Mozilla Application Suite

Mozilla 1.7 showing Wikipedia's main page
Maintainer:	Mozilla Foundation
Stable release:	1.7.13  (April 21, 2006) [+/-]
Preview release:	1.8b1  (February 26, 2005) [+/-]
OS:	Cross-platform
Use:	Internet suite
License:	MPL, MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Website:	www.mozilla.org

The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and code named Seamonkey) is a free, cross-platform internet suite, whose components include a web browser, an e-mail and news client, an HTML editor, and an IRC client. 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. A screenshot of Mozilla 1. ... In software engineering, software maintenance is the process of enhancing and optimizing deployed software (software release), as well as remedying defects. ... The Mozilla Foundation (abbreviated MF or MoFo) is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. ... A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ... April 21 is the 111th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (112th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A software release refers to the creation and availability of a new version of a computer software product. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An operating system (OS) is a computer program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... Internet suite - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... In computing, the Mozilla Public License (MPL) is an open source and free software license. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... GNU logo The GNU Lesser General Public License (formerly the GNU Library General Public License) is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation. ... This page as shown in the AOL 9. ... Mozilla is a computer term which has had many different uses, though all of them have been related to the now-defunct Netscape Communications Corporation and its related application software. ... A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... Internet suite - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... An example of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox running under Microsoft Windows). ... An email client An e-mail client, also called a Mail User Agent (MUA), is a computer program that is used to read and send e-mail. ... A news client, or news reader, is an application program that reads articles on Usenet (generally known as newsgroup), either directly from a news servers disks or via the Network News Transfer Protocol. ... An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape Navigator web browser as well as many other internet and intranet client and server software products. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Netscape Communicator was a proprietary Internet suite produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. ... The Mozilla Organization (mozilla. ... The Mozilla Foundation (abbreviated MF or MoFo) is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. ...

As of version 1.7.x, it contains the following components:

• Navigator
• Mail & Newsgroups, Address Book and Palm Tools
• Composer
• ChatZilla
• Several extensions, including DOM Inspector and Venkman.

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 suite has also been superseded by SeaMonkey, a community-driven internet suite that is based on the same source code. Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups (also referred to as Mozilla Mail/News or simply Mozilla Mail) is an email and newsgroups client that is part of the Mozilla Internet software suite. ... Mozilla Composer is the free, open source, HTML editor and web authoring module of the Mozilla Application Suite. ... ChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla web browsers written in XUL and JavaScript. ... DOM Inspector inspecting Wikipedias main page DOM Inspector is one of the web developer tools included in Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox. ... Venkman is the JavaScript debugger component of the Mozilla web browser. ... Netscape was a proprietary cross-platform Internet suite created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by AOL to continue the Netscape series after Netscape 6. ... Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source, cross-platform graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers. ... Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mozilla Application Suite. ...

History and development

Main article: History of Mozilla Application Suite

Mozilla 1.0 displaying Wikipedia's main page

In March 1998, Netscape released most of the code base for its popular Netscape Communicator 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 website. Although the large parts of 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 standard-compliance. Mozilla Application Suite began as an open source base of the Netscape suite. ... A screenshot of Mozilla 1. ... A screenshot of Mozilla 1. ...

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 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. GPL redirects here. ... In computing, the Mozilla Public License (MPL) is an open source and free software license. ... Big Blue redirects here. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... Mitch Kapor Mitch Kapor (center) with Bill Gates and Fred Gibbons, during their time working on developing applications for the Apple Macintosh, 1984 Mitchell David Kapor (born 1950) is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the killer application often credited with making... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Windows Internet Explorer, previously Microsoft Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE, or MSIE,[1] is a graphical web browser developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. ... Epiphany using Gecko to render the Wikipedia main page Gecko is the open source, free software web browser layout engine used in all Mozilla-branded software and its derivatives, including later Netscape releases. ... A layout engine, or rendering engine, is a software that takes web content (such as HTML, XML, image files, etc) and formatting information (such as CSS, XSL, etc) and displays the formatted content on the screen. ...

According to the Mozilla development roadmap published at 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 more lengthy "Mozilla Application Suite". April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mozilla Firefox is a free, open source, cross-platform graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and hundreds of volunteers. ... Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. ...

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 will be named "SeaMonkey", with version numbers that start at "1.0". March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mozilla Application Suite. ...

Features

Mozilla is an all-in-one internet suite that contains many functionalities used in the internet.

