The two most popular browsers have gotten better. The following notes were taken using a UMAX ActionBook 312T notebook computer running Windows 98. We prefer to use both browsers.
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Firstly, Internet Explorer starts much more quickly than Netscape Navigator. We were ecstatic at the lightning fast starts and effortlessly quick webpage loads of Internet Explorer, even though for downloading it left something to be desired. We found the IE download dialog box is deficient in the information it supplies. Our virus software wasn't able to install itself into IE4 automatically, just another reason why downloads with Explorer are less than ideal. Because this version of IE is integrated into Windows 98, the dialler dials in automatically on browser startup, making it very easy for us to get onto the internet. It also automatically gives you an option to go offline when you close the browser window, which we liked. Bookmarks can be imported from Navigator, too. We upgraded Internet Explorer to version 5 on March 19, 1999.
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Netscape Navigator version 4.5 took about 16 seconds to open the browser window on startup, too long to use with any frequency. Even with Hurricane 98 superacceleration (a utility for Windows 98) installed, the time was still 10 seconds, compared to about 2 seconds or less for IE. This problem should be rectified with Navigator 5, which is reputed to be much leaner. We especially liked the download dialog box of NN 4.5, because it used our virus software and displayed vital statistics like the percentage of the download completed. We chose to make NN our default browser, and encountered some unexplained instances when it would take over unexpectedly while we were trying to use Internet Explorer, although this doesn't happen when we use Explorer alone. We eagerly await Netscape Navigator version 5.
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