|
Mozilla by Mozilla.org |
Mozilla has been developed into one mighty internet suite! It contains all of the tools anyone will need to cruise the internet complete with, speed, stability, and safety all built into one premium (and free) package! |
|
|
up to 12 megs HERE |
|
Mozilla by Mozilla.org I'm sure you've heard of the name 'Mozilla' at one point in time or another while doing some late night surfing. This open source internet suite complete with browser, e-mail and newsgroup client, chat client, address book, and internet page composer has been developed by the world community and has been tweaked and tested by millions of internet users around the globe. What has been brought forth is a piece of free software second to none. Here, dive in and find out: Program Info.... Mozilla is considered open source and is consistently a 'work in progress' with new, stable builds being released as the programs within the suite are improved upon or added to and then tested. The source code is freely distributed via their web site to programmers who are interested in improving or adding to this internet suite. At the time of this writing, the most stable 'build' of Mozilla is 1.5 however, new ones are released quite frequently. Also, the future 'beta' release and 'nightly builds' are also downloadable from their site if your into beta testing. All of this helps bring us, the end users, with a magnificent software sweet.............. er....... I mean suite!! Platform..... Runs great on any Win32 OS (95, 98, Me, XP, 2000, NT). Also available for Linux, Solaris, OS2 and the MacOS Web Site.......... The web site for Mozilla.org has just been improved from it's previous design, and is in a beta test for an even newer one. The site is much easier to read and navigate and all of the most important links (like downloads) are right there on the front page rather than going through up to three pages to download as in the previous design. The links are immediate and so are the downloads with not even a pause, even when I was downloading the most recent stable build which had just been announced. There are some nice screen shots included. Downloading........ The
download size depends on the OS used. The listed size is for
windows: Installation.......... The file is a self install .exe file so download it to the directory of your choice and give it the old double click. I suggest you shutdown all programs including firewalls and virus scans before starting the installation. It goes through the usual battery of EULA, directory choice etc. until it has completely installed on your computer. A nice difference with the newest versions (1.41 and 1.5) is that if you are upgrading from a previous version, you do not have to uninstall your old one first. I have upgraded from the 1.4 to the 1.5 flawlessly, even keeping the data from my previous setup. Help Files.......... You're kidding right?? Out of all the freeware reviews that I have done in the past ten years+ (including my bbs days), I have never seen another freeware program that has this much assistance from the world public in understanding, running and maintaining itself. For instance, there are newsgroups (over 60 on a quick look), online forums, chat groups, e-mail groups, mailing lists and now even telephone support!!! As far as the programs help files go, they are second to none with a beautiful tabbed layout and easy to read type complete with pics if it's needed. Here's a pic of the help system (pinball theme):
There are many printable documents available from the web site such as the Frequently Asked Questions, the development history, end user documentation including tips and tricks plus a Mozilla Community where I'm sure the help is completely unlimited and free. As you can see, program help is not one of Mozilla's shortcomings!! Interface & Features ........... Let's continue this massive review with the suite's options setup. Under the menu item 'edit' you'll go to preferences which will open up an options window. Here is where you will perform most of your settings for the different sections contained in this internet suite. In fact, this window will open up directly to the options setup specific for the program you are currently using. Here's a pic of the window:
The numerous settings within this window make Mozilla very configurable. The tree structure on the left makes it extremely easy to access the settings for each individual program in the suite. Once you've installed Mozilla, spend a bit of time within this setup window to get a good idea on just how configurable it really is. A great feature of Mozilla is that this internet suite is skinnable with many of them downloadable from the internet. The 'appearance' section in the 'options' window in the suite even has a link to a couple skin sites. Here are some examples that I have pulled from the themes.mozilla.org site:
These 'themes' are added within the preferences window under appearances, themes and will either be applied to the entire suite or, depending on which one you install, only to a specific part of it. Most of these themes can be installed to your suite right from the download site, making installing these additions very easy. Now that we've touched upon the interface, let's get to the meat and potatoes of Mozilla, it's different programs. Let's start with the internet browser:
The Mozilla browser is a complete system with almost all of it's parameters accessible from the menu system, the toolbar or the sidebar, all of which can be tucked away via the small, clickable tabs on the left hand side of each bar. Here's a quick pic of the top, left corner of the screen showing the tuck tabs and the sidebar:
The Mozilla web browser contains most of the options found in many other main stream browsers and browser shells including tabbed browsing (my favorite), popup blocker (another favorite), personal toolbar, adjustable text styles (past 300%!), and lots more. You have immediate access to the security settings for such things as the managers for popups, images, cookies, passwords and forms right from the 'tools' menu item. Very handy!! Mozilla can import your IE favorites (called bookmarks in Mozilla), and the organizer is in a tree like structure which I find very easy to work with. Here's a pic of the bookmark manager:
If you look at the pic, you'll notice that the working bars also have that tuck tab feature. Again, the links are arranged in a tree like structure and are very easy to access and edit. Simply highlight the bookmark you want to work on and click edit or just right click and go to 'properties'. A window pops up for the changes. This is where you can have Mozilla check for updates to your favorite links! Here's the window:
The sidebar gives you quick access to many different parts of the Mozilla suite such as bookmarks, address book, searches, what's related, and of course, all of this is configurable via the 'tabs' button on the sidebar itself. Though I never use this feature, I'm sure there are many our there that would find this invaluable! Well, that's one heck of a browser of which I am now dedicated to using. Wait though! There's more! That's just a taste! Check this out:
The layout for the e-mail and newsgroup client can be configured in the most standard ways found in many other programs. This is done through the 'edit > preferences' menu window where most of the options are chosen for the entire suite. In fact, this section of the suite has TONS of options to choose from. Everything from message display, notification alerts, composition settings, sending format, addressing, customizable labels, and return receipts. Here's a picture of a few of the options windows to get a better idea on just some of the different options:
Depending on which themes you have installed, they may affect the interface of your e-mail/newsgroup client. I should mention that not all of them will so when you check for themes, be sure that it follows all or most of the sections of Mozilla (if it's important to you). Here's a pic of my image when running, which happens to be the standard theme when you first install Mozilla.