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-up blocking. In graphical user interfaces in computer applications, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that relies on tabbed panes to hold child windows. ... Dozens of pop-up ads cover a desktop. ...

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. Screenshot of performing Find as you type in Mozilla Firefox. ...

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". 1) A bookmark is a thin marker, commonly made from paper or leather, used to keep ones place in a printed work and so be able to return to it with ease. ... Googles main pages unusually spartan design, uncluttered appearance and quick loading time have contributed greatly to the sites mass appeal. ...

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. Bayesian filtering is the process of using Bayesian statistical methods to classify documents into categories. ... View of a modern spam email, containing an advertising image. ...

Customizability

Mozilla introduced the extension model, which was expanded and improved by Firefox and Thunderbird. Through extensions (installed via XPInstall modules), users may activate new features, such as mouse gestures, advertisement blocking, proxy server switching, and debugging tools. Mozilla Firefox showing several extensions and a custom theme See also: List of Firefox extensions Extensions are installable enhancements to the Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla web browsers, and add features to the application or allow existing features to be modified. ... A typical XPInstall confirmation dialog XPInstall (Cross-Platform Install) is a technology used by Mozilla Application Suite, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird and other XUL-based applications for installing Mozilla extensions that add functionality to the main application. ... In computing, a mouse gesture is a way of combining computer mouse movements and clicks which the software recognizes as a specific command. ... A debugger is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs. ...

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 website offers many themes. Beyond adding a new theme, users can customize its interface by adding and removing some of its buttons and toolbars. Mozilla Add-ons showing extensions and themes for Firefox. ...

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. The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

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 HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, MathML, DTD, XSL and XPath. // One difference in the latest HTML specifications lies in the distinction between the SGML-based specification and the XML-based specification. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. ... It has been suggested that XHTML_Modularization be merged into this article or section. ... In computing, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ... JavaScript is the name of Netscape Communications Corporations implementation of the ECMAScript standard, a scripting language based on the concept of prototype-based programming. ... Document Object Model (DOM) is a description of how an HTML or XML document is represented in a tree structure. ... Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) is an application of XML for representing mathematical symbols and formulae, aimed at integrating them into World Wide Web documents. ... Document Type Definition (DTD), defined slightly differently within the XML and SGML specifications, is one of several SGML and XML schema languages, and is also the term used to describe a document or portion thereof that is authored in the DTD language. ... The eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a family of transformation languages which allows one to describe how files encoded in the XML standard are to be formatted or transformed. ... XPath (XML Path Language) is an expression language for addressing portions of an XML document, or for computing values (strings, numbers, or boolean values) based on the content of an XML document. ...

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 does not, however, pass the rigorous Acid2 test for HTML, CSS, and PNG standards support. The optimal result for Acid2. ...

The mail and newsgroup supports POP and IMAP. It also support LDAP address completion. Both reading and writing of HTML e-mails are supported.

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 Windows, including 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, and Server 2003
• Mac OS X
• Linux-based operating systems using X.Org Server or XFree86

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. Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of operating systems by Microsoft. ... Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. ... Windows Me (IPA pronunciation: ), also known as Windows Millennium Edition is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft. ... Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. ... Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptible, interruptible, graphical and business-oriented operating system that is designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor 32-bit Intel x86 computers. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently shipping Macintosh computers. ... Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... The XOrg Foundation Open Source Public Implementation of X11 (the XOrg Server) is the official reference implementation of the X Window System. ... XFree86 is an implementation of the X Window System . ... File Allocation Table (FAT) is a partially patented file system developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and is the primary file system for consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ...

Internationalization and localization

With contributors all over the world, the browser is translated into at least 36 languages/locales, including some of the least-often supported locales, such as Chichewa. Because of the use of DTD and property files for storing the string literals displayed to users, part of the internationalization and localization process can be completed easily even by users without a programming background, and requires only a simple text editor. Chichewa (Chicheŵa in Malawian English) is one of the two official national languages of the Republic of Malawi, the other being English. ... In computer programming and some branches of mathematics, strings are sequences of various simple objects. ... Internationalization and localization[1] are means of adapting products such as publications, hardware or software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures. ... Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ...

Web development tools

DOM Inspector inspecting Wikipedia's main page

Mozilla comes with 3 web development tools: a DOM Inspector, 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. Download high resolution version (860x684, 50 KB)DOM Inspector of Mozilla Firefox, inspecting Wikipedias main page. ... Download high resolution version (860x684, 50 KB)DOM Inspector of Mozilla Firefox, inspecting Wikipedias main page. ... DOM Inspector inspecting Wikipedias main page DOM Inspector is one of the web developer tools included in Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox. ... Venkman is the JavaScript debugger component of the Mozilla web browser. ...

