The Internet has evolved at an extraordinary pace, and browsing software has brought easy information access to millions of people. While early browsers revolutionized the Internet, browsers have grown in size and complexity with every release and have failed to implement Web standards consistently, holding back the development of richer web applications and content.
Our Review: Ooooooooh.... pretty. Finally the final release of Netscape 6. This new version is very slick looking, hasn't crashed on me once, and is able to go through most webpages without a hiccup. You can now change themes as easily as a click of a button without having to go through the rigamarole of changing it in the preferences and then hoping it doesn't crash, etc. The 'Modern' skin has been significantly updated and looks a lot nicer, and makes things a little easier to use. If you have been holding off downloading the earlier preview releases due to bugs, etc, then now would be a good time to start downloading. Netscape 6 Preview Release 3 also comes with a mail client, AIM instant messenger, and Composer, the HTML editor. A big issue has been made of the smart side bar which can display your online buddies, do searches and keep track of news, etc. I think it's quite good, but am glad that it can be disabled as it takes up a fair bit of space. On the down side of all of this, on my Celeron 500 it was still a tad slow changing windows between Navigator and Messenger and there are still lots of issues that most people won't notice but serious web users will. All in all though, Netscape 6 is well worth a download.