Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Software

Even if you've been living in a cave, you've probably seen the letters "www" somewhere. It's time to see what all the fuss is about-and what it can mean for your business.

Netscape Communicator 4.01, $59 after a 90-day trial period (Windows 3.1/95/NT 3.51/4.0 and Mac-intosh), Netscape Communications Corp., (800) 638-7483, http://www.netscape.com

At press time, the bestseller Netscape Navigator 3.0 Personal Edition had been replaced by Netscape Communicator 4.01. In its standard edition, Communicator includes the Netscape Nav-igator 4.01 Web browser, Collabra discussion groups, Page Composer, real-time confer-encing, and Netcaster offline browser. Communicator takes up 9MB of your hard drive (6MB for the Macintosh version). The program integrates Web access, e-mail, FTP (for downloading files), and Usenet news. Version 4.01 auto-finishes URLs as you begin typing them by finding them in your recent site list. Customize your Navigator toolbar and even drag-and-drop sites to the new Personal Toolbar. Tell Communicator to weed out old bookmarks, and it will tell you which sites it can't connect with. Communicator supports multiuser setups, dynamic HTML, messaging, and VRML 2.0 (a virtual reality modeling language). Composer lets you create and publish your own Web pages. Conference supports audio/videocon-fer-encing, whiteboards, and chat. Netscape Communicator 4.01 editions are also available in Digital Unix 3.2/4.0, HP-UX 9.05/10.x, Linux 2.0.x and AIX 4.x, and will be available in IRIX 5.3/6.2/6.3, Solaris 2.4/2.5 and SunOS 4.1.3 soon-perhaps by the time you read this.

Other Products

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, free (Windows 95/NT), Microsoft Corp., (800) 426-9400, http://www.microsoft.com

What's Hot

• Netscape Communications Corp.'s Netscape Communicator 4.01 Professional Edition ($79 after a free 90-day trial period) for Windows 3.1/95/NT 3.51/4.0 and Macintosh System 7.5, adds calendaring, auto-administration, the IBM Host-On-Demand interface, and Mission Control, which allows the system administrator to lock and change preferences company-wide.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0, free (Windows 3.1/95/NT) will probably be available as you read this. Many will look to the new features in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 to see the latest shots fired in the browser war with Netscape.

This article was originally published in the November 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Software.