Mozilla Application Suite
Encyclopedia
The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and code name
d SeaMonkey) is a cross-platform
integrated Internet suite
. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL
. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator
. The development was spearheaded by the Mozilla Organization from 1998 to 2003, and by the Mozilla Foundation
since 2003.
The Mozilla Suite is composed of several main programs: Navigator (a Web browser
), Communicator (Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups
), a Web page developer (Mozilla Composer
), an IRC client (ChatZilla
) and an electronic address book. Also included are tools to synchronise the application with Palm Pilot devices, and several extensions for advanced Web development including the DOM Inspector
and Venkman
(a JavaScript debugger
).
Versions 6 and 7 of the Netscape
suite were based on the Mozilla Suite. The last official version is 1.7.13, as Mozilla Foundation is now focusing on the development of Firefox
and Thunderbird
. The Mozilla Suite is available under the terms of the Mozilla project's tri-license, as free and open source software
.
The suite has been superseded by SeaMonkey
Internet suite, a community-driven Internet suite that is based on the same source code and continued to be developed with newer Mozilla codebase.
suite under an open source license. The name of the application developed from this would-be Mozilla, coordinated by the newly created Mozilla Organization, at the mozilla.org Web site. Although large parts of the original Communicator code, including the layout engine and front-end related codes, were abandoned shortly thereafter, the Mozilla Organization eventually succeeded in producing a full-featured Internet suite that surpassed Communicator in features, stability and degree of standards compliance.
Under the AOL banner, Mozilla Organization continued development of the browser and management of the Mozilla source until July 2003 when this task was passed to the Mozilla Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit organization composed primarily of developers and staff from mozilla.org and owns the Mozilla trademark (but not the copyright to the source code, which is retained by the individual and corporate contributors, but licensed under the terms of the GPL
and MPL
). It received initial donations from AOL, IBM
, Sun Microsystems
, Red Hat
, and Mitch Kapor
. However, all official ties with AOL were severed following the announcement of the end of the Netscape Navigator browser and AOL's agreement to use Microsoft
's Internet Explorer
browser in future versions of its AOL software. AOL has since announced it will be using Mozilla's Gecko
layout engine
.
According to the Mozilla development roadmap published on April 2, 2003, the Mozilla Organization planned to focus development efforts on the new standalone applications: Phoenix (now known as Mozilla Firefox
) and Minotaur (now known as Mozilla Thunderbird
). To distinguish the suite from the standalone products, the suite is marketed as "Mozilla Suite" or the more lengthy "Mozilla Application Suite".
On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that they would not release any further official versions of the suite beyond 1.7.x. However, the Mozilla Foundation emphasized that they would provide infrastructure for community members who wished to continue development. In effect, this means that the suite will still continue to be developed, but not by the Mozilla Foundation itself. To avoid confusing organizations that still want to use the Mozilla Suite, it was announced that the new, community-developed product would be named "SeaMonkey
", with version numbers that start at "1.0".
blocking.
The browser has a number of features which help users find information. First, Mozilla has an incremental find
feature known as "find as you type". With this feature enabled, a user can simply begin typing a word while viewing a Web page, and the browser automatically searches for it and highlights the first instance found. As the user types more of the word, the browser refines its search.
Additionally, Mozilla supports the "custom keyword" feature. This feature allows users to access their bookmarks from the location bar using keywords (and an optional query parameter). For example, using a custom keyword, a user can type "google apple" into the address bar and be redirected to the results of a Google search for "apple".
For the mail and newsgroup component, the built-in Bayesian
e-mail spam
filter can effectively filter out unwanted e-mail spam after a period of training.
modules), users may activate new features, such as mouse gestures, advertisement blocking, proxy server switching, and debugging tool
s.
One can view the extension system as a ground for experimentation, where one can test new functionalities. Occasionally, an extension, or a part of it, becomes part of the official product (for example MultiZilla's tabbed browsing feature eventually became part of the standard Mozilla).
Mozilla also supports a variety of themes/skins, which change its appearance. Themes consist of packages of CSS and image files. The Mozilla Add-ons
Web site offers many themes. Beyond adding a new theme, users can customize its interface by adding and removing some of its buttons and toolbars.
Additionally, Mozilla stores most of its preferences in a list that users can access by typing about:config in the address bar. Some preferences are only available through it, like turning on bookmark icons.
, XML
, XHTML
, CSS
, JavaScript
, DOM
, MathML
, DTD
, XSLT
and XPath
.
