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Mozilla Releases SeaMonkey 2.0
binarybum writes "Often forgotten, but the independent open source spirit lives strong in the once Mozilla project — now SeaMonkey. Version 2.0 is finally out and rivals Firefox with similar features but integrated email with a small footprint."
The Register has a short piece on the 2.0 release, which mentions that SeaMonkey is now based on Firefox 3.5.4. Stephen Shankland lists some of the features in a handy bullet-point style, too. I'm using the new release right now; it's crashed once — but only once — in several hours of use.
All we need is a web browser. Users need the flexibility to choose their own mail program. Besides, webmail is today's king. This is why "Seamonkey" is often forgotten.
one crash every couple of hours is where we're setting the bar now?
if this was a Microsoft product you'd be outraged and laughing about the ridiculous uptime.
Time to give SeaMonkey another shot!
it's crashed once -- but only once -- in several hours of use
As "several" could (potentially) refer to any number more than two, then it could (potentially) "only" crash 8 times a day, or 56 times a week, or 2912 times a year.
Not a terribly positive endorsement to be honest.
I do. I like its interface much better than FireFox. Crazy, I know. Unfortunately many websites run compatibility checks and freak out if your browser isn't FireFox, Safari, or IE. My main preference of all stupid things is that I have always hated Firefox's search bar. Too many years of searching via SeaMonkey's address bar I guess.
it's crashed once -- but only once -- in several hours of use.
flash ?
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
I'm using the new release right now; it's crashed once -- but only once -- in several hours of use.
In other words, it's even less reliable than the IE I'm reading this on?
No. The rendering engine is Gecko, and until this release, Seamonkey was stuck with the same version of Gecko as as FF v2.
I'm also working from memory, but I think that Gecko is the engine. Firefox used to be the engineering test-bed browser component for the Mozilla suite, but end users decided they liked the light and fast standalone browser.
-Peter
I've used Seamonkey as my default browser for a long time now, mainly because I like the user interface better. Seamonkey 2.0 now uses Firefox's printing system, though, and this is one of the main things I don't like about Firefox. I use lpr for printing, not cups, and I liked the fact that earlier versions of Seamonkey (and "Mozilla" before it) remembered any changes I made to the "lpr command" in the print dialog. Firefox uses gtk-print, which reverts back to the default lpr command every time you click print, even in the same session. I've reported this as a bug in the Seamonkey bugzilla.
Regarding crashes, I've seen another report of this at LWN.
I use it. My choices at work are IE8 or Seamonkey. I had used Firefox until I got a nastygram from the admin about it being unauthorized. I added on AdBlock and User Agent Switcher.
I hate the search bar in Firefox too, so I deleted it and set up keyword searches for the half-dozen search engines I use regularly. (If you're not familiar with this FF function, right-click on any search box and select "add a keyword for this search."
For example, "g" is my google keyword. To google something, I type
g something
It works like a charm.
Wait, this is the final release and it crashed within a few hours?
That's... not good.
sic transit gloria mundi
SeaMonkey Composer is the best way to make WYSIWYG, What You See Is What You Get, HTML files.
Unless, of course, you want to deal with the quirkiness and huge expense of Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has more features, but SeaMonkey is usually all you need.
Use TsWebEditor for Tidying SeaMonkey HTML files.
User Agent switcher will fix that problem for you.I keep it around myself, and have found it is MUCH easier to convert older folks to SeaMonkey than to Firefox, as they remember the old Netscape days and prefer its layout. I'll admit I prefer it for certain jobs, such as it is the browser I use for secure transactions. I just like the "feel" of SeaMonkey better than Firefox, which sometimes feels kinda dumbed down to me.
Of course it is the excellent Firefox extensions library that keeps me coming back to FF. Oh curse you and your large library of extensions goodness!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Seems to be the same. The new-tab button is still in its fixed position on the left-hand side.
The interface looks the same, except for a few differences
- The classic theme button icons look more firefox-like and less netscape 3-like (bad thing, in my books). A theme can solve that.
- There is now an rss icon w/ drop-down list on the right hand side of the address bar. So far its been unobtrusive.
- The url-guessing algorithm has been changed; it's now supposed to guess based on URL and page title. Not sure how that will work out, though the algo used in v. 1.1 was imperfect IMHO.
- There is no longer an option for a Bookmarks button in the Personal Toolbar. Huzzah, one less preference to fix on new installs!
- Speaking of preferences, the Preferences window is more or less the same. The only difference I've found so far is that Themes are now set under the View menu
One thing worth noting is the History function - they now store number of visits, as well as a timestamp of the last visit, which means sorting history is way easier. The Download manager now has timestamps, too.
