Mozilla

See also: Web browsers | Gecko | Mozilla Firefox

Icon: ico-moz-m.gif

Home Page: http://www.mozilla.org

A fast, free, and feature-rich web browser designed for standards-compliance, performance and portability, available for a wide variety of operating systems including Linux, Macintosh, UNIX and Windows. Mozilla is a platform that is easy to develop applications for. As a stand-alone browser for surfing, this program is developing faster than any other browser. Mozilla is open-source so anyone is free to look at or change its internal code.

Mozilla recently won best web browser by PC World. The browser of choice for most UNIX-like desktops as well as a growing number of Windows and Macintosh users, it features a suite of browser tools including:

Contents

Features

Developer/technical features

TD123 Recommended Extensions

Popular and useful Extensions(previously plugins <– improper term)

  • AdBlock – for faster web surfing with dynamic advertisement blocking.
  • Webdeveloper plugin – Great tools for HTML, Javascript, design, and other development.
  • IE View – Allowing Windows users to dynamically switch between browsers.

More: Mozilla Extensions

Install:

Netscape and Mozilla

Although no longer being developed, Netscape Navigator version 6 and above are based on Mozilla and Netscape employees helped with Mozilla development. Netscape’s version adds a variety of its own AOL/Time Warner-owned features including Real Media Player, AIM/ICQ, and others (all of which can be downloaded separately).
Netscape still benefits from a more seamless interface with some popular Internet plugins but Mozilla is more bug-free. Also, Mozilla’s Quicktime and Flash use is just as good as other browsers.

Who should use Mozilla?

Windows users:
Should be used in addition to Internet Explorer. Although robust, feature-rich, and very stable, Mozilla is not yet a replacement since some websites are displayed differently as IE has the vast majority (90+%) of browsers. For the rare Web site that requires Internet Explorer, a plugin is available (IEView) Mozilla/Netscape 6+ have a growing user base that major Internet sites are updating for and there are many things Mozilla can do that IE cannot. Mozilla adheres to open standards created by the community, while Microsoft Internet Explorer is decided by people in a board room. While Microsoft is no longer doing anything with IE, Mozilla continues to grow and improve with new plugins and features coming out almost weekly.
Macintosh users:
Switch to Mozilla as Internet Explorer is no longer being developed for Macintosh systems. Apple‘s own browser offering, Safari, is way behind on features and is not cross-platform; Safari is developed for only one system and has fewer interested developers.
Note: One review on ArsTechnica preferred Safari for its speed vs Mozilla and stability vs Camino.
UNIX users:
For graphical Web browsers, little competition is available besides the small and speedy Konqueror on most UNIX systems. Mozilla is cross-platform and easy to port to new flavors of Linux and BSD.
Download for UNIX and other systems. Some less-common UNIX systems may need to scroll down to find their distribution.

Get Involved

Mozilla is not owned by anyone and is developed by the community for the community, similar to Linux. While some of its contributors are corporate, it is not a commercial project. If you would like to help, visit Mozilla’s “get involved” page — you do not have to be a developer to make Mozilla do things you want it to do.
See also: Getting Involved in Open-Source
Our very informal infoAnarchy Mozilla Wishlist and Issues page.

What’s a “Mozilla?”

The term “Mozilla” may have come from a play on the first graphical Web browser: Mosaic. Mo and Godzilla added together were the original name before it was renamed to “Netscape Navigator.” Mozilla was still the code name for the browser for most technical purposes including browser self-identification. Godzilla is a registered trademark of TOHO Co. Ltd. but the term “zilla” suffix is probably not unique.

Related browsers

See: Gecko

Links

Mozilla news

  • MozillaZine – The center of the Mozilla community: news, forums, weblogs and more.

Articles

  • MozillaFoundation.org was announced – with a much smoother, user-oriented Web site. Unfortunately, it has followed with the layoff of 50 developers who worked on Mozilla at Netscape and, instead, giving $2 million over two years to the organization. (more)
Quote: the new features in Mozilla 1.4, which was released on www.mozilla.org this week, to be remarkable improvements that enhance what was already the best browser option out there.

Mozilla Sites

Related Wikis

Bug Reporting:


TakeDown.NET -> “Mozilla