When Netscape finally released version 6, I immediately offered to write a review for LinuxWorld.com on the new flagship browser. We are not the first out the door with our review of Netscape 6, but I wanted to take my time; I wanted to be objective about my thoughts.

I have been following the Mozilla development closely for almost two years. I am a consistent user of nightly builds, as I download and try them out at least twice a month. I have read every article I can find on the differences between Mozilla and Netscape.

I remember when Netscape first released Gecko to the public. I remember downloading it and thinking to myself how nice it was to have a Web browser that could fit on a floppy. I remember being thrilled at the features that the new Mail and News programs were going to offer.

After two days of unsuccessfully trying to use the Netscape Installer for Linux, I decided to just FTP it down to my machine. The first thing I noticed was the size of the beast -- a 30-MB download. It was unbelievable. Luckily, on a 768-Kbps connection, it only took a few minutes to retrieve the product. I downloaded, installed, and executed.

I performed three tests. They were in no way scientific, but represent to me a real-world situation from which a user may draw an opinion. I called the first test the Startup Test: it times how long it takes a particular program to start and display its first page. I timed each program on its second startup so there would be no delay from copying initial preferences and such.

The Startup Test

• Netscape 4.75 startup: 3 seconds

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