Last year, I wrote a mixed (and from a second look at it, rather half-hearted) review of Netscape. Some of the features I listed as bettering IE's included its history list and the hand icon that appears when users move over a link. I liked it better than IE's pointy finger. But not anymore. You're truly missing out on some of the web's coolest features if you're still mucking around with Netscape.

I know it's hard to let Internet Explorer into your life. I first rejected IE, too. I was a Netscape loyalist for purely nostalgic reasons - it was my first browser; it was like a family member. But no longer. Now it's a thorn in my side.

As a web designer, I have to make pages show up properly in both Netscape and Internet Explorer. The problem with this is that versions of Netscape vary - not just between 4.x and 6.0, but among 4.x versions themselves. Something that looks fine in 4.76 might look awful in 4.73, and vice versa. And sometimes fixing something for Netscape compromises the desired appearance in Internet Explorer.

One common problem is that Netscape does not allow words to be below an image without putting the two in separate table cells (the first of which must be vertically aligned to the top). If a simple line break falls between the image and the text, the image will cover the text, even though you are telling Netscape that the text should fall below the image.

Netscape also has trouble rendering CSS style sheets, one of the most useful tools of web design that can save file size (and thus shorten download time) as well as render custom font sizes that are not found in standard HTML, properly. Most versions of Netscape do not only display font sizes improperly; they also cannot display features such as hyperlinked text changing color when the mouse moves over it.

Additionally, Netscape cannot display frames satisfactorily. Its definition of a pixel differs from Internet Explorer's definition. As a result, if I design a page with half of a circle in a frame on the left and half of it in a frame on the right, it will line up in IE, but not in Netscape. It is not a matter of designing it to line up in Netscape, either. It just never will. Well, perhaps this particular example could happen, but complex framesets are often frowned upon by Netscape.

The list of what most versions of Netscape (and 4.x versions are still more popular than the buggy, unfriendly 6) cannot do is very long. Yet it seems that small factors are what keeps Netscape users loyal. The look of the little hand, for instance. Or the fact that Netscape automatically fills in your assumed destination in the URL bar, rather than giving you a choice like IE does. What it comes down to, though, is this: Netscape fails to utilize the technology that has been available for designers and programmers for a long time, while Internet Explorer embraces these new developments.

Please, stop using Netscape. Not only will you stop experiencing crashes. You'll discover a new, improved web - and you'll also be supporting the development of standards in the web design and programming industries, so that in the future, things will be even better for everyone. Okay, that sounds kind of radical, but I think it's true. And if you're sticking with Netscape for anti-Microsoft reasons, please do some research and find another free browser that complies with W3 Consortium standards.

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