For those who'd rather fight than upgrade
Jul. 16th, 2002 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1Argh! Netscape just crashed again. I had two browser windows open. I just finished making a comment to a friend's LJ entry, and it crashed. So did Talkback (a program that solicits and sends feedback to Netscape).
I used to run Norton CrashGuard. For some reason, I turned it off. While I was running it, it would keep a log of programs that crashed. For the time I had it running, the top three programs (by number of crashes) were Netscape, Acrobat, and Talkback.
So why does my browser keep crashing? Perhaps because it's old and decrepit. I'm currently running Netscape 4.7. (There's no hundreths digit in the number, so it's probably 4.70.) The latest production version is Netscape 6.2.3. Netscsape 7 is probably in beta by now. And Netscape 5? That's the Mozilla project (which is finally at version 1.0!).
So why don't I upgrade? The program is 40 Mb in size. With a 56K modem (through which I get "the 4-minute megabyte"), the download would be 160 minutes -- nearly 3 hours. That's too long to wait. I can't justify the cost of broadband or DSL right now.
Also, I stubbornly refuse to be at the leading edge -- or even bleeding edge -- when it comes to computer software. Why should I drive myself into debt and bankruptcy by constantly buying the most recent versions of software? I don't need to keep up with the Joneses, or even the Gateses. More often than not, last year's software still does what I need it to do. And it's a lot cheaper, if I can find it!
BTW, how many folks out there are still using Windows 3.1 and Office 4.2? I'm sure there are a few stubborn diehards out there.
Of course, standards organizations like www.webstandards.org encourages people to stay compliant with the latest web standards by encouraging people to use the most recent web browsers.
Maybe I'll order a copy of the Netscape 6.2.3 CD. And while I'm at it, I might order the Netscape 4.7.9 CD, for some of my older systems.
I used to run Norton CrashGuard. For some reason, I turned it off. While I was running it, it would keep a log of programs that crashed. For the time I had it running, the top three programs (by number of crashes) were Netscape, Acrobat, and Talkback.
So why does my browser keep crashing? Perhaps because it's old and decrepit. I'm currently running Netscape 4.7. (There's no hundreths digit in the number, so it's probably 4.70.) The latest production version is Netscape 6.2.3. Netscsape 7 is probably in beta by now. And Netscape 5? That's the Mozilla project (which is finally at version 1.0!).
So why don't I upgrade? The program is 40 Mb in size. With a 56K modem (through which I get "the 4-minute megabyte"), the download would be 160 minutes -- nearly 3 hours. That's too long to wait. I can't justify the cost of broadband or DSL right now.
Also, I stubbornly refuse to be at the leading edge -- or even bleeding edge -- when it comes to computer software. Why should I drive myself into debt and bankruptcy by constantly buying the most recent versions of software? I don't need to keep up with the Joneses, or even the Gateses. More often than not, last year's software still does what I need it to do. And it's a lot cheaper, if I can find it!
BTW, how many folks out there are still using Windows 3.1 and Office 4.2? I'm sure there are a few stubborn diehards out there.
Of course, standards organizations like www.webstandards.org encourages people to stay compliant with the latest web standards by encouraging people to use the most recent web browsers.
Maybe I'll order a copy of the Netscape 6.2.3 CD. And while I'm at it, I might order the Netscape 4.7.9 CD, for some of my older systems.
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From a former Netscape employee...
Date: 2002-07-21 09:32 pm (UTC)The browser group at Netscape has been so badly decimated there's almost nobody there to work on it, let alone do QA or fix bugs!
To upgrade with a 56k modem, set it up to download overnight. That way you won't notice the slowness (it'll be downloading while you're sleeping).
Re: From a former Netscape employee...
Date: 2002-07-23 05:27 pm (UTC)As for the download of large files, I usually don't, because of the alleged category-1 phone line I have in my house. I sometimes get a dropped connection with little or no notice. I think it's due to line noise. My connection will pause for about 10 seconds while it tries to renegotiate the connection -- I think that's what it's doing -- and after 3 unsuccessful attempts, I get dropped. About the only way I'd find out for certain is if I had a Sniffer(tm) on the line.