Ray Van Eng (08/05/97)
These days, where nerds congregate, the talk is often centered around thin clients, network computers, NetPC and other relatively simple devices that rely on powerful servers to do the heavy processing. But Netscape and Microsoft are forever building bigger and bigger browser programs to run more and more applications with increasing complexity: groupware, messaging, push, multimedia conferencing, central administration, search, operating system integration etc. However, it seems that lately, at least Netscape is getting the message that it is the simplicity and ease of use of its original Navigator Internet browser offering that has brought the company fame and fortune in the first place. There has been a call for Netscape to go back to its roots. For many Internet users, web browsing and the ability to send and receive e-mail are all they will ever need and there are signs that Netscape is bowing to user demands and will offer a thin client browser to keep the cost of ownership down, a politically correct term among hip technocrats these days. In fact, for a long time Netscape has been talking about breaking down their browser product into individual Java-based software components to give users complete freedom in choosing only the features they want. However, in the heat of battle for Internet software dominance, both Netscape and Microsoft were engaged in the production of browser bloatware in an effort to outdo each other. For example, the just released Communicator 4.0 from Netscape is a 15 MB affair and that is a far cry from the days when a zipped Navigator 1.x version can be fitted easily into a 1.44 MB floppy disk that an ISP would hand out to its subscribers as part of an Internet access kit. The new stand-alone version of the Navigator 4.0 will retain all essential functions for web browsing and email communication, together with the Netcaster push technology but will not include many of the features that some corporate users would find appealing: Collabra groupware, Composer HTML editor, mail messaging, audio and whiteboard conferencing, Calendar Pro, AutoAdmin Management Pro, IBM Mainframe access on demand etc. Pricing has not yet been set, but the unbundled version of the new Naviagtor will sell at a fraction of the cost of the full-blown version. By the way, the stripped-down Navigator 4.0 still requires about 5MB of disk space. The slimmed down Navigator 4.0 will also appeal to independent software developers who wants to package the brwoser into their products. For example, Lotus Corp. who has just announced a bundling deal with Microsoft by combining the Lotus Notes, SmartSuite software and the Internet Explorer browser indicated that it might offer a similar product integration with the Netscape Navigator in the future. |