Sneak Peeks at Mozilla and Opera Web Browsers
By: Kevin Reichard
Wednesday, January 5, 2000 03:54:32 PM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/previews/1398/1/
The Opening War of the Millennium?
If there's one piece of Linux software that's essential in the Internet age, it's the ubiquitous Web browser. Virtually every Linuxite uses a Web browser on a daily basis -- usually Netscape Communicator, which is bundled with every major Linux distribution and released under an open-source license.
But Netscape Navigator is getting a little long in the tooth, which is why Mozilla.org -- the Netscape-sponsored body that oversees Netscape-related open-source development -- is preparing the next generation of the Web browser that ignited the Internet revolution. However, there is some potential competition to Netscape Communicator's relative monopoly in the Linux world, as Opera Software develops a version of the Opera Web browser for Linux. Opera has a small but loyal following, and although Opera Software doesn't play by the same rules as Netscape does -- Opera is unabashed commercial software, and Opera Software gives no indication that any sort of open-source licensing scheme has ever been considered -- Netscape's entrenched position will certainly make things difficult for a new Web browser to compete.
We download both versions -- an alpha version of Opera (4.0a) and the latest prerelease of Mozilla (M12) -- to see how the next-generation Web browsers compare. Opera installed just fine on Slackware 7.0 and Corel Linux 1.0 boxes, but Mozilla refused to install on the Corel Linux box, as the installation procedure choked on a shared library.
The first thing that crosses your mind when you load the newest release of Mozilla is that the art director from Details or some other trendy downtown magazine has taken over control of the design. It's not that the interface has been totally revamped (indeed, things are pretty much where you'd expect them to be), but rather that individual elements have been updated and modernized (as you can see from the screen shots). It's definitely a trendy look and a big departure from previous Netscape styles.
Move past the interface and you'll find some nifty new features. The Wallet feature allows you to store personal information locally (such as your address and credit-card info) and then use it to automatically fill out forms in an e-commerce setting. A new Search capability allows you to perform searches on your local computer. New "SmartFind" features allow you to sort and search through your bookmarks using Boolean logic, as opposed to the sheer brute force searches used in Netscape.
Opera: Unabashed Commercial Software
Because Opera is an extreme alpha prerelease, it's hard to do a true review of its features: many important features are not yet implemented, and some of the features that are implemented don't work quite the way the designers anticipated, leading to some problems with application crashes. Don't hold this against the Opera developers: releasing alpha code is always a crapshoot, and since Opera 4.0 was rewritten from the ground up in Qt, there was no stable code base to work with.
Indeed, the list of what Opera for Linux 4.0a can't do exceeds the list of what it can do. At the present time, it can handle HTML 3.2 and 4.0 pages, execute EcmaScript 1.1 (Ecma-262 v.3), render CSS 1 and 2 extensions, handle FTP downloads, support HTTP 1.1, display JPEG and single-frame GIF files and export and import bookmarks. On the down side, Opera For Linux 4.0a can't communicate via SSL or TLS, submit forms other than through Ecma Script, display other graphics files (including animated GIFs, PNG, or TIFF files), manage cookies or properly handle fonts.
To run Opera for Linux 4.0a you'll need kernel 2.2. Although developed using Qt 2.1, you won't need it to run this alpha version.
If you decide to download Opera for Linux 4.0a, you'll get a pretty good sense of how Opera works. Opera is built around folders containing frequently visited sites, with the Opera screen looking like the Windows Explorer interface. In addition, the interface is strongly geared toward opening new Web pages in separate windows within the Opera screen (as opposed to Netscape and Mozilla, which like to open new windows for new Web pages). Finally, it will initially focus on Web browsing and not contain tools for mail or news. It's hard to say much more about Opera for Linux, as most of the features are not yet implemented.
The prediction here is that Opera for Linux won't make much of a dent in the Linux community for one simple reason: Netscape Communicator is such an entrenched force in the open-source world. As commercial software competing against software known both for its features and its commitment to the open-source ethos, Opera for Linux faces a huge uphill climb. Every major distribution is already committed to Netscape Communicator, and we don't see that commitment waning when Mozilla is finally released. Unless Opera Software decides to give away Opera for Linux or move to an open-source model, it's clear that Opera won't be much of a factor among Linux users.