Mozilla also supports PNG images and variable transparency, (which Internet Explorer
only supports fully in version 7
). Indeed, Internet Explorer's lack of support for PNG images has occasioned much debate, as many Web developers want to move away from the old GIF format, which does not have the same capabilities and image quality as PNG.
Mozilla has implemented most of CSS Level 2 and some of the not-yet-completed CSS Level 3 standard. It was among the first browsers to pass the original Box Acid Test, although it doesn't fully pass the more rigorous Acid2
test for HTML, CSS, and PNG standards support. Other browsers based on newer versions of Mozilla's core technology, however, pass the Acid2 test.
The mail and newsgroup supports POP and IMAP. It also support LDAP address completion. Both reading and writing of HTML e-mails are supported. Mail files are stored in mbox
format, and are thus portable.
The first version of the suite, i.e., the one that formed the basis of Netscape 6
, did not support the blink element, thus making it the only Netscape/Mozilla browser that has not supported the notorious tag that Netscape itself created. Later versions of the suite support the element as well as the marquee tag
, originally created by rival Internet Explorer
.
Mozilla uses the same format to store users' profiles (which contain their personal browser settings) even on different operating systems, so a profile may be used on multiple platforms, so long as all of the platforms can access the profile (e.g., the profile is stored on a FAT32
partition accessible from both Windows and Linux). This functionality is useful for users who dual-boot their machines. However, it may occasionally cause problems, especially with extensions.
, Venkman
and JavaScript Console. The DOM Inspector is not available in non-Mozilla browsers, and the JavaScript Console is more advanced than the consoles available in non-Mozilla browsers. Venkman is a difficult to use but decent JavaScript debugger. These are installed by default, though you can opt them out (except for the JavaScript Console) with the other install options.
and external protocol whitelisting.
One key characteristic of Mozilla security is that its source code is visible to everyone. Proposed software changes are reviewed by at least one other person, and typically "super-reviewed" by yet another, and once placed in the software are visible for anyone else to consider, protest, or improve.
In addition, the Mozilla Foundation operates a "bug bounty" scheme: Users who report a valid critical security bug receive a US$500 cash reward for each report and a Mozilla T-shirt. The purpose of this "bug bounty" system, according to the Mozilla Foundation, is to "encourage more people to find and report security bugs in our products, so that we can make our products even more secure than they already are". Anyone in the world can report a bug. Also, access to the source code of Mozilla Firefox, internal design documentation, forum discussions, and other materials that can be helpful in finding bugs are available to anyone.
The Mozilla Foundation has issued a security bugs policy to help contributors to deal with security vulnerabilities. The policy restricts access to a security-related bug report to members of the security team until after Mozilla has shipped a fix for the problem. This is intended to deter the exploitation of publicly-known vulnerabilities and give the developers time to issue a patch. While similar to other "responsible disclosure
" policies issued by companies such as Microsoft, this policy is opposed to the full disclosure
principle favored by some security researchers.
As of June 2005, Secunia has reported three unpatched vulnerabilities in Mozilla with the most serious one marked "less critical".
, a community-driven Internet suite that is based on the same source code, is pursued by those that appreciated Mozilla's feature set.
Code name
A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
d SeaMonkey) is a cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
integrated Internet suite
Internet suite
An Internet suite is an Internet-related software suite. Internet suites usually include a web browser, e-mail client , download manager, HTML editor, and an IRC client....
. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator
Netscape Communicator
Netscape Communicator was an Internet suite produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. Initially released in June 1997, Netscape Communicator 4.0 was the successor to Netscape Navigator 3.x and included more groupware features intended to appeal to enterprises.- Editions :Netscape...
. The development was spearheaded by the Mozilla Organization from 1998 to 2003, and by the Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Foundation
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
since 2003.
The Mozilla Suite is composed of several main programs: Navigator (a Web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
), Communicator (Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups
Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups is an e-mail and news client that is part of the Mozilla Application Suite....
), a Web page developer (Mozilla Composer
Mozilla Composer
Mozilla Composer is the free, open source HTML editor and web authoring module of the Mozilla Application Suite . It is used to create and to edit web pages, e-mail, and text documents easily. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Composer is a graphical WYSIWYG HTML editor...
), an IRC client (ChatZilla
ChatZilla
ChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting....
) and an electronic address book. Also included are tools to synchronise the application with Palm Pilot devices, and several extensions for advanced Web development including the DOM Inspector
DOM Inspector
DOM Inspector is a web developer tool created by Joe Hewitt and was originally included in Mozilla Application Suite as well as versions of Mozilla Firefox prior to Firefox 3. It is now included by default in SeaMonkey and is an installable extension for subsequent versions of Firefox and other...
and Venkman
Venkman
Venkman is the JavaScript debugger component of the Mozilla Application Suite. It is also available as a Mozilla Firefox extension. Venkman is named after the character Dr. Peter Venkman played by Bill Murray in the movies Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.-History:In 1998, John Bandhauer was in...
