Browser Wars: Internet Explorer 3.0 versus Netscape Navigator 3.0

The World Wide Web is the friendly face of the Internet, but the rivalry between Netscape and Microsoft is anything but friendly. Simon Bisson downloads their latest web browsers, and puts them to the test.

The fastest growing part of the Internet is the World Wide Web. A global maze of hundreds of millions of linked documents, unraveling the Web needs a powerful tool. You can use a text only system to browse the Web, but over the last year it’s increasingly become a multimedia place, full of sounds and pictures, and you’re going to need a good graphical Web browser to see what’s out there in the online world.

For over a year now the Web browser of choice has been Netscape’s Navigator. Set up by Marc Andreesen - one of the authors of the first graphical Web browser, Mosaic - and Silicon Graphics founder Jim Clarke, Netscape quickly found lots of converts, by offering the fastest Internet tool yet, together with its policy of unlimited evaluation time, which meant that home users could have the Internet’s power tool for free. The latest version, Navigator 3.0, is now in public beta test, at the same time as Microsoft’s challenger for the Web browser throne. Microsoft was a latecomer to the Internet, and the first version of Internet Explorer, made most people think that it was going to be an also-ran. Version 2.0 gave the pundits pause for thought - now there was a challenger for Netscape’s Net dominance. The current betas of Internet Explorer 3.0 have enough features to make the most seasoned Net user think twice.

Finding a Web browser is easy. If you’re already on the net, your service provider will have probably already given you one. If not, there are plenty of archives on the Net that will keep copies of the software. If you’re trying to track down copies of Netscape Navigator 3.0, there’s a download page on Netscape’s home page. Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com. Copies of both packages can be found on some of the Net’s bigger software archives - and these are often available in the UK for faster downloads (try The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software, http://www.tucows.com, which is mirrored by both Internet Discovery and UK Online). You’ll probably also find copies on magazine cover CD-ROMs.

You’d better be prepared for a big download - Navigator 3.0 weighs in at a hefty 6Mb, whilst Internet Explorer 3.0 is a lighter 2.8Mb. With a fast modem (and a good Internet connection) Navigator will take at least 30 minutes to download, and Internet Explorer will take 15 minutes. Both packages download as self extracting self installing packages, and they create their own icons on the Windows 95 desktop - leaving you one click away from the Net.

Both Navigator 3.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0 are 32-bit applications designed for Windows 95. This lets them take advantage of the Windows 95 winsock and dial-up networking facilities. The Windows 95 multi-tasking environment makes it easy for you to run several Web browser windows whilst your downloading e-mail and news. Navigator and Internet Explorer have similar on-line performances - not surprisingly as they both use similar techniques for getting as much information as quickly as possible. Both browsers open several simultaneous connections to a Web server, so that they can download text and images at the same time. You’ll find Internet Explorer subjectively faster here - as it will display text as soon as it’s downloaded. If you’re downloading files, both packages have a separate download window that keeps track of files, and allows you carry on exploring the Net without interrupting a download.

If you’re worried about what you might find on the Net, Internet Explorer 3.0 can take advantage of Web rating codes, blocking access to specified pages. You can also password protect the settings - preventing your children from changing them. Another recurring Net worry is buying online. Both Netscape and Microsoft have included the latest secure transmission systems in their browsers, making online transactions safe and secure.

As the Internet grows, and companies switch to using Internet technologies in their intranets, the documents that can be delivered to a Web browser will become more and more complex. The HTML language used to build Web pages is quite simple, and so another approach was needed. Netscape introduced their solution in Navigator 2.0: plug-ins. Based on an idea developed by Adobe in the image editing package Photoshop, Netscape plug-ins are developed by third party companies, and allow more than just HTML to be displayed by Navigator 3.0. Plug-ins exist for Adobe’s Acrobat portable document format, fractal images, 3D worlds, world clocks, even spreadsheets and presentation slides. Internet Explorer 3.0 has taken a different approach, with ActiveX, an extension of Microsoft’s OLE technologies to the Internet. Using ActiveX, programs and documents can be downloaded and displayed (and even edited) inside Internet Explorer. Not to be left out, Microsoft has also announced that it will be supporting Netscape plug-ins in future releases of Internet Explorer 3.0. Several plug-in manufacturers, most notably Macromedia, developers of the Shockwave multimedia player plug-in, have announced that they will be supporting both technologies. It’s possible to link the two technologies in one application: Microsoft’s PowerPoint ActiveX component is also a Netscape plug-in.

The hottest thing on the Net at the moment is Sun’s Java language. This is a machine independent object-orientated language that allows web designers to write programs, known as "applets" that can download and run on your PC. With Java support, a browser can display some of the Net’s most exciting multimedia applications. Navigator has built in Java support, and the latest version includes a Just In Time compiler that allows Java applets to run natively, rather than through an interpreter. Using Netscape's JIT, Java applets will run much faster than in previous versions. Microsoft has recently offered Java support as an add-on to Internet Explorer 3.0. A 1.63Mb download updates the current beta, and at the same time Microsoft announced that its own JIT will be included in the next beta release.

 Java is a complex language, and so browser scripting tools have been developed. Navigator uses a cut down version of Java, JavaScript which can control the behaviour of the browser (and is most often used to generate annoying scrolling messages in the browser status bar. Internet Explorer also supports JavaScript, as well as VB Script, a simplified version of Visual Basic.

 Both browsers have added a range of features that will help web designers create more dynamic and interesting pages. Internet Explorer includes support for inline AVI movies, and Navigator will display Quicktime movies. Page design has been made easier, with both allowing multi column page layouts, as well as background colours and images. Internet Explorer 3.0 can also interpret HTML style sheets, which define how a page is laid out.

The Web is one of the Net’s newest applications. Before the Web, there were Usenet news, the global conferencing system, and email. Navigator 3.0 includes a built in mail and Usenet news package, that lets you send complete Web pages via email. Microsoft’s News and Mail package is an extra download, but provides a full featured email package, similar to Eudora, as well as a easy to use Usenet news reader. Mail and News will work alone, or with any Windows 95 Web browser.

Netscape Navigator 3.0 includes CoolTalk. This is Netscape’s own Internet phone - with it and a good sound card, you can talk to someone the other side of the world for the cost of a local call. If you don’t have a sound card, you can use CoolTalk as a text chat system, or as a whiteboard where you can share a drawing. Microsoft offers a similar facility with Net Meeting, an 2Mb download. Net Meeting also allows you to share applications, so you can demonstrate software over the Internet!

A month on the Internet is a long time, and six months is nearly an eternity. Even so, both Microsoft and Netscape have hinted at the future development of their browsers. Alpha test copies of Internet Explorer 4.0 have already leaked out onto the Net, and it will be part of Microsoft’s Windows 95 user interface update Nashville due later this summer- though you will still be able to download copies from the Net. Developers have also hinted at plans to include a web page authoring tool into future versions. Netscape are also planning to include more and more features in Navigator, and future releases will build in voice communications features.

A year ago, everyone thought that Netscape had the browser market all sewn up. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer wasn’t even released yet. Now, with both browsers entering the final stages before the launch of their latest versions, the browser race is neck and neck. With both browsers offering so many similar features, it comes down to a matter of which do you prefer using - and as they’re freely available, it’s worth trying them both.

Simon Bisson