Once again I'm trying to see if iCab is good enough to use as my regular web browser. Preview version 2.1 has come a long way since the last time I thought about replacing Netscape. And it's getting good enough that I might buy it once the final version is done. The only thing missing before was scripting support, which there is now enough so that I can go to web sites that use Javascript and have a good chance of interacting with them. Other than that, Cascading Style Sheets is the only other major feature to be implemented, but CSS is not critical to view a page.

Let's go back a bit. Why do I use Netscape in the first place? Mostly it's the look and the compatibility with just about every web site. It displays most pages in what I think of as an asthetically pleasing way, unlike Internet Explorer which displays pages too big and just looks wrong to me. I'm also used to Netscape's menu layouts and features and idiosyncracies.

So why leave Netscape? Well, Mac support is not that great. Windows is not that great either as Netscape has been struggling to develop the next version of Navigator. On the Mac it's slow, requires a lot of memory, and occassionally crashes. Java support is processor intensive and hasn't been updated in quite a while. Although it's a capable browser and the pages it renders look the best to me, iCab has a lot of features that make it very appealing.

So what are those features? One is HTML 4 support and compliance. iCab supports most Netscape and Explorer HTML extensions, but I turn those off. It does support HTML 4 completely and correctly (or it's a bug), something that Netscape and Explorer don't do. They're more into adding new tags and nonstandard features rather than trying to be standards compliant.

iCab renders pages close to what Netscape renders it as, and much better than Internet Explorer. It has lots of filters. You can filter images depending on source or size, great for blocking out most banner ads. I know that banner ads pay for web sites, but companies like DoubleClick have gotten way too intrusive and gather way too much information on people's browsing habits. I do not appreciate having some id tied to my name tied to my browsing habits. The latest practice I've heard is to use 1x1 invisible pictures, whose only purpose is to make your browser call a web server with a GET request filled with info.

In fact, iCab's filtering abilities are quite impressive. Mostly based on URLs, but that covers a lot of cases. You can filter Java applets, InScript scripts, and cookies. It's nice to be able to leave Java and InScript on and still be able to turn it off for particular sites.

iCab uses the Internet control panel preferences. It sticks with web and ftp access. I never liked Netscape's attempt to replace all Internet applications with Communicator. I want to use my email program and my news program, not Netscapes incomplete implementations of the same. iCab can handle sending email (for mailto: links), but it's not an email program.

It renders pages at an ok speed. I think Netscape is faster in general, but maybe iCab renders in a different order so it looks a bit slower. iCab handles tables faster than Netscape. There are some pages that were table heavy and caused Netscape to stop as it processes, and it takes the whole computer with it until it's done. Not so with iCab, or at least the freeze isn't as long.

URL auto-completion is instantaneous, perhaps a bit too aggresively so as it tries to auto-complete when I type the first 'w' in www. Netscape's URL auto- completion doesn't kick in all the time and sometimes takes a few seconds to do its thing.

iCab also supports plug-ins, which go into a standard Internet Plug-Ins folder in the System folder. QuickTime and Flash plug-ins work great; I haven't installed any others. Speaking of which, installing Flash was a bit tricky because it only has choices for installing into Netscape, Internet Explorer, or AOL browsers. So I installed it into Netscape then copied the new files into the Internet Plug-Ins folder.

So, I will continue to use iCab for a while and I hope it fulfills all of my browsing requirements. iCab is a Mac only program, made in Germany. It's standards compliant, lean and mean, and tries to be very Mac-like. So I hope it succeeds.