BYTE MARKS
Battle of browsers? No contest
By Burt Lum
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when this was a one-browser world.
The time was about 1993 and when you got on the Web, you more than likely launched into your Web-browsing experience using NCSA's Mosaic. When Marc Andreessen left the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to form Netscape, the Mosaic user base followed and morphed into Navigator. It was still a one-browser world.
Shortly thereafter, Microsoft went from being not interested in the Internet to dominating the Internet browser market. That's a testament to the might of Microsoft and Bill Gates, who successfully refocused their Internet strategy, unseating Netscape from the top position to replace it with Internet Explorer.
Being a stalwart Mosaic fan from the beginning, I clung to Netscape, even through the disastrous AOL acquisition. Although I would never admit it publicly, Microsoft won me over. I eventually moved to IE.
What influenced my decision was the false promise that Web programming was agnostic to browser choice. I found myself increasingly isolated using Netscape version 4.73. It bothered me when Web sites wouldn't even launch. Being the cross-platform kind of guy I am, I'd jump back and forth to Internet Explorer version 4.5 when necessary, but over time, this became somewhat annoying, since I didn't know if it was a Mac vs. PC issue or a Netscape vs. Microsoft issue. Finally, I decided to upgrade both browsers on my Mac and let the chips fall as they may. (Side note: I've always run Internet Explorer on my Windows laptop.)
To upgrade your Netscape browser go to browsers.netscape.com/browsers, and for Internet Explorer go to www.microsoft.com/mac/products/ie. The first thing I noticed about Netscape 6.2 was its incredibly bloated size. It consumed 28 megs of memory just to run. By contrast, IE 5.1 for the Mac clocked in at 15 megs. Out of principle, I leaned toward IE. Compatibility, efficiency and speed were clinchers for me.
It's amazing how it is still a one-browser world. Or is it? ;-)
Reach Burt Lum at burt@brouhaha.net.
