Probono |
05-31-2005 02:46 AM |
It's time for America Online to take Netscape 8 back to the development labs. Since its release this month, the browser has brought nothing but headaches to users.
The latest flaw prevents Microsoft's Internet Explorer from rendering some web pages written in extensible markup language. In addition, RSS news feeds, which depend on XML, would also appear blank in IE.
See the story at:
http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-b...Zi0G4X0DQzL0EC
Now for most consumers this may not seem like much of a problem, but for those who access XML pages, the fun has just started.
Microsoft recommends that computer users uninstall Netscape. But there's one little catch. You'll have to manually edit the Windows Registry to bring everything back to normal. Now for computer professionals this may not be a big deal, but for the majority of us, this is a disaster. Screw up the registry, and the computer doesn't work?period.
AOL, as you'd expect, is saying all of this is a "very minor issue," and Microsoft is being "silly" in recommending the browser be removed.
Silly or not, I don't consider programs that damage the Windows Registry a "minor issue." Netscape, by the way, was released May 19 with three security flaws that had users scrambling for patches.
Netscape 8 is becoming for users a migraine equal to the one Time Warner suffered when it merged with AOL. This kind of sloppy development is unconscionable and one more reason to avoid anything AOL touches.
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