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Mozilla 1.0

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PCQ Bureau
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Browser wars are back with the public release of Mozilla 1.0, the long-awaited browser. Conceived four-and-a-half years ago by Netscape in an effort to create from scratch an open-source browser that would eventually replace its buggy offerings in the late 1990s, the project seems to have come of age.

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The browser has the Gecko layout engine at its heart and includes a mail and news client, a chat program (Chatzilla) and a HTML editor (Composer) as part of the standard 10 MB download. The Gecko engine is responsible for rendering Web pages and it does a fast job of it–especially when compared to some of the earlier Netscape releases. This layout engine can also be used to build other applications and there are already a host of browsers available, including Netscape 7 RC1, which avail this facility.

This browser takes less time to start up and doesn’t seem to be as resource hungry as Netscape 6.x. However, the start up time might seem slow to those who are used to seeing IE fire up in less time. This is where Mozilla has finally caught up. It now offers a facility called Quick Launch, which, if enabled (a systray icon informs you of that), makes part of the browser sit in the memory and reduces the startup time to a fraction. 

Its Gecko engine is responsible for rendering Web pages fast

Snapshot
MOZILLA 1.0
Price:
Free download
Meant for: 
Web developers, tech enthusiasts
Feature:
HTML Browser, mail and news client, irc client, html editor and Web development tools, available on Windows, Mac and Linux
Pros:
fast rendering of html pages; fast load with quick launch, full-featured mail client
Cons:
buggy at times, bare bones irc client
Contact:
www.mozilla.org 
Its Gecko engine is responsible for rendering Web pages fast
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The default interface of Mozilla looks similar to that of Netscape 4.x but thankfully the browser is skinnable (by changing ‘themes’) and in addition to the above ‘Classic’ theme, it offers a ‘Modern’ theme, which makes it look exactly like Netscape 6.x. You can download more themes; and already there are a host of them available all over the Internet, including one that would make Mozilla look exactly like IE, just in case you’re missing your old browser too much. Mozilla offers a (Opera like) tabbed interface, which means that having multiple browser windows doesn’t clutter your taskbar anymore. So unless you’re running XP already (which groups multiple instances of an app into a single taskbar entry) you’re in for a cleaner desktop.

Like Netscape 6.x, Mozilla offers the fully customizable Sidebar (that can be toggled on/off with the F9 key), which is a very useful way of viewing frequently accessed content like news, stocks, scores, search etc. All toolbars and menus can be turned on-and-off using the standard Netscape technique by clicking on the specially indicated place at the side of the menus–a very useful legacy indeed. Another notable feature (available earlier but not widely known) was the ability to increase/ decrease the size of the text by using the Ctrl and + and Ctrl and — keys to zoom in/ out. Also included are some other nifty tools like the Form Manager, which can be used to automatically fill forms, a Cookie Manager, an Image Manager to turn off images from certain sites and a password manager as well. 

Mozilla includes a full-featured mail and newsgroup client with all the features one would expect to find–support for IMAP accounts, HTML mail, message filters, advanced search facility and of course the ability to import mails and settings from other mail clients to enable you to make the switch. The two features we loved the most were separate inboxes for all e-mail account (so that your official and personal mails do not get mixed) and having a common SMTP server for all e-mail accounts (no more having to change it individually for each account). This is real time saver especially if you use multiple ISPs.



Not much can be written on chatzilla yet. It’s a bare bone IRC client that involves typing commands “attach,” to connect to network, and the like. Chatzilla gives the user a preview of the things to come and it’s sure to become more user friendly and feature rich in the future.

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Mozilla’s creators have termed it as a browser for Web developers and tech-enthusiasts, and not for regular “where-do-I-click-next” users. Hence, it is no surprise that it comes bundled with a lot of tools for Web development. The Composer which has been a standard inclusion in Netscape’s previous offerings, has been enhanced and serves the purpose of a full-fledged Web editor. Also in are the Web Development tools like the JavaScript debugger and the DOM Inspector that can be used to verify the HTML structure of Web pages.

The Bottom Line. Before you rush to download it (from www.mozilla.org for Windows, Mac as well as Linux), be warned that it isn’t perfect yet. There’s scope for improvement as there are a few loose ends here and there. Sometimes a new tab won’t open in the current window or Ctrl and + won’t zoom in, but nothing major–in fact, not once during tests did the browser crash. All in all, these “niggles” shouldn’t stop you from taking the plunge. It’s definitely worth a look. Its developers are constantly working to further enhance the browser and a version 1.1 can be expected. 

Kunal Dua for PCQ Labs

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