Browsing and the Use of "Helpers" While on the Internet
The two main Macintosh software packages used to "browse" the World Wide Web are Netscape and MacWeb. Both are available free for education use from many FTP sites (including ftp.anoka.k12.mn.us). Up until version 1.1 of Netscape was released, MacWeb offered the huge advantage for schools of allowing the loading of individual graphics when requested. With the most current version of Netscape (1.1), that deficiency has been taken care of and the additional features that Netscape offers make it the clear choice of use now for schools. Memory usage is still a concern, but even on 4 megabyte machines, the use of RamDoubler makes Netscape the program of choice. Both programs can handle GIF and JPEG inline graphics and Netscape offers the additional capability of displaying file-based graphics in a separate window. Beyond these standard format graphics however, both programs require "helper" applications to play sounds, movies and specific text and graphic file types. These "helpers" were discussed in the preceding section - both MacWeb and Netscape come pre-configured to recognize available applications on your hard drive.
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