[ILUG] Netscape 6

[Niall]

The release of the Netscape 6 preview is interesting of itself (though how
one can reconcile "The new Netscape Navigator browser is a light 5.5MB
download" with the the 10 MB gzipped tar file I'm downloading is beyond me)
but even more interesting is the press release from AOL at
http://home.netscape.com/newsref/pr/newsrelease805.html?cp=hom04n2
where they talk about the long-rumoured Linux based "AOL box" from Gateway.
This thing is obviously going to be dirt cheap - it can be subsidised like
the i-opener because it'll be hard wired to AOL. 

They seem to have signed up the world and its mother (i.e. everyone except
the evil empire) to use Gecko based browsers for all manner of web browsing
doodads. I did wonder why they paid whatever humongous amount of money they
did pay for Netscape, but it all becomes clear now (though it still seems
too much). It's my belief that they'll win the war vis-a-vis HTML standards
if only because web developers won't write to M$ extensions if they're going
to lose the eyeballs of all those millions of AOL users.


Kindest regards,


Niall  O Broin