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was neoplanet.com
A Windows 16bit internet browser+email suite. It leveraged Internet Explorer's HTML rendering engine.
This is probably the most significant piece of software I've ever used, because it was the initial prompt for my writing and publishing reviews. It pushed a major hobby and has influenced whole careers. As for it being any good.. well it had potential that it didn't meet. At the time it was better than Opera but it just didn't survive the web browser marathon.
--
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after 1999-07-30 - (version not recorded, ancient) on Windows
- Windows 95 perhaps? This was a 16 bit program so it might have even been Windows 3.1!
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1999-07-30 - (version not recorded, ancient) on Windows
- Windows 95 perhaps? This was a 16 bit program so it might have even been Windows 3.1!
after 1999-07-30 - (version not recorded, ancient) ∞
2020-01-22 -- These were noted as "newer additions", which indicates to me that they were written some time after 1999-07-30 and they may or may not have been sent. I have references to multiple contacts, so perhaps this second list is what prompted them asking me to beta test a second time.
- The main screen sometimes does not overwrite other spawned screens.. I have to
control-n
to spawn a copy, then exit the original copy. - It occasionally magically switches to a smaller font in Arachnophilia from the preview (
control-p
in it) - I am not able to use the cursor keys to move around the favorites pull down menu.
control-b
only works in the main window, not spawned windows.-
When in the "organize favorites" screen.. give
alt
-keys to each of the buttons at the bottom.- Also make sure the user can cursor down through the menu and if over a folder with sub-items, that the user can cursor right to open it.. just as in the control panel/system/devices tab.
- Furthermore, the user should be able to press a letter, and have it go to the item with the that letter as its first letter.. not just items, but folders too!!!
- When deleting skins.. NeoPlanet does not remove the directory.. I wonder if you're actually changing to the directory then deleting, then trying to delete the folder you're currently in..
- I still get the "still loading" text when I open a picture in a new window.. even a few seconds past 99% finished.
-
The damn things still saves
.jpg
pictures as.bmp
sometimes!!!
1999-07-30 - (version not recorded, ancient) ∞
This was done for an older version of NeoPlanet -- I did get a response on this, and was offered beta tester status. I did do some beta downloads when NeoPlanet was very young.. 2 later on, when I did another review, I was offered again, but I don't know what became of that one. I did so love this software, but it did the classic "upgrade out of existence" -- it became a piece of shit very fast.
The review ∞
- Hello it's me again. =) 3 Thought you'd be rid of me eh? Well I suppose not.. I was fooling around with NeoPlanet and was having some seriously vicious crashes because of it.. I was getting strange notifications that I had one version, and it wanted me to upgrade to a lower version number.. lol.. oh well.. I was straining my OS to see what it could handle and to see what software I had was unstable or stable.. good or bad.. (ICQ and Pegasus Mail are on my list of "damn I wish I could replace it" now). Well somewhere around this point I replaced my OS with Windows 98 SE.. and after reinstalling it over a dozen times and fiddling with it for over 18 hours straight.. I got it working and went to work with upgrading all of the rest of my software.
- I got the latest NeoPlanet and was *SERIOUSLY* impressed. Very good work, I'm glad you didn't go the way of Opera.. upgrading yourself out of existence. =) You have managed to maintain the same software look and feel as well as the same swift and flawless program use even after some serious software updates.. magnificent. You've noticed and responded to several bugs and have upgraded NeoPlanet's functionality and capability.
- So, in keeping with my love/hate relationship with the best of the best software.. I have gone out of my way to update my NeoPlanet bugs and opinions list to bring it up to date with the version I got just yesterday. 4
-
Btw, I'm considering bringing my website public.. I intend to include such things as the best of the best software list, and bug reports like this.. creating user forums to bring a lot of experienced minds together on issues such as how to create a better browser or email program.. What are your opinions on this idea? 5
Anyhow, I hope you find my input productive. -- self
What follows is the bugs and opinions list:
Website ∞
- Put in a discussion page for beta testers? Something like a guestbook...
-
How would I entirely remove the NeoPlanet logo at the top right of the browser? Personally I consider it to be a waste of resources (animating or not) sitting there happily, serving no purpose. There is still the NeoPlanet link at the bottom right of the page.. that space at the top right is more valuable for other things. I understand that there are toolbar customization functions somewhere.. but I can't find them anywhere in the main NeoPlanet program.. nor can I find help on them.
- Furthermore, there is no standard Windows help file!
- Separate the skins archive into low and high color
- Perhaps put up a skins voting section. There are so many choices that it would be handy for a user to be able to look through the top 20 or whatever.. of each section.
-
In your website, add in direct links to Microsoft's Internet Explorer site(s) for (at least)
- Direct download of the latest Internet Explorer
- Internet Explorer support / technical information
- Perhaps you could have a local copy of the common Internet Explorer versions (The common version, the encryption capable US/Canada version, etc...)
