Netscape aims beyond Firefox

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Lured toward uniformity

I am a web designer and I test on IE 5 & 6 as well as Netscape 4.7, 7.2 and Firefox 1.0. I also test on Mac, Windows and Linux. My company standard browser is Firefox, and nobody complains about that. We all have IE available if a page comes up and doesn't work in FF. I don't take these occurances personally. I have 5 image editors that have some slight differentiation among them.

I am seeing less differentiation, not more, between IE and Netscape. The only important difference is that Netscape/Firefox does not allow activeX controls to auto-run. If they fixed the activeX runtime environment so that they stayed in the sandbox of the browser window, it would be a better fix in the long run. Computers would be safer, etc, etc..

Most of these arguments about feature sets are a waste of our time. The applications are tools in a toolbox. The Internet is a project space. When one tool doesn't work for the job, you pick up a different tool. It wouldn't make sense to use a #2 philips screwdriver for every job. It doesn't work well for pounding nails. Nobody has a week-long discussion about the injustice of it that they cannot paint a wall using only a screwdriver. If the screwdriver manufacturer advertised that you could paint a wall with their screwdriver, like browser developers seem to be saying you can do anything with this or that browser, we would all get a big laugh out of it.

More and more, in a number of areas, we are being lured toward uniformity and are more and more vocal about our "choice" of browser. At the point where all browsers include hybrid engines, we will be at the poit of highest absurdity. Skin design will be the only area of innovation and people will be burning figurative crosses on each other's lawns about the superiority of skin-IE over skin-Netscape.

Posted by: saphil@...   Posted on: 12/01/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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