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Netscape 6 is finally here.

After three years of marginal upgrades, the faded browser champ Netscape Communications is releasing on Tuesday the final version of the Netscape 6.0 Web browser. Netscape 6.0 features a slick, new, customizable user interface, its own version of AOL's instant messaging service, and a program called Gecko that speedily renders Web page text and graphics.

Netscape has dropped the brand name "Communicator" and has skipped a 5.0 release, arguing that the update's improvements warrant the sequential jump. You can download the free browser from Netscape or from our Downloads library.

It's Netscape's first major browser overhaul since the company and technology became part of America Online in early 1999. Netscape 6.0 serves as the company's renewed attempt to reclaim some of its lost market share. Today, 86 percent of Web surfers use a version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket. Only 12.5 percent use Netscape's browser, in contrast to its former domination of the Web browser market.

Netscape 6.0 brings the browser closer to technological parity with Internet Explorer 5.5. But Netscape goes a step further, tying its browser more closely to its popular Web site, Netscape.com. For example, shortcuts to Netscape.com business, entertainment, and Web-based personal information destinations are embedded at the bottom of the browser window. Microsoft has come up with a similar ploy in MSN Explorer, a version of IE tied directly to MSN.com sites and services.

The final release also marks the culmination of efforts by thousands of Web developers who were given the browser source code to help build it under the Mozilla open-source program. Netscape invited those developers to improve the code, promising in turn to commercialize the best of the improvements.

New in Netscape 6.0

Among the highlights of the improvements are:

• Small size (8.5MB without Java), which can speed up installation
  
  
• Gecko technology, for rendering Web pages rapidly
  
  
• Mail-program support for America Online e-mail and multiple accounts
  
  
• Integration of AOL Instant Messenger, which has an estimated 64 million users
  
  
• My Sidebar tabs, which provide quick and easy access to customized Web information and applications
  
  
• Password and cookie managers, which automate log-ins and protect user privacy on a site-by-site basis
  
  
• Multiple themes that let users choose the look of the browser
  
  
• Forms Manager, which automatically completes information entered into online forms.
  
  

Download, but Beware

Netscape loyalists will want to try this version, but you shouldn't dump your Communicator or IE browser. In terms of software stability, Netscape 6.0 is a Rock of Gibraltar compared with previous beta versions of the browser, which were riddled with bugs. But Netscape 6.0 can't be relied upon to display Web pages optimized for IE and earlier Netscape browsers. (See "Netscape 6: A Lean Browsing Machine" and "A New (Not Final) Coming of Netscape 6.")

"A small number of advanced Web sites will present some problems," says Eric Krock, group product manager for Netscape. "But the vast majority of sites will work fine."

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