Cool Mac Gear

A couple of weeks ago I promised an update on the latest version of the Mozilla browser - 0.9.4.

As with the last several Mozilla versions, 0.9.4 downloaded with no hassle and installed likewise over my existing copy of Mozilla 0.9.3.

Compared with the previous 0.9.3 version, there is no dramatic difference. The improvements are incremental (listed below). Mozilla, since the release of version 0.9.2 (the version that Netscape 6.1 is based on) has been a solid, dependable, fast browser that is capable of more than satisfactorily displacing Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator.

Some recent comparison tests I did against iCab and Opera revealed that Mozilla 0.9.3 was just a shade slower than either of those alternate browsers on some pages, but for some reason Mozilla doesn't "feel" slower, and in fact, even with a stopwatch, there is very little in the difference.

Mozilla is also a bit sluggish opening new browser windows and responding to menu commands compared with iCab and Opera, at least on my 233 MHz PowerBook. On a faster machine, this would be likely less less noticeable. Mozilla 0.9.4 still won't save web page content as plain text. Guys, how hard would that be to fix?

However, Mozilla does a very competent job of handling JavaScript -- an area where iCab believe this is still hobbled, and it also works well on encrypted Web pages. In fact, I very rarely encounter with content Mozilla can't handle.

As for stability, I've been using Mozilla since version 0.9.2 back in June, and I have yet to experience a crash or lockup with it. This browser is a rock.

If you're looking to kick the Internet Explorer habit, Mozilla 0.9.4, at least in its Mac Classic version is a perfectly capable browser for workhorse use, and it is two development versions ahead of Netscape 6.1. The OS X version ("Fizzilla" still reportely needs a lot of work. Similarly, if you have the disk space, RAM capacity, and processor speed to support it, Mozilla can now take over from Netscape Communicator with no excuses.

And like Communicator, Mozilla offers an call-in-one package with browser (Navigator), e-mail (Messenger), and HTML authoring (Composer) modules in an integrated, single-application package. There is also an IRC Chat client (Chatzilla). The Messenger interface is the three-window style familiar to Outlook Express users.

New in Mozilla version 0.9.4:
• It is now possible to disable the JavaScript window.open() method during page load and unload events. When the dom.disable_open_during_load pref is set to "true" window.open will fail when called during an onload or onunload event, from top level script, or as part of a setTimeout or setInterval script. Setting this pref (instructions here) should turn off most pop-up and pop-under ads that appear when you load a new page. (Bug 92955)
user_pref("dom.disable_open_during_load", true);
• Mozilla Mail's sidebar panel can now display both the total of messages in a folder and the number of unread messages.
• Mozilla's Address Book now has experimental support for searching LDAP directories. To use this feature read the release notes at the Abzilla site.
• Mozilla's Sidebar now has a new Address Book tab. To add this new tab, go to the Sidebar's Tabs menu, choose Customize Sidebar, and then choose Address Book.
• Improvements to offline IMAP including undo of deleted messages, and Save as draft.
• Mozilla allows you to set an arbitrary file as your bookmarks file, although there is no UI for this feature yet. Set the following pref (instructions here):
user_pref("browser.bookmarks.file", "file:///path/to/bookmark.htm");
Note that if you have an alternate bookmarks file set up in Netscape 4, this will not be picked up automatically by Mozilla, because sharing the file between the two browsers can cause problems.

Mac version notes:
• If you attempt to run Mozilla on Mac OS using a language pack (such as the Japanese Language Pack) and a Language Kit, all menu bar items will be incorrectly displayed. To resolve this problem, register Mozilla using the Language Register. For instance, if you're using the Japanese Language Pack and the Japanese Language Kit, register Mozilla as a JA application.
• If you use the SmoothType control panel instead of Apple's "Smooth all fonts on screen" option in the Appearance control panel, you need SmoothType version 2.1.1 for Mozilla . Mozilla is not compatible with earlier versions of SmoothType, and some pages may be improperly drawn. To get an update, go to http://www.kaleidoscope.net/greg/smoothtype.html.
• Turning on font smoothing in Adobe Type Manager (ATM) can cause windows to come up blank. The workaround is to turn off the font smoothing option
in ATM.
• If you have a dual-processor G4 running Mac OSX, Mozilla will stall. There are no problems with dual-processor G4's running MacOS 9.
• Mozilla installation requires some system extensions including QuickTime.
• You should not restart your system with all extensions off before running Mozilla installation.

System requirements (Mac OS Classic version):
• Mac OS 8.5 or later
• PowerPC 604e 266 MHz or faster processor, or G3/G4
• 64 MB RAM
• 36 MB of free hard disk space
• Quicktime

Product Requirements (Mac OS X version -"Fizzilla"):
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher
or
• Mac OS 9 or higher
• CarbonLib

Mozilla is a freeware beta

For more information or to download, visit:
http://www.mozilla.org

Charles W. Moore