- If appropriate (if the time exists), a couple of nice links to other "suggested" sites might be cool.. such things as common plugin pages, the "GetRight" 6 download assistant (and/or a couple links to its (cough) competition), some favorites list conversion programs (to Netscape Navigator bookmarks, to Opera hotlists etc.) I understand that you already have looked into automatic bookmark conversion though.. so this may not apply..
-
You don't mention what version of NeoPlanet is the latest!
email ∞
- For the email section, I cannot have a separate account use a different smtp.
- If I have the email screen maximized, and I send email and get an email error.. there's the little status bar message saying "click here for erro" .. the text is incomplete.
- There should be a "send mail" "check mail" and "send and check mail"
-
Without toying with alternate NeoPlanet profiles.. I am not able to send an email with a specific identity behind it. That is, I am not able to have one email account which gets/sends email through one server with out email address which the recipient sees, and have another email account which gets/sends email with a different email address which the recipient sees. I'm forced to have the name/email address in the settings as the only "reply to" address listed in the email sent.
- Interestingly.. if I leave the name/email address blank, I can send slightly anonymous email. =)
- An email conversion function would be nice, even if it were a separate program to download. I used the NeoPlanet email software and regretted it.. sorry, but it didn't have the all-encompassing functionality of Pegasus Mail which I enjoy (specifically being able to swap between separate email accounts and keeping them (somewhat) separate). Mind you I'm getting damned sick of it because it doesn't keep messages in strings of "original message --> responding message" I suppose this is like what a newsgroup is like.. I'd love to see both those functions in NeoPlanet.
-
If I view a message, then maximize it.. then exit it.. then view that message (or any message).. the window opened is not maximized. NeoPlanet should remember the settings.
- Also, be careful because you do often open up windows out of bounds with the normal screen.. one example is the window opened up to reply.
Program ∞
- Wonderful flashy little intro you have there with the animation all over the place.. too bad on my p166 7 it's choppy.. =(
-
Add in a function within NeoPlanet to natively use Netscape Navigator / Opera (etc) bookmarks.. so that they do not need to be converted and can be kept in the same file.
- Also, I understand that you have made or are working on an installation procedure which will convert Netscape Navigator / etc... bookmarks over to the NeoPlanet cause.. but I have not seen this function natively supported within NeoPlanet. Perhaps have an option within NeoPlanet to convert bookmarks to favorites etc.. or include companion programs which can be linked to and run from NeoPlanet.
- If I download a skin, then abort it.. NeoPlanet doesn't abort very gracefully.. it gives me the "aborted" screen, then "something's wrong", then an "error" screen.
F12
to change to the full screen mode only works on the primary window (the first one opened up) and not on any other NeoPlanet windows.- I wonder if it is possible to have an option which would make all other windows look like the current window. Such that if I made the buttons smaller or switched to full screen mode, all the other windows could be changed to look the same with this option.
- The
internetenvironment
skin changes the buttons at the top left of the screen. However, the buttons are not properly defined. What I mean is that although the buttons are smaller than the normal NeoPlanet buttons, the mapping is the same as if I had larger buttons there. So, if I were to click on the left side of the minimize button, it would instead activate the restore button in the middle (to the right of it). I have checked out other Windows applications, and this effect seems to be unique to NeoPlanet. - The favorites list (pulldown menu) doesn't display as many characters as it could. I suspect it displays only "x" number of chars, and ignores the fact that it isn't using a fixed-width font. If it were aware of the font it used, it could then display more characters. Btw, an ellipsis (the three dots, as in ...) 8 just chews up that much more display space.
- Full screen isn't very full screen. You could remove the scroll bars, the button bar and the status bar too.
- If I were to, say, click the view menu pulldown, then click on a checkbox item like whats related with the
spacebar
instead.. it should toggle that checkbox and keep the menu open. Perhaps the same thing with right clicking on an option in a pulldown.. it selects it but does not leave the menu. - when updating a skin, it freezes that screen.. but if I were to have a second screen already loaded, I could
alt-tab
to it and goof around there.. why? Why not have the skin downloaded in the background like everything else is? -
Ouch! When loading a page, I cannot switch to another NeoPlanet screen! I cannot see anything until that first page is 100% loaded!!
- Also, When it's connecting to a site, and hasn't started loading, tell me where it's going. Don't just give a blank page and an obscure status bar message. Put the location being connected to on the status bar. Furthermore, when the page is blank because it's loading something.. when I
alt-tab
around through my loaded programs, NeoPlanet should have the page being connected to listed in the title bar so that it's in thealt-tab
information under the icon. Sometimes I have a half dozen or more windows open looking through multiple sites, and I might want to know what each window is attempting to load. - Furthermore, this change would benefit me in that if I were to have NeoPlanet summoned as the default browser because in email I clicked on a URL link.. I would know where that page was going.
- Also, When it's connecting to a site, and hasn't started loading, tell me where it's going. Don't just give a blank page and an obscure status bar message. Put the location being connected to on the status bar. Furthermore, when the page is blank because it's loading something.. when I
- Add a function to view the background picture in its own page. I've seen plenty of nice background pictures obscured by the web page. =)
- After clicking on the location bar and typing in a location.. I cannot press escape to abort that action. I have to use the stop button.
