[H-GEN] Re: Stalling Netscape

Jason Henry Parker jasonp at uq.net.au
Tue Apr 17 01:29:45 EDT 2001


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[Rant ahead.  Followups should probably go to chat, unless you're going
to drag it back on-topic.  I think this is only *just* on-topic as is.]

On Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 02:36:25PM +1000, Raymond Smith wrote:

> It has been my experience that all browsers suck.

All software sucks.  Period.  Even emacs sucks.  Even vi sucks.
Even---dare I say it---Perl sucks.  And yes, Linux sucks, Debian sucks,
Unix sucks, and I'm even sure that if someone should ever *build*
a Turing Machine, infinite tape and all, that it would suck.  Mightily.

To get back on-topic:  Yes, Netscape has been blowing goats for years;
I'm not at all surprised to hear Frank has been having problems.  In fact
I'm wondering why they didn't become apparent years earlier.  I think
the *big* difference between netscape and my browser of choice[1] is
that there is NO SOURCE available for Netscape.  Not even just to read,
let alone fix.

This wouldn't be mortally wounding in and of itself except that Netscape
*also* has abysmal error reporting.  In an application meant to be the
be-all and end-all when it comes to accessing content on the net, this
is absofuckinglutely unforgivable.

If I simply have to use it, I will.  I've even installed it at home to
make things easier for other people who use my machine (now uninstalled,
long story, not available on request) but otherwise I'll use a browser
that doesn't make a total dog's breakfast of things by DELIBERATELY
LYING TO THE USER about what's happening as a matter of course.

DeRant.  Of course, Martin's advice is by far the best.

jason

[1] : At this point in time, that's w3m, the next generation text-only
      browser, or w3 mode for emacs, the last geneartion text-only
      broswer.  Please do not respond telling me they're not useful for
      doing X.  If I can't do X in w3m or w3, and you're not paying me
      for it, I don't want to do it, and I don't care about fixing it.
-- 
Windows is user-friendly, but with friends like that . . .

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