"But AtAT," we hear you ask plaintively, "surely you're aware that after almost three years without a major update, Netscape has finally released Netscape 6! Why no commentary on this momentous occasion?" Well, leaving aside for a moment the fact that you have the audacity to question our judgment on programming matters (we'll let it slide this time), we simply haven't bothered to try it yet. After seeing what Netscape considered to be "Preview Release" quality back in the PR1 days, we were more than a little leery about anything issuing forth from the company that purported to be a "finished" product. Instead, we figured we'd lay low, wait for the early adopters to rush in, and see if they emerged unscathed. This is known as the "here, drink this milk and tell me if it's still any good" strategy-- selfish, sure, but hey, these are browsers we're talking about, here. There's too much at stake to risk a direct frontal assault.

As it turns out, we're glad we waited. After peeking our heads in at MacInTouch's reader report on Netscape's latest offering, we doubt we'll soon be able to erase the sheer carnage from our memories anytime soon. Most of those who ran in ahead to test for the presence of mines got their legs blown clear off, user experience-wise. There are some choice quotes in that scary collection of last words, such as:

• "It appears to be a total disaster"
• "I'm afraid to use the program anymore"
• "Mind-numbingly slow"
• "Real UI mess"
• "Save yourself the irritation... I threw it away"
• "This is the worst shipping software I've tried in a long time"

As for detailed descriptions of the biggest problems, it sounds like not much has changed since PR1. Evidently Netscape 6 still crashes a lot, and a slew of other annoyances (scroll wheels not working, nonstandard interface elements, etc.) stem from the fact that the application still isn't a real Mac program; scrollbars, form buttons, and the like are all Netscape's own widgets instead of standard Mac ones. Yuck. At least some of the bugs are tremendously exciting, though-- in particular we thrilled to "when I try to run it, it covers my Desktop with about 200 .xul files and then quits out. Needless to say, this does not make a good first impression." In other words, we'll probably get around to trying Netscape 6 the next time we're in a frame of mind usually associated with cliff-diving and bungee-jumping, because as it stands, the software sounds less like a Mac web browser and more like an "extreme sport" for the risk-addicted crowd.

Isn't it funny how Microsoft eventually clued in and started producing actual Mac applications instead of half-assed ports from common code, while Netscape went entirely in the opposite direction? Maybe it's just us, but personally, we'd be pretty darn happy with Netscape Communicator 4.76 retrofitted with the new Gecko rendering engine (which is the one thing people like about Netscape 6) and the capability to use Apple's Mac OS Runtime for Java instead of the included dog-slow and buggy Netscape Java virtual machine. Instead, we see Netscape 6 as sort of like Netscape's Copland-- except the company made the mistake of actually shipping it instead of killing it and harvesting it for parts. However, we reserve final judgment until we work up the nerve to install and try the thing ourselves. We think we can, we think we can...