- Pressing
F12
(which brings the browser to the pseudo-fullscreen mode) twice in a row will force large icons (alt-1
) in the top button bar if it was previously small icons (alt-2
oralt-3
). -
alt-1
,alt-2
andalt-3
are not available in a spawned window of NeoPlanet. Sometimes I close the window which was first opened after opening up several other windows... so I seriously lose functionality.- Windows opened up later are not the same as the first window! They don't have all the buttons at the bottom, and may not have all of the functionality. Furthermore, any new windows should adopt the window settings of the window they spawned from.
- Why not have NeoPlanet load up while it is dialing? 9 It would save time and wouldn't interfere with the dialing. (I'm not certain if this was changed since the latest updates).
-
When clicking on the menu "favorites", then hovering over a directory (with favorites contained in a sub-folder), this sub-folder opens up automatically as per normal, however, as in Internet Explorer, when clicking on the favorites pull-down menu and hovering over the upward or downward pointing arrows in a large favorites listing .. the list should automatically move up or down.
- The user should be able to right click on a favorite URL from the favorites pull-down menu and be able to edit it, rename it, remove it etc (and perhaps be able to hold down the left mouse button and drag it to a new favorites listing location or to another application as a standard URL)... Having to use that organize favorites list is a bit of a pain in comparison IMHO.
- If I bring up the task bar, then right click the NeoPlanet icon, it minimizes the start menu again after bringing up the proper little menu. Other programs do not minimize the start menu.. NeoPlanet should do the same.
- For the channels tab.. on the left side of the channels to the top and bottom are two sets of upward and downward pointing arrows.. used to move the channels listing up and down. Remove the upward arrow when all the way at the top, and remove the downward pointing arrow when at the bottom.. or at least get rid of the pathetic PC speaker click I get when holding down the up arrow when at the top or the down arrow when at the bottom. (could be my sound settings are "essential sounds only"
- When I change the skin, I still get "NeoPlanet online" or whatever.. even when I have NeoPlanet set to play essential sounds only.. that startup sound is not essential!
- The NeoPlanet archive should be renamed from
neosetup.exe
toNeoPlanet vx.xx buildxxx.exe
or something more relevant. - I cannot abort the loading of the homepage. (either
escape
or the stop button). - If I use the option in the control panel to change the home page location.. it should NOT go there.
- The NeoPlanet logo at the lower right doesn't actually do anything.
-
On exiting the program entirely, perhaps put a yes/no warning screen.
- Furthermore, automatic popup consoles should not be allowed to pop up if I wish to exit NeoPlanet altogether, regardless of my preferences for being warned about consoles. So when I choose to exit NeoPlanet altogether (or I exit the last remaining page / console), all consoles are closed, and no automatic consoles should pop up out of nowhere.. everything closes.
-
Can consoles be set to automatically open up full screen? The Internet Explorer settings don't seem to work.
- In the older version, it saved
.jpg
pictures occasionally as.bmp
.. I'm not sure if that still happens, but I'll report it if it does. - In an older version (not the last one I don't believe), I noticed that sometimes the right hand scroll bar is somehow smaller, tucked away in the side.. I just click the top right "restore" button and then "maximize" and it fixes itself. This seems to happen only with NeoPlanet and only with alt-tabbing to other programs, although I'm not sure which ones or when.
-
A long while ago.. several versions back.. I fiddled with some settings in windows for launching NeoPlanet. One of them was "start full screen". This eliminated the top grey bar which is normally present in the default scheme. What this ended up doing is significantly speeding up the opening of new consoles, and I believe it even has NeoPlanet starting up faster. At the moment, I'm not completely certain of how I did it... and I don't know what the improvement happened, but I thought I'd report it because you may be able to use it as a serious advantage. Perhaps it's not re-loading a certain set of bitmaps or a library file or something...
end: updated July 30, sent July 30 (1999)
Last updated 2024-03-06 at 18:39:16
- was https://browsers.evolt.org/?neoplanet/ [↩]
- 2020-01-22 -- I wonder if I managed to keep those ancient beta copies. If those were private betas then they could be of some historical interest! [↩]
- 2020-01-22 -- This seems to reference an earlier contact. Maybe that means there was an earlier review, but perhaps it was just a hello and tiny bug report. It is very possible that I still have my original contact emails in deep archives. [↩]
- Unfortunately that version number was never recorded [↩]
- And right here is the humble beginnings of this place. [↩]
- was getright.com [↩]
- Pentium 166 MHz [↩]
- As one character: … [↩]
- 2020-01-22 -- Oh my fucking god I had to pause to laugh.. I used this with dialup internet.. [↩]
Ported from an even earlier content management system, concluding "Software Ranting". Now I need to go around to the software topics and tag them with a template for easy listing.
ported
Boy does this bring back.. actually no this was from so long ago that it doesn't bring back any memories.
RIP archived website.