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Netscape 6: Faster, Better Looking

Revamped engine and user interface may spell a better browser--but is it too little, too late?

Yael Li-Ron, special to PCWorld.com

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Performance, Usability Gripes

Although Netscape 6 is more attractive than its predecessors, the user interface could use refinement. For example, the Home button has been relegated to the secondary Personal Toolbar, a potential problem for people who wish to hide that toolbar. (You can hit Alt-Home to reach your home page if you've disabled the secondary toolbar.) And there's very little you can do with the right mouse button: No customization options pop up when you right-click any object in the browser interface (other than on the Web page itself, and on the top of the window frame where right-clicking has always been enabled). Oddly, right clicking also works in the Bookmark manager.

Another grievance: When you visit a site that requires a plug-in, you're sent to a list of plug-ins without a direction as to which plug-in you need to download and install.

This cross-platform release runs on Windows 95 or later, Mac OS, and Linux. It requires 64MB of RAM and at least a 133-MHz Pentium.

Overall, I liked the speed at which pages loaded, but disliked the fact that Netscape takes forever to load, and I especially disliked the user interface. While Netscape 6 sports some great features, you should probably stick with Netscape 4.7 for now.

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