Security

Mozilla was designed with security in mind. Some of its key features include the use of the sandbox security model, same origin policy and external protocol whitelisting. For the Wikipedia sandbox for editing experiments see Wikipedia:Sandbox This article is about the computer security model. ... In computing, the same origin policy is an important security measure for client-side scripting (mostly JavaScript). ...

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: people who report a valid critical security bug receive a $500 (US) cash reward (for each report) and a Mozilla T-shirt. The purpose of this "bug bounty" system is, according to the Mozilla Foundation, 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". Note that 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 is 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. Full Disclosure is an Thriller with the Megastar Fred Ward. ...

As of June 2005, Secunia has reported 3 unpatched vulnerabilities in Mozilla with the most serious one marked "less critical", versus 20 for Internet Explorer, with the most serious one marked "highly critical", and 0 for Opera.

Criticisms

The major criticism to Mozilla is the software bloating issue. Some components, like the Mozilla Composer, may not be necessary to everyone. The preference panels also contain options that are infrequent to casual users. It has been suggested that Code bloat be merged into this article or section. ...

Some note that Mozilla takes longer to launch than other browsers. The non-platform-native XUL implementation of the user interface may cause this perceived delay. Other Gecko-based browsers such as K-Meleon which use platform-native user interface implementations generally run faster than Mozilla. Another common criticism involves Mozilla using much more memory than other browsers. K-Meleon is a web browser for the Microsoft Windows platform. ...

Users switching from Internet Explorer sometimes experience that some websites do not render correctly in Mozilla. Almost always the said website causes this perceived problem by using non-standards-compliant Internet Explorer specific code or ActiveX applets on their site.

Market adoption and project end

Statistics reference: Usage share of web browsers

From 1998 to 2004, the global usage share of Mozilla grew from a negligible amount to about 3%. Its users mainly consist of former Netscape users that don't want the addition of AOL features and technology savvy users who want to keep track of the latest Gecko development. A rough estimation of usage share of layout engines/web browsers The article aims to be an unbiased historial record for the usage share of web browsers (but ideally layout engines, as it is what matters), based on statistics and articles published by well-known websites. ...

However, because of the Foundation's plan to switch development focus to standalone applications such as Firefox and Thunderbird, many new features and enhancements are available only to the standalone applications. This, combined with the community marketing effort named "Spread Firefox", has been drawing more and more users away from Mozilla since late 2004 when Firefox 1.0 was released. Also, since there will be no more official releases of the Mozilla Suite beyond version 1.7.13, it is expected to be made obsolete by other browsers and lose further share. As of 2006, Mozilla Suite usage share is under 1% and falling. SeaMonkey, a community-driven internet suite that is based on the same source code, is being pursued by those that appreciated Mozilla's feature set. Spread Firefox, often abbreviated as SFX, is a community of tens of thousands of Mozilla Firefox enthusiasts whose goal is to spread Firefox as far and wide as possible. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mozilla Application Suite. ...

References

• Mozilla Foundation (April 2, 2003). Mozilla Development Roadmap. Retrieved June 11, 2005.
• Mozilla Foundation (March 10, 2005). Mozilla Application Suite - Transition Plan. Retrieved March 10, 2005.

April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Netscape Communicator
• Netscape
• SeaMonkey
• List of web browsers
• List of news clients
• List of HTML editors
• List of IRC clients
• Comparison of web browsers
• Comparison of e-mail clients
• Comparison of HTML editors
• Comparison of IRC clients
• List of Firefox extensions -- Many Firefox extensions are Mozilla Application Suite compatible.
• List of Unix programs

Netscape Communicator was a proprietary Internet suite produced by Netscape Communications Corporation. ... Netscape was a proprietary cross-platform Internet suite created by Netscape Communications Corporation and then in-house by AOL to continue the Netscape series after Netscape 6. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mozilla Application Suite. ... The following is a list of web browsers. ... The following is a list of news clients. ... The following is a list of HTML editors with articles in Wikipedia. ... This is a list of IRC clients on various platforms: This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of e-mail client programs. ... An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. ... This is a comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients. ... Firefox extensions are software plugins that add new features to the Mozilla Firefox web browsers. ... This is a list of Unix programs. ...

External links

Wikinews has news related to:

category:Mozilla

• Mozilla Suite - The All-in-One Internet Application Suite