“I’ve been shocked by the number of responses to my article
and petition to the Netscape product development team. I’ve also
been very pleased by the quality and thoughtfulness of most of the
responses. Recently, however, many of the reponses sound more like
flames or rants. Before things get out of hand, I’d like to take
this opportunity to summarize reader response so far, and to
clarify and restate my position.”
“Repeated themes that emerge from the responses include:
- The browser wars are over. There is no longer a race to release
new versions, so Netscape should not worry about slowing down and
getting this release right. - We’ve already waited this long for a new browser from Netscape
and we’re willing to continue waiting a bit longer. - Netscape is on the right track; they’ve got a good product, but
please make 6 a great product! - This is Netscape’s last chance to get it right.”
“Many of the responses expressed a lot of anger, which surprised
me. I’ve obviously touched a raw nerve. I wrote my article from the
theoretical perspective of someone who only does enough Web
development to write books about it. Readers who live and breathe
Web development wrote from their in-the-trenches perspective, and
many of them are angry, frustrated, and dismayed. This is obviously
not a representative sample since most readers who disagreed with
me did not choose to respond, but nevertheless, it would behoove
the Netscape marketing and PR folks to try to understand where this
reaction is coming from! It is worth noting, however, that a lot of
the angry comments seem to concern Navigator 4.x, and so are not
really relevant to my point about Navigator 6.0, which is based on
entirely new code.”