RasterWeb: Rambles: browserupgrade

I want to upgrade my browser. I really do...

At work I use a PowerMac G4, with 192mb of RAM. It's a nice machine. These are the browsers on it today:

• Netscape 4.08
• Netscape 4.75
• Netscape 6.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0
• Mozilla 0.8

Netscape 4.08 is the official company browser. so I need it to test web-based apps that will be deployed in the company. Netscape 4.75 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 are probably what I've used the most. Depending on what I'm doing. It's sad that some things work better in some browsers. That must change. Well, in some cases, that must change. Netscape 6 has been loaded for a while now, but I don't use it much, there are things about it I don't like. If Netscape 6 is the followup to Netscape 4.x (and it seems to be, by the name) then lots of bad things happened along the way. (I'm simplifying things of course, I know the story behind Netscape 6.) Mozilla 0.8 was just installed, and honestly, I'm liking it. Mozilla has been slowly improving and performance is 'acceptable' for me. It could be better, and I hope by 1.0 it is.

At home I use a 4 year old PowerMac with 80mb of RAM, and Netscape 4.7 or MSIE 5.0. Last time I tried Mozilla on it, I thought it would burst into flames from the load. Before I can upgrade my software I probably need to upgrade my hardware. A sponsor for this activity still hasn't come forward. (Note: I did try Mozilla 0.8 and it did work, but it was unbearable slow, to the point of being unusable.)

Note: other browsers I've used include: iCab, MSIE 4.5, 4.0, 3.0, Netscape 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, Lynx, Mosaic, MacWeb, PowerBrowser, Cyberdog, NetPositive, WannaBe, Avantgo, WebTV (emulator) etc... hell, sometimes I use perl to grab a url and BBEdit to strip out the markup...

I've tried to push 'standards' or maybe 'compliance' in the sites I've been involved with. By that I'm talking about attempting to avoid browser specific features, and working around browser specific bugs. As it's been stated, these are things you learn from years of building sites. Sad but true...

One thing to try is to make pages that validate. Sure, you can still use tables for layout, but at least validation is a good step in the right direction. At some point in the future things may work everywhere the way they should. That would be nice. Is it possible? Hmmm, who knows?

I made the realization long ago that the message, the content, the real heart of the matter - communication - is of the utmost importance. I've got a background in graphics, maybe that's what keeps me from abusing it. Flash? Has it's uses... HTML Email? I'm told it has it's uses, but I've yet to see that proved true... argh, blah, I'm sick of it all... (How's that for an ending?)

  Last Modified: 11.26.2001 by rasterboy