If youre waiting for Netscape to release a browser that will make everyone jump ship from Microsofts Internet Explorer, keep waiting. However, if you are looking for an improvement over the buggy and slow Netscape 6.0, Version 6.1 should be a welcome upgrade.
In my tests, the release version of Netscape 6.1 was fairly stable, and it launched and loaded pages faster than Netscape 6.0. The new version also makes it easier to manage bookmarks and browser history from the side bar.
Custom search engines can now be launched from the address bar, and the browser can automatically fill in forms, although this can be a privacy and security risk. We gave Netscape a hard time for its omission of LDAP support in Netscape 6.0; were glad to see that basic LDAP support has been reinstated in Version 6.1.
But if Netscape 6.1 is a must-upgrade for anyone, its for heavy users of Instant Messenger. IM is integrated everywhere throughout the 6.1 browser. In fact, it seemed almost like Netscape 6.1 was just a plug-in for IM.
The plug-in—er, browser—can be downloaded for free from home.netscape.com.