[H-CHAT] Re: [H-GEN] Stalling Netscape

Rob Kearey mammal at optushome.com.au
Mon Apr 16 22:27:26 EDT 2001


[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and  ]
[ Unix-related topics.  Please observe the list's charter.           ]
[ Worthwhile understanding: http://www.humbug.org.au/netiquette.html ]

Frank Brand wrote:

> ... But, to a commercial company that can say
> "Hey, why are you stuffing me around like this with the crazy Linux
> system - Netscape is a dog, Opera gives me Java problems and Galleon has
> all sorts of other fixes that I need to install and manage. Why don't we
> just use Windows or Windows 2000"?   Their logic is compelling.

No, their logic is woolly and half-baked. If you think you're making an
OS choice based on "Does it work like IE5", then you're mistaken -
you're making a choice of browser alone, and have no business dealing
with this sort of thing.

> The comany that I am thinking of is totally web-based and operates
> around the world. All company accounting and administration etc. is done
> via the web, GST (VAT in the Uk) is accounted for on the web. Their site
> is totally graphical...way way graphical and even the odd fallover gets
> up their nose....when the browser crashes it makes them wonder whether
> the transactions have gone thru or not... IE does the job , others do
> not...QED.

They've probably made the mistake of creating an entire web interface
that isn't browser neutral. That's suicidal in the long run, and misses
the *point* of the Web entirely. It's not as if IE never crashes or
misbehaves, either. Have a look at the MS knowledge base viz IE
rendering problems sometime.
 
> As I previously remarked, at the time I did not see the significance of
> the browser wars but now it is becoming clearer.

Only in as much as MS has deliberatly created this situation with
constant "innovation". And no, ActiveX is *not* innovation.

> Yup, I looked at Galleon but it was not that simplistic and I decided to
> wait until later in the cycle...if the cycle ever completes.

Try skipstone, then. It's a gtk+ only app - no GNOME there. It'll even
run on a framebuffer.

> FLAME BAIT for sure I know, but I have been using Netscape on Linux
> almost exclusively as my internet machine for about 5 years now and
> Netscape seems to be going backwards not forwards, Opera and Konqueror
> are not yet great, Galleon is in the formative stages and about 10 other
> browsers (including a couple that did look promising but disappeared off
> the face of the earth) have not proved to be durable.

Flame bait indeed. Konqueror works fine. Opera works fine. Mozilla works
fine.

What you're *really* whinging about, Frank, is that non-IE browsers
don't do the whole proprietry IE Scripting/ActiveX/plugin thing. Well,
dur. And what do you think can be done about that?

> Anybody want to give an update on Galleon...last time I looked it was
> about version 0.3

The most trivial look through http://www.freshmeat.net would give you
the answer to that.

> Frank Brand

-- 
Rob K
http://members.optushome.com.au/mammal
Please abbreviate 'bandwidth' as 'bndwth'
thereby conserving precious bndwth.

--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.



More information about the General mailing list