Review of Mozilla SeaMonkey

Download from: http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Current Version: 1.1.17

SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet application suite, yet another Mozilla project. It contains a Browser, e-Mail client, Newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC Chat and Web Development Tools, under its hood. This is the approach Netscape navigator had used successfully! SeaMonkey uses the same Mozilla Browser engine that powers successful siblings as Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, Sunbird and Miro.

To quote from the SeaMonkey Web page, "The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite. Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users..."

The unusual name notwithstanding, SeaMonkey is a capable Browser. Users of Navigator will be struck by its resemblance to Navigator - specially its all-in-one Internet Suite feature that combines a Browser, e-Mail, HTML Editor, Address Book and - here is something new - IRC (Internet Relay Chat). It even uses the same icons for Browsing, e-Mail, HTML Editor, etc., that Netscape used!

Click for larger image

WellOiledPC Recommendation on Browsers: Don't let the unusual name of SeaMonkey bother you. For, under the unusual name is a decent Browser with standard features. Like Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey is an all-in-one Internet Suite with a Browser, Mail and Newsgroup client (although it isn't a patch on Microsoft Outlook Express, leave alone the more powerful Microsoft Outlook), HTML Editor (not as easy to use as FrontPage, though a lot less complicated in comparison with Dreamweaver), Address Book (this is a very usable feature) and IRC Chat component, that we have not used at all. So do check it out! However, do keep off the HTML Editor - it messed up our site pages. Not once, but twice!

Here is the link that tracks Browser usage and publishes Browser Statistics:

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

SeaMonkey has the standard Tabbed interface (not as a default option though - you need to set it from the Edit/ Preferences menu) and Password Management feature. In addition, like Firefox, SeaMonkey has a few add-ons, though Firefox has so many more. Hopefully, more will be developed soon for SeaMonkey. One of the best SeaMonkey add-ons is called Better Gmail2. It changes the way GMail behaves for the better.

We strongly recommend that you do not use SeaMonkey's HTML Editor - it messed up our site pages twice. We had to re-write it each time to get it back to the original format, layout and styling!

Any Browser that intends to make Microsoft Internet Explorer bleed needs to have very specific (and very special) features and widespread publicity. We believe that SeaMonkey needs a lot of visibility and publicity. Again, SeaMonkey lacks features and could improve on speed as well. It could also do a little more in the looks department. Worst of all, SeaMonkey has been tardy in ironing out bugs and releasing the next version - version 1.1.12 came out almost 6 months after version 1.1.11 and version 1.1.14 has come a further 6 months down the line, with no real enhancements... This is definitely not a good start!

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