SeaMonkey 1.0 Alpha released

An anonymous reader writes "SeaMonkey 1.0 Alpha was released last week. Users of the Mozilla Suite or Netscape should check it out - it contains numerous new features and bugfixes when compared to Mozilla 1.7, but offers the same basic look and feel. There are a few screenshots on the SeaMonkey blog showing off some of the features. For those who don't know, SeaMonkey is the continuation of the Mozilla Suite after the Mozilla Foundation ceased shipping new releases."

Comments

Re:what's the point?

[DrXym]

Firefox / Thunderbird are certainly cleaner than the suite, but you lose some benefits of integration. For example, the suite allows you to middle click on a link in an email and open it as a new browser tab. Or you can edit the page you're viewing from the menu. Or create a single wallet which holds passwords from your browser and email app. Or have a disk and memory footprint of one app instead of many.

I admit you could probably live without some of these things, but then again they all add up. I know that I really miss the middle-click behaviour on emails when using Firefox and Thunderbird.

Re:Why Seamonkey?

[drac]

"Send page by email" does not exist in Firefox. "Send link" is not the same thing.

The ctrl-M shortcut within Firefox unleashed a sea of iexplore windows on this machine. I shall not be doing it again.

Please understand that those are only examples.

I understand that the differences are trivial for some people. It should not be difficult for those people to understand, however, in a general sense, that seamless integration (like most features) is more important to others.

It cannot be reasonably argued that Firefox, Thunderbird, and NVU provide a seamless integrative experience. That's not a flaw overall, but a design decision.

It is therefore not unreasonable for those for whom a seamless integrative experience is important to prefer the integrated suite.

You asked, I answered. That's the "why".

Re:what's the point?

[bunratty]

1. Can someone explain why this exists?

Here are just a few answers to that question.

2. Do they really expect Netscape users to download something called SeaMonkey?

No, mostly users of Mozilla 1.7.x will download SeaMonkey.

Your Alpha, My Beta

[Doc Ruby]

This release is not an "Alpha" relase. "Alpha" means "released only to those who designed or developed it", not just "not finished". "Beta" likewise means "released to people who did not design or develop it", people outside the development team. Tested, but only just barely. A "master" release means "tested complete and ready for publishing".

Netscape's "0.9x Beta" releases in 1994-5 forever changed the marketspeak of these release designations. "Beta" just means "not finished" in that language. But the same people also made "Under Construction" mean "please rely on our new software". It's a marketdroid scam to get you to impatiently accept unacceptably broken software.

It's probably too late to reclaim "Beta" from a generation of kiddies who think it means "new and cool". But we can't let the ghost of Netscape destroy the "Alpha" boundary. The distinction between Alpha and Beta is even more important than Beta vs Master. Software is never really finished, especially in the era of open source and user extensions. But the feedback from development team to their product is blind to many results that outsiders provide in real Betas and Masters. Without that critical perspective, or without distinguishing between that outsider perspective and insider lingo/preconceptions, software will never get a chance to grow up.

We've developed these Alpha/Beta/Master phases after decades of experience developing and rolling out software. We can't afford to discard the discipline that got us here, just as we're scaling up all our operations, and losing many of the in-person artifacts we use to know how to work on these products. Don't let "Netscape" strike again.