumber, let meexplain. Memory leaks occur when a program doesn'tproperly clean up its memory usage. A program isresponsible for telling the computer when it is finished withmemory so that the space can be release and made availableto other applications. When it fails to do this, you end upwith a bunch of memory being used by a program thatdoesn't need it any more. The simple solution is to restartyour machine. But there is a fix for this particular problem.
Early this year, Microsoft quietly posted an update to one ofWindows 95 core components, Kernel32 DLL. ProlongedTCP/IP session (namely an Internet connection) can causeGPFs. To fix it, get the patch called "Kernel32 Update" fromwww.microsoft.com.It's also a good idea to install the Windows 95 Service Pack1 beforehand. It includes an update to the operating system,some administration tools as well as drivers and a few othergoodies. It's available on the same page.
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