Retro browser war: IE6 vs. Netscape in 2011

qubit · Feb 25, 2011, 09:47 AM

Quote:

What if you took the raw, pre-patched, 10-year-old versions of Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape 6.1 and tried to surf the modern Web? What would happen?

...........

Just for fun (my definition of "fun" is fairly warped), I decided to spend some time using the original, pre-patched version of IE6 and a version of Netscape released at roughly the same time. It turns out IE6 is still capable of surfing much of the modern Internet, but Netscape's troubles show it probably died a justified death.

I loved this bit especially:

Quote:

Netscape, meanwhile, simply stopped working after an hour or so, giving me the error message "Netscape application file has encountered a problem and needs to close." Once that happened, I couldn't open the browser at all, even after restarting Windows XP.

Simply reinstalling Netscape didn't work either. To continue testing the browsers I completely reinstalled Windows XP, and moved up to Netscape 6.2.1.

Now, that's what you call a crash!

Read the rest: Network World

qubit · Feb 25, 2011, 06:54 PM

Bump - I can't believe geeks aren't interested in a review of obsolete software that nobody uses any more!

Heck, that hard crash alone is worth some giggles, lol.

MRCL · Feb 25, 2011, 07:08 PM

Interesting. My company had IE6 installed on every computer until not even half a year ago when they finally upgraded to IE8. Glad it wasn't Netscape lol. That being said I remember browsing the Net with Netscape as a kid, with Win98. But as so many else we migrated to IE with WinXP.

qubit · Feb 25, 2011, 07:25 PM

Well, your company is still a lot more progressive than ours - a default PC image is still XP with IE6.

And IE6 is causing lots of problems with general browsing and it's now impossible to log into SSL sites, because some group policy setting has changed on Active Directory. Why stick with IE6? Because of one or two crappy apps that won't work properly with anything later.

In fact, to resolve the SSL issue, we do upgrade the browser on request... to IE7. Great, innit?

IE8 definitely causes problems with them, but IE7 is usually ok.

yogurt_21 · Feb 25, 2011, 07:32 PM

shoulda just linked the slide show

http://www.networkworld.com/slidesho...-netscape.html

more entertaining.

qubit · Feb 25, 2011, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yogurt_21

shoulda just linked the slide show

http://www.networkworld.com/slidesho...-netscape.html

more entertaining.

Hehe, this is my favourite: http://www.networkworld.com/slidesho...pe.html#slide6

"This empty space brought to you by Internet Explorer."

Priceless.

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Feb 25, 2011, 06:54 PM	#2
qubit Overclocked quantum bit Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Quantumville UK Posts: 8,724 (4.31/day) Thanks: 4,216 Thanked 3,335 Times in 1,971 Posts System Specs	Bump - I can't believe geeks aren't interested in a review of obsolete software that nobody uses any more! Heck, that hard crash alone is worth some giggles, lol. __________________ Siggie in the post.

System Name:	Quantumville™
Processor:	Intel Core i7-2700K at 4.7GHz (hits 5 gees+ easily)
Motherboard:	Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Cooling:	Noctua NH-D14
Memory:	16GB (4 x 4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz)
Video Card:	EVGA GTX 590 Classified
Hard Disk:	WD Caviar Black 640GB / WD Caviar Green 2TB x2 in mobo RAID 1
Optical Drive:	Whatever DVD drive I've chucked in there right now
CRT/LCD Model:	Asus VG278HE (144Hz, 3D Vision 2, 1080p, 27") & LG W2363D (120Hz 1080p 23")
Case:	Coolermaster HAF 922
Sound Card:	SoundBlaster X-Fi ExtremeMusic (You ever heard one of these? Wow!)
PSU:	Corsair HX850W
Software:	Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Benchmarks:	Yes

Feb 25, 2011, 07:08 PM	#3
MRCL Join Date: May 2008 Location: Switzerland, Heart of Europe Posts: 3,798 (2.06/day) Thanks: 340 Thanked 862 Times in 705 Posts System Specs	Interesting. My company had IE6 installed on every computer until not even half a year ago when they finally upgraded to IE8. Glad it wasn't Netscape lol. That being said I remember browsing the Net with Netscape as a kid, with Win98. But as so many else we migrated to IE with WinXP. __________________ [I.R.A.] FBi I wouldnt buy toilet paper from MSI as it may be missing the preforations

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Optical Drive:	LiteON DVD writer
CRT/LCD Model:	24" Acer V243W
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Sound Card:	onboard
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Software:	Win 7 64bit

Feb 25, 2011, 07:25 PM	#4
qubit Overclocked quantum bit Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Quantumville UK Posts: 8,724 (4.31/day) Thanks: 4,216 Thanked 3,335 Times in 1,971 Posts System Specs	Well, your company is still a lot more progressive than ours - a default PC image is still XP with IE6. And IE6 is causing lots of problems with general browsing and it's now impossible to log into SSL sites, because some group policy setting has changed on Active Directory. Why stick with IE6? Because of one or two crappy apps that won't work properly with anything later. In fact, to resolve the SSL issue, we do upgrade the browser on request... to IE7. Great, innit? IE8 definitely causes problems with them, but IE7 is usually ok. __________________ Siggie in the post. Last edited by qubit; Feb 25, 2011 at 09:22 PM. Reason: Improved wording

Feb 25, 2011, 07:32 PM	#5
yogurt_21 Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 4,058 (1.51/day) Thanks: 2,249 Thanked 542 Times in 443 Posts System Specs	shoulda just linked the slide show http://www.networkworld.com/slidesho...-netscape.html more entertaining.

System Name:	Last of the Mohicans
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Hard Disk:	Samsung 840 Pro 256GB OS, 3x WD10EARS in raid 0 games, external 2tb storage, RaptorX 150GB chillin
Optical Drive:	SONY DVD-+RW and sony combo
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Sound Card:	onboard HD
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