Overall, I'm happy
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
For older machines I would suggest Kmeleon if you are low on RAM, and Kmeleon CCF ME if you have over 128Mb. Both are built on the Gecko engine and VERY fast, but CCF ME has built in ABP and since it is a standalone also makes an excellent flash drive browser, but if you are below 128Mb I've found the memory footprint of stock Kmeleon can't be beat. And both can be run on Win95 on up according to the FAQ.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It's never been advertised as a lightweight alternative to Firefox. In fact it's the exact opposite - it's a browser suite for those that prefer the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink model. When Firefox (or Phoenix I think it was originally called) spun off from Mozilla, the original suite began a steady decline into obscurity. The bastardization that was Firefox focused on stripping away many of the useful features under the premise of trying to build a "lighter" browser (I think they failed, Firefox is still a huge memory hog). Finally, the Mozilla organization officially closed down the suite project and let it become resurrected as a community project and then was born Seamonkey - an effort to restore the glory of the all-in-one suite but still keep it on track with the code updates that went into Firefox.
I know it's hard for some of you to understand, but please be accepting in that there are some of us that just prefer it this way.
Learn your history - Firefox was supposed to be the lightweight alternative to the Mozilla Suite. Seamonkey is the continuation of the Mozilla Suite under a different name.
So, Firefox was the lightweight alternative to Seamonkey.
Except, Firefox started seriously competing with IE, started getting bloat, and for some time now has been a more heavyweight program than Seamonkey. All this despite the fact that Firefox only offers web browsing, while Seamonkey offers Web, News, Email, IRC, and HTML Editing.
A reason for this IMHO is that Seamonkey does not try to appeal to a general audience and thus has less pressure to add iffy features. That, and the lower popularity of Seamonkey probably means there are fewer developers trying to make their mark, which keeps things sane(r).
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
This is just brine gecko...don't be fooled!
Mmmmm . . . Brined gecko . . .
> Users need the flexibility to choose their own mail program.
Could you please direct me to the RFC that stipulates this?
Maybe by choosing SeaMonkey they HAVE chosen their own email program.
Well, you got first post, at least.
--Richard
Whenever I've had to deal with multiple emails, I have used gmail's ability to download mail from other servers and tag them automatically for me...
wait... I hear something coming....
Whhoooosssshhhhh.
When it asks you to import profiles, it will ONLY work if you select a profile that comes with Seamonkey i.e. default. This is not intuitive and counter to all previous upgrades.
You have to manual crate a new profile with the profile name you want, and then use the command line to import that ONE profile.
c:\%APPATH%\mozilla\seamonkey -P -migration
The profile name is case sensitive and MUST be in dbl quotes.
This was a pain in the ass for people like me that have a profile for each person in their home. It's LAZY DEVELOPMENT and the should be ashamed of themselves.
I know, you're thinking 'So you have to got o the command line, so what?" well that's a deal killer for a lot of people. There is NO GOOD REASON why this is a manual process.
The documentation that explains this comes across as hubris and with a too damn bad attitude. People want to know why OS hasn't defeated MS? it's because of shit like this, I actually considered loading outlook.
No, this is NOT a troll or flame bait, it's facts.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Because a lot of people like having that integration.
You don't? Then use something else and quit whining.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://prefbar.mozdev.org/
First plugin I install for SeaMonkey: Home button, toggles for colours, fonts, images, JavaScript, Java, Flash, pop-ups; drop downs for Proxy settings, User Agent, window size - couldn't live without it.
Well, I certainly remember it well and fire it up from time to time. It was what I used before Firefox and Thunderbird came along. Now that 2.0 has gone gold, hopefully some new users will find it and be intrigued.
As we (at PortableApps.com) do with Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird, we've packaged it as a portable app so you can use it on your flash drive/portable hard drive or try it out without installing it locally. 10 languages are available.
SeaMonkey, Portable Edition 2.0 at PortableApps.com
Portable versions of Firefox, GIMP, LibreOffice, etc
Exactly. Gmail is nice, but connecting to it from Evolution is nicer.
I have been using Seamonkey since the beginning of September(the alpha) updating it nightly and I can tell you this browser is the sh!t. I have had only 6 crashes since I started using it. All six times I had over 20 tabs open and 5 out of the six times I was able to fully recover right back to where I was before the crash.(so in essence I only had 1 complete crash) The only problem I have with the browser is some fonts (Tahoma in my case) look jagged when set in an H1 or H2 tag. But generally this browser is much better than Firefox IMHO and it makes IE look like baby code in comparison.
It still has the Book of Mozilla (I think it's part of Gecko, as Firefox has it too), but about:kitchensink hasn't been included for a long time. You can install an extension to have that back, though! Here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/742
I haven't found any email client that is as usable and nice as gmail.
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water