(a JavaScript debugger
Debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
).
Versions 6 and 7 of the Netscape
Netscape (web browser)
Netscape 7 was a series of proprietary cross-platform Internet suites created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by AOL to continue the Netscape series after Netscape 6. There were three main editions released from the Netscape 7 series; being Netscape 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2...
suite were based on the Mozilla Suite. The last official version is 1.7.13, as Mozilla Foundation is now focusing on the development of Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
and Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
. The Mozilla Suite is available under the terms of the Mozilla project's tri-license, as free and open source software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
.
The suite has been superseded by SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...
Internet suite, a community-driven Internet suite that is based on the same source code and continued to be developed with newer Mozilla codebase.
History and development
In March 1998, Netscape released most of the code base for its popular Netscape CommunicatorNetscape Communicator
Netscape Communicator was an Internet suite produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. Initially released in June 1997, Netscape Communicator 4.0 was the successor to Netscape Navigator 3.x and included more groupware features intended to appeal to enterprises.- Editions :Netscape...
suite under an open source license. The name of the application developed from this would-be Mozilla, coordinated by the newly created Mozilla Organization, at the mozilla.org Web site. Although large parts of the original Communicator code, including the layout engine and front-end related codes, were abandoned shortly thereafter, the Mozilla Organization eventually succeeded in producing a full-featured Internet suite that surpassed Communicator in features, stability and degree of standards compliance.
Under the AOL banner, Mozilla Organization continued development of the browser and management of the Mozilla source until July 2003 when this task was passed to the Mozilla Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit organization composed primarily of developers and staff from mozilla.org and owns the Mozilla trademark (but not the copyright to the source code, which is retained by the individual and corporate contributors, but licensed under the terms of the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
and MPL
Mozilla Public License
The Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...
). It received initial donations from AOL, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
, and Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3. He is also a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chair of the Mozilla Foundation...
. However, all official ties with AOL were severed following the announcement of the end of the Netscape Navigator browser and AOL's agreement to use Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
browser in future versions of its AOL software. AOL has since announced it will be using Mozilla's Gecko
Gecko (layout engine)
Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
layout engine
Layout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
.
According to the Mozilla development roadmap published on April 2, 2003, the Mozilla Organization planned to focus development efforts on the new standalone applications: Phoenix (now known as Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
) and Minotaur (now known as Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
). To distinguish the suite from the standalone products, the suite is marketed as "Mozilla Suite" or the more lengthy "Mozilla Application Suite".
On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that they would not release any further official versions of the suite beyond 1.7.x. However, the Mozilla Foundation emphasized that they would provide infrastructure for community members who wished to continue development. In effect, this means that the suite will still continue to be developed, but not by the Mozilla Foundation itself. To avoid confusing organizations that still want to use the Mozilla Suite, it was announced that the new, community-developed product would be named "SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...
", with version numbers that start at "1.0".
Usability and accessibility
Mozilla supports tabbed browsing, which allows users to open multiple Web pages in the same browser window. This feature was written with the popular MultiZilla extension for Mozilla as a base. Mozilla also belongs in the group of browsers who early on adopted customizable pop-upPop-up ad
Pop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements...
blocking.
The browser has a number of features which help users find information. First, Mozilla has an incremental find
Incremental find
In computing, incremental search, incremental find or real-time suggestions is a user interface interaction method to progressively search for and filter through text. As the user types text, one or more possible matches for the text are found and immediately presented to the user...
feature known as "find as you type". With this feature enabled, a user can simply begin typing a word while viewing a Web page, and the browser automatically searches for it and highlights the first instance found. As the user types more of the word, the browser refines its search.
Additionally, Mozilla supports the "custom keyword" feature. This feature allows users to access their bookmarks from the location bar using keywords (and an optional query parameter). For example, using a custom keyword, a user can type "google apple" into the address bar and be redirected to the results of a Google search for "apple".
For the mail and newsgroup component, the built-in Bayesian
Bayesian spam filtering
Bayesian spam filtering is a statistical technique of e-mail filtering. It makes use of a naive Bayes classifier to identify spam e-mail.Bayesian classifiers work by correlating the use of tokens , with spam and non spam e-mails and then using Bayesian inference to calculate a probability that an...
e-mail spam
E-mail spam
Email spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
filter can effectively filter out unwanted e-mail spam after a period of training.
