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Date: May 11, 2001

Team E-mail List: browser2001@isc.upenn.edu

Contents:
     Introduction
     Team members
     Team website
     Target audience(s)
     Browser / Operating System combinations tested
     Results
     Recommendations

Introduction

The following is a summary of the work done by the Spring 2001 Browser Evaluation Team, and the results of that work. Any questions about this report should be submitted to the team e-mail list, noted above. The co-chairs would like to thank all of the members of the team for their work on this project and their dedication to it despite the many other demands on their time.

Team members

Team Website

The team website can be found at http://www.upenn.edu/computing/group/browser/2001. This website includes links to agenda and minutes of all team meetings, this year's Charge to Teams, other relevant background information, and this report.

 

Target audiences

The team recognized the importance of defining the audience(s) for the results of its work, and attempted to tailor its work to the needs of these audiences. Two audiences were defined and agreed upon:

• General - primarily Local Support Providers on behalf of all web browser users - focusing on browser use and basic configuration in context of Penn
  
  
• Owners of critical applications - important to let them know of specific issues affecting their systems or applications. Critical apps would be university-wide web-based systems such as BlackBoard, the library, FinMIS, etc.

Results for both of these target audiences are included in this report.

 

Browser / Operating System combinations tested

The team recognized that there is or would be substantial interest on campus for several unsupported Browser / OS combinations, and they agreed that the team should test these. In particular, some team members had specific interest in Linux and were willing to do the testing required to include this in the team's work.

The following Browser / OS combinations were tested:

MacOS 8.1
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01

MacOS 8.6
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5

MacOS 9.1
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5

MacOS X
        Omniweb
        Internet Explorer for MacOS X
        Mozilla (aka Netscape 5.x)

Win95
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5

Win98
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5

WinNT (SP5+)
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5

Win2K Pro
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Internet Explorer 5.0/5.01
        Internet Explorer 5.5
        Opera

Linux
        Netscape Communicator 4.77
        Netscape Communicator 6.01
        Mozilla (aka Netscape 5.x)
        Opera

 

Results

The team noted the following highlights (or perhaps lowlights?) in their testing:

• As expected, Mac OS X's browsers are very new, and are not yet fully functional. Internet Explorer for MacOS X (a preview release) had several problems. For example, there is no support for 3rd-party telnet applications, RealPlayer, ShockWave plug-ins are not available, and many crashes were reported.
  
  Omniweb for MacOS X shared many of the same shortfalls as Internet Explorer on this platform, but overall, it was deemed to be much more stable, with fewer crashes.
  
  
• Netscape Communicator 6.01 also had some overall problems.
  Under MacOS 9.1, there is no support for 3rd-party telnet applications, no support for Java 1.1, and RealPlayer, ShockWave plug-ins are not available.
  
  Netscape 6.01 had these problems and more under WinNT. It was not possible to download via either anonymous or authenticated FTP, and an Acrobat Reader plug-in was not available. A very thorough and perceptive tester noticed that with Netscape 6 under WinNT, functionality was different under different "skins" (ie, Modern Theme vs. Classic Theme). The choice of skins impacted the functionality of FTP, and even included different options under the Preferences submenu. This was discovered too late for the team to revisit each OS for this browser, but potential users should be forewarned.
  
  Under Win98/ME, the problems were even worse, with multiple crashes, freezes, and general failures. One seasoned tester noted that "This application seems to have many, many bugs - a few of which seem to make getting started a frustrating and ultimately futile experience."
  
  
• The library's proxy server was identified as a critical system, and it presents problems for a variety of Browser / OS combinations. In particular, it must be noted that no version of Internet Explorer for the Mac works with the library's proxy server.
  
  Internet Explorer 5.5 under Windows requires a patch to work with the library's proxy server. The library provides information and instructions for this patch at http://www.library.upenn.edu/services/computing/connecting/ie5_win95.html
  
  Netscape 6.0 does not work with the library proxy server on any platform.
  
  General information for configuring a browser for the library's proxy server for the Browser / OS combinations that do work can be found at http://www.library.upenn.edu/services/computing/connecting/proxy.html
  
  
• The eCollege system used by PennAdvance was the only other identified critical system that encountered major issues. It presented problems with all Browser / OS combinations tested. Details are documented at http://www.upenn.edu/computing/group/browser/2001/sysissues.html
  
  
• Printing web pages with frames was problematic for many Browser / OS combinations. Some could print all of the frames on a page, but could not print one individual frame at a time. Others had just the opposite problem, being able to print one frame but not a whole page.

Anyone interested in specific, detailed results of the team's testing should see the results matrix at
       http://www.isc-cts.upenn.edu/browserteam/browserreview.asp.

 

Recommendations

Based on these results, the team makes the following recommendations:

• We recommend that users stay with Netscape 4.77 and Internet Explorer 5.0x on the Windows and Macintosh platforms -- except for MacOS X, where OmniWeb seems to be the best choice. Keep in mind that products for MacOS X are still in development, and the recommendation for this platform will need to be revisited.
  
  
• We recommend that people do NOT upgrade to Netscape 6.0 yet. This is based on the fact that the product does not appear to be stable yet, it crashes a lot on every platform, it wouldn't run at all on some Windows platforms, and it doesn't work with Library's proxy server, etc.
  
  
• We recommend that those who will be using the library's proxy server be warned that they cannot use Internet Explorer on any Mac OS for this purpose. Users on Windows platforms be should be made aware that a patch is required to use Internet Explorer 5.5 with the library's proxy server. See Results for details and the appropriate link.
  
  
• Users of the eCollege system should be made aware of problems with all Browser / OS combinations as detailed here.