Netscape 9 Comes to Mac — Yay?

Because no one asked for it — it’s Netscape Navigator 9 for Mac! How is this better than Safari, Firefox, Omniweb or Camino, you might ask? Well, it’s got a totally non-OS X compliant interface! And it’s from Netscape! Is anyone planning to upgrade? Can you explain why?

Picture and News Via MacUpdate

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Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in Software |

Mo
I downloaded it. Hey, at least they changed the throbber back to the old design :) I tried it mostly out of nostalgia.
http://www.forgeniuses.com Levi Senft
I’ll upgrade because I’m a web developer and I’ll want to test my sites on NS9 for mac. I have no plans to use it for real.
http://attaboy.ca/ Luke Andrews
From trying it out for a little while, I can say that I think Netscape 9 may actually be nicer than Firefox. It seems a bit zippier for one, and it has a few nice additions that Firefox lacks, like auto-completing addresses from your bookmarks, and the “link pad” where you can temporarily store links without bookmarking them.
Interface wise, it’s no worse (but admittedly no better) than Firefox. That’s not surprising since it’s basically the same browser with a different shell and a few different features.
Mat Hall
I thought I’d give it a whirl, and whaddya know — it’s FF2 with different styled buttons and a couple of added features (and yes, FF has extensions to replicate them, but it’s nice to have them as part of the OOBE). There’s nothing much to get excited about, granted, but there’s no need to be rude about it either. :)
http://thirdcoastwine.blogspot.com razmaspaz
Netscape still makes browsers? I thought they stopped that foolishness when firefox was released.
imajoebob
I never thought it possible, but AOL did more damage (legally) to Netscape than Microsquish was able to (illegally)!
GooseSensor
I have to say, while I understand the humor in this post, I find it rather stupid in shortsighted. I had nothing to do with the development of this app but it seems stupid to criticize a company, no matter who, for creating new software for the mac and encouraging competition in the industry.
King
I do not know why they do this
netscape is dead, its history
Now is fireFox…
If they wish, maybe they can cancel firefox
and make it just netscape…or cancel netscape and
make it firefox owned by netscape…
There is no netscape browser…it used to be good days
I hate explorer
Marc
What do you mean by “non-OS X compliant?” No. Really. I don’t understand what you mean.
Apple threw out the official Human Interface Guidelines years ago. It does run on Mac OS X (i.e. compliant). I don’t get it.
Yes. This is pretty futile — if that’s what you mean.
ladyjaye
Man, this is a fugly GUI! We’re gonna surf like it’s 1996 all over again. Maybe we oughta return to the fugly webpage design of a decade ago as well (just access some long-abandoned fansite on geocities or what not — that oughta be enough)…
http://www.andreas-sorensen.com Andreas
you mean something like this:
http://web.archive.org/web/19961219202222/http://www.apple.com/
(what apple.com looked like in 1996! lol)
http://www.altonaga.com Dave
At first I thought, whatever. But then trying it. Sure loads faster the FireFox for me.
The interface colors brought back images of IE for Mac…..