Netscape's "Communicator" Put to the Java Test

This week was an auspicious one for Java fans everywhere (not to mention for Web fans), as Netscape Communications unveiled the production version of its prized Web browser's fourth incarnation.

We couldn't help comparing this new release to the glory days of Netscape--when an unknown company skidded into the limelight out of nowhere with a slick (and unorthodox) optimized Mosaic rewrite. It set new standards for the Web all on its own and didn't make any apologies for it. Its ascension was inevitable for three simple reasons: It was slick, faster than the competition, and it crashed less.

Netscape has not come as far as it thinks it has. Yet as its new prodigy plods out into the open, laden heavy with bizarre groupware packages and font libraries (and sporting a few interesting rendering bugs), so also plods the hopes of many Java enthusiasts--that the new version of Java may be riding somewhere on its tremendously overburdened coat tails.

In defense of Netscape, we figure it's still the best, relative to the competition. And if you think Communicator is big, you must not have tried downloading Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 4--unquestionably the paragon of obesity, sitting somewhere in the 60 megabyte neighborhood.

Modem users may want to have a lot of their drug of choice on hand for the all-nighter required to acquire it without a CD-ROM. They may also want to save some in case the uninstaller fails--because did we mention how many parts of your operating system the Web browser will replace, and how badly ruined your computer will be if they aren't all delicately and properly restored to their original state?

Rest assured, we're already studying the specs and putting Communicator's Java capabilities through the wringer. What we come up with will keep you busy reading for weeks to come.

It seems likely, for instance, that its Java environment will be even more distinct from Sun's Java than it has been historically. This may in some ways be good; a lot of the differences will be specific and appropriate, made in the name of better integration with the browser itself. Take your cue from the distinct security system, which all the parties concerned have been anticipating all along.

We've already talked at length about the configurable approach to system security implemented in Java: A securityManager class has historically controlled what dangerous methods applets may execute.

Contained in and reduced to a class, it's easily replaceable by design. In other words, the sandbox sporting 20-foot walls that everyone has been so concerned about is really Netscape's particular version of the sandbox--one with all the options turned off. This again serves to underline the importance of Netscape's role in Java. As its primary delivery system, it inevitably becomes in some manner inseparable from it.

Communicator has broadened its conservative restrictions on applet behavior, implementing a security system that takes advantage of security improvements in Java 1.1.

Providing a package called netscape.security, Netscape has introduced methods for granting various specific privileges to applets based on merit, that is, based on the choices we've made with regard to its digital signature. The approach is extremely similar to, but distinct from, the JavaSoft approach (for instance, check out java.security.acl), a pretty good example of further customizing the Java resources for the specific needs of an application.

We urge you to check out the Netscape treatment of privilege. It's likely, as its predecessor was, to be central to the way Java gets written on the Web for the foreseeable future. We'll be studying it extensively in coming weeks along with a host of other relevant issues, so stay tuned.