Customizability
Mozilla introduced the extension model, which was expanded and improved by Firefox and Thunderbird. Through extensions (installed via XPInstallXPInstall
XPInstall is a technology used by the Mozilla Application Suite, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird and other XUL-based applications for installing Mozilla extensions that add functionality to the main application....
modules), users may activate new features, such as mouse gestures, advertisement blocking, proxy server switching, and debugging tool
Debugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
s.
One can view the extension system as a ground for experimentation, where one can test new functionalities. Occasionally, an extension, or a part of it, becomes part of the official product (for example MultiZilla's tabbed browsing feature eventually became part of the standard Mozilla).
Mozilla also supports a variety of themes/skins, which change its appearance. Themes consist of packages of CSS and image files. The Mozilla Add-ons
Mozilla Add-ons
Mozilla Add-ons is the official Mozilla Foundation website to act as a repository for add-ons for Mozilla software, including Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, and Mozilla Sunbird. These add-ons include extensions, themes, dictionaries, search bar "search engines," and plugins...
Web site offers many themes. Beyond adding a new theme, users can customize its interface by adding and removing some of its buttons and toolbars.
Additionally, Mozilla stores most of its preferences in a list that users can access by typing about:config in the address bar. Some preferences are only available through it, like turning on bookmark icons.
Standards support
The Mozilla Foundation takes pride in Mozilla's compliance with existing standards, especially W3C Web standards. Mozilla has extensive support for most basic standards including HTMLHTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
, XHTML
XHTML
XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
, CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
, JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
, DOM
Document Object Model
The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...
, MathML
MathML
Mathematical Markup Language is an application of XML for describing mathematical notations and capturing both its structure and content. It aims at integrating mathematical formulae into World Wide Web pages and other documents...
, DTD
Document Type Definition
Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...
, XSLT
XSLT
XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...
and XPath
XPath
XPath is a language for selecting nodes from an XML document. In addition, XPath may be used to compute values from the content of an XML document...
.
Mozilla also supports PNG images and variable transparency, (which Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
only supports fully in version 7
Internet Explorer 7
Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in October 2006. Internet Explorer 7 is part of a long line of versions of Internet Explorer and was the first major update to the browser in more than 5 years...
). Indeed, Internet Explorer's lack of support for PNG images has occasioned much debate, as many Web developers want to move away from the old GIF format, which does not have the same capabilities and image quality as PNG.
Mozilla has implemented most of CSS Level 2 and some of the not-yet-completed CSS Level 3 standard. It was among the first browsers to pass the original Box Acid Test, although it doesn't fully pass the more rigorous Acid2
Acid2
Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
test for HTML, CSS, and PNG standards support. Other browsers based on newer versions of Mozilla's core technology, however, pass the Acid2 test.
The mail and newsgroup supports POP and IMAP. It also support LDAP address completion. Both reading and writing of HTML e-mails are supported. Mail files are stored in mbox
Mbox
mbox is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of electronic mail messages. All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file...
format, and are thus portable.
The first version of the suite, i.e., the one that formed the basis of Netscape 6
Netscape 6
Netscape 6 was the name of Netscape Communications Corporation's proprietary cross-platform internet suite from versions 6.0–6.2.3. It superseded Netscape Communicator 4.8 and was replaced by the simply-named Netscape...
, did not support the blink element, thus making it the only Netscape/Mozilla browser that has not supported the notorious tag that Netscape itself created. Later versions of the suite support the element as well as the marquee tag
Marquee tag
The marquee tag is a non-standard HTML element which causes text to scroll up, down, left or right automatically. The tag was first introduced in early versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and was compared to Netscape's blink element, as a proprietary non-standard extension to the HTML...
, originally created by rival Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
.
Cross-platform support
Mozilla runs on a wide variety of platforms. Releases available on the primary distribution site support the following operating systems:- Various versions of Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, including 95Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, 98Windows 98Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, MeWindows MeWindows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
, NTWindows NTWindows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
4.0, 2000Windows 2000Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
, XPWindows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Server 2003Windows Server 2003Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...
, and VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
. - Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
- Mac OS 9Mac OS 9Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...
(discontinued after Mozilla 1.2.1, but an unofficial Mozilla 1.3.1 is available here). However, an updated branch of the Suite survives for the classic Mac OS in the form of ClassillaClassillaClassilla is a Gecko-based web browser for PowerPC-based classic Macintosh systems, essentially an updated descendant of the now-defunct Mozilla Application Suite by way of the Mac OS port maintained in the now-aborted project...
. - LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-based operating systems using X.Org ServerX.Org ServerX.Org Server refers to the X server release packages stewarded by the X.Org Foundation,which is hosted by freedesktop.org, and grants...
or XFree86XFree86XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System. It was originally written for Unix-like operating systems on IBM PC compatibles and is now available for many other operating systems and platforms. It is free and open source software under the XFree86 License version 1.1. It is developed by the... - OS/2OS/2OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
, also known as Warpzilla
Mozilla uses the same format to store users' profiles (which contain their personal browser settings) even on different operating systems, so a profile may be used on multiple platforms, so long as all of the platforms can access the profile (e.g., the profile is stored on a FAT32
File Allocation Table
File Allocation Table is a computer file system architecture now widely used on many computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras. FAT file systems are commonly found on floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices because of...
partition accessible from both Windows and Linux). This functionality is useful for users who dual-boot their machines. However, it may occasionally cause problems, especially with extensions.
Web development tools
Mozilla comes with three Web development tools — a DOM InspectorDOM Inspector
DOM Inspector is a web developer tool created by Joe Hewitt and was originally included in Mozilla Application Suite as well as versions of Mozilla Firefox prior to Firefox 3. It is now included by default in SeaMonkey and is an installable extension for subsequent versions of Firefox and other...
, Venkman
Venkman
Venkman is the JavaScript debugger component of the Mozilla Application Suite. It is also available as a Mozilla Firefox extension. Venkman is named after the character Dr. Peter Venkman played by Bill Murray in the movies Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.-History:In 1998, John Bandhauer was in...
and JavaScript Console. The DOM Inspector is not available in non-Mozilla browsers, and the JavaScript Console is more advanced than the consoles available in non-Mozilla browsers. Venkman is a difficult to use but decent JavaScript debugger. These are installed by default, though you can opt them out (except for the JavaScript Console) with the other install options.
Security
Mozilla was designed with security in mind. Among its key features are the use of the sandbox security model, same origin policySame origin policy
In computing, the same origin policy is an important security concept for a number of browser-side programming languages, such as JavaScript. The policy permits scripts running on pages originating from the same site to access each other's methods and properties with no specific restrictions, but...
and external protocol whitelisting.
One key characteristic of Mozilla security is that its source code is visible to everyone. Proposed software changes are reviewed by at least one other person, and typically "super-reviewed" by yet another, and once placed in the software are visible for anyone else to consider, protest, or improve.
In addition, the Mozilla Foundation operates a "bug bounty" scheme: Users who report a valid critical security bug receive a US$500 cash reward for each report and a Mozilla T-shirt. The purpose of this "bug bounty" system, according to the Mozilla Foundation, is to "encourage more people to find and report security bugs in our products, so that we can make our products even more secure than they already are". Anyone in the world can report a bug. Also, access to the source code of Mozilla Firefox, internal design documentation, forum discussions, and other materials that can be helpful in finding bugs are available to anyone.
The Mozilla Foundation has issued a security bugs policy to help contributors to deal with security vulnerabilities. The policy restricts access to a security-related bug report to members of the security team until after Mozilla has shipped a fix for the problem. This is intended to deter the exploitation of publicly-known vulnerabilities and give the developers time to issue a patch. While similar to other "responsible disclosure
Responsible disclosure
Responsible disclosure is a computer security term describing a vulnerability disclosure model. It is like full disclosure, with the addition that all stakeholders agree to allow a period of time for the vulnerability to be patched before publishing the details. Developers of hardware and software...
" policies issued by companies such as Microsoft, this policy is opposed to the full disclosure
Full disclosure
In computer security, full disclosure means to disclose all the details of a security problem which are known. It is a philosophy of security management completely opposed to the idea of security through obscurity...
principle favored by some security researchers.
As of June 2005, Secunia has reported three unpatched vulnerabilities in Mozilla with the most serious one marked "less critical".
Market adoption and project end
From 1998 to 2004, the global usage share of Mozilla grew from a negligible amount to about 3%. Because of the Foundation's plan to switch development focus to standalone applications such as Firefox and Thunderbird, many new features and enhancements were not available for Mozilla. This, combined with the community marketing effort named "Spread Firefox", drew more and more users away from Mozilla since late 2004, when Firefox 1.0 was released. There will be no more official releases of the Mozilla Suite beyond version 1.7.13. As of 2008, Mozilla Suite usage share is approximately 0.1%. SeaMonkeySeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...
, a community-driven Internet suite that is based on the same source code, is pursued by those that appreciated Mozilla's feature set.
See also
- List of web browsers
- List of news clients
- List of HTML editors
- List of IRC clients
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