Netscape launches Communicator beta 3 for developers only

Netscape made the latest beta of Communicator--preview release 3--available to its DevEdge members this week. A public beta will be posted to the Netscape Web site next week. The latest revision to the oft-delayed suite, focuses on security enhancements in an attempt to avoid the recent embarrassments suffered by Microsoft. New security features include:

• Support for Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (SMIME) messaging encryption.
• Support for the object-signing model in the Java Development Kit (JDK)1.1.
• An extension to the Java security "sandbox," which lets Java applets access information from a computer's file system but first alerts the user.
• A "security advisor" for managing passwords.

Netscape has also improved their proprietary and ill-named "dynamic" HTML object model and added a feature called Auto Administration that allows system administrators to pre-configure browsers with push and pull features and "dynamic fonts.