BYTE MARKS
Alternative browsers worth a look

By Burt Lum

In a fashion typical to computing and the Internet, things change super fast. As I was doing the column on browsers, I realized that although the titans, Microsoft and AOL, dominate the mass media, there are significant options beyond the obvious two. One of these the recently released Mozilla version 1.0 (www.mozilla.org).

Mozilla.org is an open source project. Back in January 1998, Netscape decided to make publicly available its source code. The idea was to make the browser software available to the developers for free. This would, in theory, encourage new developments from the software community not necessarily tied to Netscape. The code name of the source code while at Netscape was Mozilla. The name stuck and is now the moniker of the organization that formed around this open source code.

More than four years have passed since the release of the code and the formation of Mozilla.org. There have been mergers, acquisitions, new software products and intense competition. Although taking distinctly separate paths, Mozilla and Netscape have come full circle.

If you compare the new Netscape 7.0 and the new Mozilla 1.0 you will find them strikingly similar. That is because the code base underlying Netscape 7.0 is the latest Mozilla software. Some of the coolest features are the extensive use of tabs to keep better track of your favorite Web sites. You will find this on the left side of the browser. Microsoft has this in Internet Explorer, but Netscape does a nicer job. What makes Netscape 7.0 so large in size, unfortunately, is the incorporation of applications such as mail, news and AOL Instant Messenger.

But there are other browsers to choose from. I found an extensive list at the following links: www.mediahorizon.net/search/Internet/Web_Browsers/ and www.freewarehome.com/Internet/Web_Browsers_t.html. Some based on Mozilla code and others are not. Many sport enhanced tab features, while others featuring tiled windows within the same browser. Microsoft and AOL aside, there's much more diversity than meets the eye. ;-)

Burt Lum is one click away at burt@brouhaha.net.