Netscape sends out another patch

By Joris Evers
Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: June 17, 2005 3:32 PM PDT

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Related Stories: Microsoft advises IE users to uninstall Netscape 8
May 26, 2005; Netscape patches 1-day-old browser
May 20, 2005

Netscape has released an updated version of its Netscape 8 browser to fix a bug that broke XML rendering in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The update, version 8.0.2, addresses a problem highlighted in a Microsoft employee blog a few days after Netscape 8's May debut. In the posting, Dave Massy, a program manager on the IE team, warned that installing the Netscape browser would cause IE to render extensible markup language files, such as RSS feeds, as blank pages.

The revamp released late Thursday is the second update in the month since Netscape 8 launched. A day after launching the Web browser and touting its security features, Netscape, a division of Time Warner's America Online subsidiary, had to issue a new version to fix several serious security flaws.

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said that while fixing the XML rendering problem, Netscape came across the probable cause: Faulty documentation on IE provided by Microsoft. A Microsoft representative declined to comment.

To remedy the issue, Microsoft had suggested uninstalling the new Netscape browser and editing registry settings.

In addition to remedying the glitch, Netscape 8.0.2 makes performance improvements and fixes several other issues, including some problems that caused browser crashes, according to the release notes for the browser.

However, the browser update seems to be causing headaches for some users. In a forum on the Netscape Web site, several people reported that Netscape 8.0.2 has crashed multiple times. "Downloaded 8.0.2, but it still crashed as soon as I try to open it, worse than before," wrote one person.