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May 03, 2003

Newt Browsing

I have been playing around with Newtscape which appears to be the Newton equivalent of AOL's Nutscrape Navigator (thanks Pete for using that name - it really sticks in your mind). In the process of trying to get it to work, I have browsed literally hundreds of web sites (using Safari on a mac!) many of which are apparently trapped in some kind of strange time warp triggered in 1997 or 1998. I plan to publish an up-to-date set of links soon.
Back to Newtscape. There are plenty of fans on the mailing list, lots of modules, and several places to aquire the software. The only problem is ... I can't get it to work. Maybe the problem is the amount of stack left with all my other applications running. Maybe the problem is a lack of a Newbie guide. Maybe the problem is a lack of competance on my part!
Anyway I set out to find an alternative or a easy-install-guide, whichever came first. It turns out that there are (at least) three browsers available. The other two are Lunatools (or Lunasuite) and Nethopper.
Having bad memories about the stability of the Luna software (although I believe there are now some patches for this), I tried Nethopper and guess what? It worked first time - even manged to load this page. Of course there were some problems where I had used png files instead of jpgs.
At that point, I decided to finish my search on the grounds that what I had was enough. In the process I have learned a lot about people. After the "death" of the Newton, there were a number of heroes that put a lot of effort into supporting the platform. Some others, who were sympathetic to the cause made their software or information available for free (or at least at a discount). The third group treated the situation as a non-event and are still charging the same premiums that were in place five years ago.
I know that the labourer is worthy of his (or her) hire but in many cases there does not appear to have been very much labour since Apple stopped marketing the Newt. Come on dudes (and dudettes), instead of flogging a dead horse, try helping it along. Discount it, bundle it, or release it to UNNA.

Posted by Ozguru at May 3, 2003 06:05 AM

Comments

Since that article was written, 40Hz have released a fantastic browser called Courier which is the coolest thing since sliced bread. There is a weblog which covers the development of Courier and a number of other really cool bits of software (e.g. bluetooth integration).

Posted by: Ozguru at May 3, 2003 06:05 AM