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Mozilla M13
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Description: from mozilla.org,
"Mozilla is an open-source web
browser, designed for standards-compliance, performance and portability."
Platforms: Linux, Win32, MacOS 8.5, OpenVMS, FreeBSD
Linux Requirements: glibc >=2.1, gtk+ / glib >= 1.2, libIDL >= 6.3
author: /dev/null
Date: 2.1.00
License: NPL (Netscape Public License)
M13 is the alpha release of Mozilla's browser / e-mail client / newsreader / composer.
It is a testable version and not intended for everyday use. There are still plenty of
bugs that need to be eliminated before it's release sometime this spring.
Binaries are available (6.4MB in tar.gz format with Full Circle bugtracking)
for numerous platforms.
Adventurous souls can download the source tarball (20.9MB).
From the Mozilla FAQ:
What does Mozilla have that wasn't in Communicator 4?
Mozilla has (at least) the following new features:
XML support
A highly configurable appearance (courtesy of XUL)
publically available source code :)
HTTP compression
Exists on more platforms
Experimental ActiveX support (not in main tree, AFAIK)
MathML support
A significantly faster rendering engine
Better HTML support (CSS 1 and partial CSS 2, DOM 1 and partial DOM 2)
Plug-in JVM support
M13 allows the user to get a good feel for the general design and interface. I
tested it on a Pentium 133 (Red Hat 6.1, kernel 2.2) with 32MB memory and 64MB swap.
I found it to be sluggish (slower than Netscape), and would not recommended
trying it on anything less. When
Mozilla is first run there is a sidebar that takes up about 1/4 of the window. It
would be useful for users with screens with high resolution
and monitors larger than 15", providing quick access to
bookmarks and such. The sidebar can be easily removed by unchecking sidebar under the view menu.
The page rendering under Mozilla is far superior to that of Netscape- images and fonts are
much clearer and scrollling seems smoother.
Contrary to reports prematurely proclaiming Mozilla as a failure, it seems
to be coming along nicely and this user can't wait for a stable release. It is not a streamlined
browser and was never intended to be. The strength of Mozilla will be CSS1 and XML support, and
should allow users of both Microsoft and non-Microsoft operating systems a viable alternative to
Internet Explorer.
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