SeaMonkey 1.0 Released

johkir writes "SeaMonkey has been released. Mozilla.org's open source internet suite features a state-of-the-art web browser and powerful email client, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. For web developers, mozilla.org's DOM inspector and JavaScript debugger tools are included as well. It also has a few nifty features, of particular interest: drag&drop reordering of tabs, support for a common inbox for multiple email accounts, SVG, , and phishing detection."

Comments

SeaMonkey - how cute

[fanblade]

SeaMonkey? I bet this thing dies in a matter of days.

WYSIWYG

[ZephyrXero]

So how does the Sea Monkey web editor compare to Nvu? If it's better, that'll really suck having to download a whole suite just for that one component. Why Mozilla Corp/Foundation hasn't released it's own editor still is beyond me...

Re:WYSIWYG

[savala]

So how does the Sea Monkey web editor compare to Nvu? If it's better, that'll really suck having to download a whole suite just for that one component.

It isn't better, as it's the basis on which NVu has been built (missing lots of features, but with the same basics). NVu's main developer has committed to donating back all the new code to the main Mozilla tree before releasing another version of NVu, and as far as I know, that's currently in the process of happening (although slowly, as it's a lot of code to be reviewed, and not many people capable of doing so).
SeaMonkey 1.5 should contain the results of this work, so basically a WYSIWYG editor nearly identical to current NVu.

Re:WYSIWYG

[CTho9305]

You don't have to download the whole suite - grab the stub installer (a bit over 200KB), and just the parts you want.

Re:For those of us who don't follow mozilla.org...

[ZephyrXero]

SeaMonkey is the old Mozilla Suite... Mozilla foundation decided to stick with stand-alone products, but some people missed the old suite and a few of the features and stuff, so the decided to carry it on as this community driven project ;)

Seamonkeys....

[revery]

I have been a bit leery of anything called "Seamonkeys" ever since I ordered a kit off of the back of my Amazing Spider-Man comic book many years ago. I was quite disappointed when it arrived and the creatures that hatched in my goldfish bowl were not the family of happy trident-bearing mer-creatures pictured in the ad, but a bunch of freaking shrimp.
So go ahead Mozilla, and sell the world on your little state-of-the-art web browser and powerful email client, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. I'm not gonna be sucked in to your little scheme. In the words of our great President Bush, "Fool me once, shame on... you.... The Fooled man can't be fooled again"

Re:Am I just confused?

[AuMatar]

Its more like this

In the begining there was Mozilla Suite, and it was good. However, a large number of people wanted a standalone browser. Instead of just splitting Mozilla Suite, they made their own browser, Firefox. Despite having an inferior UI, the Mozilla FOundation decided to drop the Suite in favor of Firefox. Some of the users of Mozilla don't particularly like the UI of Firefox, so we revived Mozilla Suite. Unfortunately, Mozilla is a trademark and the Mozilla Foundation does not let them call it Mozilla Suite, so it is now SeaMonkey.

You can tell what side I'm on. I'll be dling the new SeaMonkey tonight.

Re:Firefox extensions?

[savala]

Do Firefox extensions work with SeaMonkey?

Some do, some don't. It mostly depends on how much effort the extension developer put into his work. A lot of basic extensions should be completely compatible between the two programs, with only needing to use a different installation system, and most of those will indeed have versions for both. A lot of other extensions depend on Firefox specific UI / code, and probably won't (if they even make sense at all in the SeaMonkey/Mozilla world), unless the developer cared, or got lots of requests from people to make the extension compatible. You can browse the Mozilla/SeaMonkey extensions at addons to see what's there.

Re:For those of us not in the know...

[CTho9305]

Is the "Mozilla Suite" project dead? Is Seamonkey the replacement for the old Mozilla Suite? Will the next version of Netscape be based on Seamonkey 1.0?

"Mozilla Suite" will only get security updates. No more new development. SeaMonkey is a good replacement for the old suite - it's effectively Mozilla 1.8 (SeaMonkey 1.0 alpha was what would have been Mozilla 1.8 beta 5). If Netscape decides to ship annother "Communicator" (rather than just a browser), they would be wise to use SeaMonkey as a base for it.

Pssh. You call that life-like?

[fanblade]

Here is the exciting new logo for this suite. Oddly, it looks nothing like a real sea monkey.

Personally, I think it's a cross between a blue bird and a scorpion stinger.

Re:For those of us who don't follow mozilla.org...

[savala]

So, is it Firefox and Thunderbird thrown together in one executable? Or is it something more or less.

It's both more and less. It has a different approach to what such a program should be. Firefox and Thunderbird operate on the principle that it needs to be usable by the proverbial grandmother, and make a lot of sacrifices to get there. Features that are considered "bloat" or confusing are cut rigorously, the user interface gets lots of polishing, and everything that isn't considered essential for basic operation is delegated to the status of extension (which leads to a number of problems). Because of this, Firefox and Thunderbird are supremely usable products, which I'll heartily recommend to any computer novice.

SeaMonkey on the other hand continues the tradition of the Mozilla Suite, which cared less about appearing clunky and confusing, and is far more customizable and ultimately usable for power users, web developers and other geeks. The SeaMonkey people understand that people can have ways to browse which aren't intuitively obvious to grandmothers, but which are ultimately more efficient, and that enabling this is a great good.

As a result SeaMonkey has a number of features that aren't present (by default or at all) in Firefox/Thunderbird, ranging from roaming profiles, to the dom inspector and javascript debugger, to tighter integration between the email program and the browser to far more preferences exposed and easily editable. On the other hand, Firefox has more money behind it, and so has been developing rapidly in some areas, resulting in a large gap in SeaMonkey in an area such as extension management (of course, extensions aren't as necessary for effectively using SeaMonkey, but it's still a big gap).

So, to answer your three questions:

Compatability with Thunder/Fire themes and extensions.

Partly, depending on the specifics of the extension, and the effort its developer went to. I answered this question more fully here.

Does it share the same security holes, or will it have its own ;)

It will mostly have the same (as most security problems are in the backend), but a few less in the frontend, as SeaMonkey has tighter review requirements than Firefox does. (I can think of one big security problem in the last year that was related to extension management which was only present in Firefox, not in Mozilla/SeaMonkey.)

Will it be udated as often as Thunder/Fire?

Yes, that is the goal, give or take a few weeks and some point releases. A SeaMonkey 1.1 release should come around the time of Firefox 2.0, and a SeaMonkey 1.5 for whenever Firefox 3.0 happens. (They'll be matches fairly closely in time, as both depend on the same branches and heavily tested stable code.)