[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]
“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.”