I find Mozilla's e-mail and newsgroup client very easy to master and very fast to use. It took me very little time at all to get used to the settings and all of the neat features. While were here on the pic, another nice feature of Mozilla is the little icons that are showing on the lower, left of the window. These are instant access icons to all of the programs found in the Mozilla suite. There will deliver you to the web browser, e-mail client, composer, chatzilla, and your address book. I really find them useful! So there's the e-mail client in all of it's glory. I have not used a chat client for a couple of years but I gave 'Chatzilla' a try just to see how it works and what it looks like. I didn't find it difficult to work with however, I have had previous experience with chat clients. If you're new to this particular aspect of the internet, I would suggest downloading a suitably dedicated chat client which could give you more detail as to the workings of these things. There are many commands that need to be learned in order to use them properly and other chat clients may give you more help than Chatzilla will. With that being said, if you are experienced in using something like this, you shouldn't be disappointed considering that it is part of an internet communications suite. The interface is pleasant without a ton of distracting icons and buttons. Here's a pic of the interface to give you a good idea of the layout:
I gave Chatzilla a go for about an hour and had a great time. Just join the Efnet channel and type '/join #trivia' without the quotes. They play a great game there! It works well and if you've had previous experience used them before, Chatzilla will give you a pleasant visit anywhere on chatnet.
I also gave the web page composer a whirl. I think it's a good tool for inexperienced web page designers who need something that isn't too complicated to get started with. It is in the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format so you don't have to learn .html code to start composing and what you produce on your computer screen is what you'll see on the web site. There are many great features such as table creation, tabs for source, html tags, normal view and preview view. You can insert links, pictures, images, clipart, lines, tables and more. Along with all of this, the composer also has a publisher which will upload your page to a web space provider. This publisher will basically only upload one .html file at a time so I would strongly suggest that if you intend on doing a whole site, you should use a FTP program such as Filezilla (my favorite!) as this is a much better tool to manage a web site on a provider. Here's a pic of the web page composer with the home page opened up within it:
The address book gives the user the ability to import their addresses from Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express or if you want a .txt file. You can also export your address book for backup purposes if necessary (and backing up is ALWAYS necessary, Right?). Here's a pic of the address book which, in this case, is displaying the 'modern' theme. (Of course, I've whited out the e-mail addresses, but I'm sure you'll get the general idea!):
Some of the other great features of Mozilla are the junk mail controls, built in spell checker, imaging blocking, multiple mail accounts, java support and Mozilla even has a slew of plugins available from many sources to add on to the suite. In every aspect, this is one major freebie! Uninstall...... Uninstall is done via the control panel> add/remove programs. The uninstaller will even ask you if you want to remove the entire directory. Usually this is because there is something in there that you have developed through the program (such as your address book) or there is a file there that was inserted after you installed the program (such as a download). I suggest you check the directory before completely deleting it, just in case! Problems...... The only thing that I have noticed is when Mozilla is first installed, sections of the lines that make up the borders of the toolbar seem to disappear, however, they go away as soon as something is accessed up there. In Closing .......... Well, that's about it. My hands and fingers are completely cramped. I have always kept away from using Mozilla (and Netscape, which has been developed around it) but I have now grown to actually enjoy using this thing. It's fast, has a great look (which can be changed!), and is actually more user friendly than many other internet programs. Of course, the amount of help just can't be beat. If you'd like the ability to only use parts of this suite, they are available from the Mozilla.org site under such different names such as Firebird, Thunderbird and Camino which are basically stripped down sections of Mozilla. From what I've gathered, they also are also quite excellent! Enjoy!! Buzzy J |
Blue Theme
Pinball Theme
