Mozilla

 

I thought I would try yet another browser, just to see what I was missing.

The browser this time…………. Mozilla.

You tend to hear this browser mentioned quite frequently on the net, so I wondered if it lived up to the hype.

The version I downloaded was version 1.1 . There are newer versions, but when I went to the Mozilla site  ( http://www.mozilla.org ), this was the one that was considered the most stable.

Not actively wishing to be a beta tester for it, I thought I’d use this and then decide if I wanted to upgrade to a newer version.

            The download isn’t that bad, and shouldn’t take you too long  . Installation is straight forward and a few minutes later, you can be using Mozilla.

As you can see, the browser displays as well as any other. It does suffer from the problem that all alternatives to Internet Explorer do……more and more sites are written specifically for I.E. …………..

However, it very seldom falls over.

Considering its closeness to Netscape, I was prepared to hate this browser, but over the weeks I have found myself using it more and more.

It is easy to use, while not the fastest at displaying (will anything ever beat Opera for raw speed?), it isn’t particularly sluggish either.

The display is usually good and formatting is preserved nicely.

It has lots of things to recommend it.

As you can see, it has a cookie manger. This is a very handy tool , if you desire to get rid of a specific cookie, or are just plain nosey to see what you’ve actually picked up on your travels.

This is something that I think should be used in all browsers and made as easy!

Of course, it also has a download manager. The download manger works well………..though not as well as Opera’s. For instance, when I downloaded the Open Office archive ( which was quite large, by narrowband standards), this failed to restart after after I had redialled, whereas Opera’s did.

However, it is still useful, although don’t rely on it to resume J

It has a form manager as well. Another useful little tool , which allows you to save and retrieve forms that you have come across.

I haven’t mentioned the Java console either, although this is more for techies.

The browser comes with Java as standard, so you don’t require to download anything extra.

Take a look at the Window menu shown, lets  have a very quick glance at the ones listed.

As with Opera, it comes with its own mail client and newsgroup reader.

IRC chat (alias Chatzilla)

Since I don’t use IRC in any form, I couldn’t tell you if this is any good, but I’d expect it to be up to the standard of the rest……which means it will work …..and probably well.

You even get composer, which can write some HTML for you and, of couse , check the validation of it.

Not bad for a free browser, is it.

I suppose I should give you a peek at the password manager……….

I’ve left the Warblade one in, just to show I do have one J

Be very careful of this, remember that if your browser is storing passwords for you, anyone else using the computer could get access to them!

This is where I should tell you that you can set profiles in Mozilla.

As I said, anyone using the browser could use the password manager, so if there’s that chance, you should really set up your own profile. This will set your email address, address book etc and prevent anyone else accessing it.

Another very useful part to Mozilla.

Another handy little tool is the image manager……..

 

You can use this to manage images or decide which sites you don’t want to load images from automatically. Something that could speed up your browsing considerably.

From all the grabs, you might think I was impressed by Mozilla……..and I am.

It is a relatively fast browser. It has loads of nice touches. It isn’t a finished product by any manner of means, but it does have enough for you to want to use it and keep on your drive. It is constantly being updated and improved………..and it isn’t Microsoft’s, so it does have quite a few things in its favour.

I haven’t even touched on the extensive help file for the browser which will tell you how to set the browser up, how to use the tabbed windows , email, composer and the like, but its all there. If that fails you, you can go straight to the Mozilla site and search there for an answer to a question as well as download the latest version.

Anyone who has used a browser before will get to grips with this quickly and customising the sidebar and look and feel of the browser is easy and painless.

It won’t really let you down badly and if you want a browser with all the addons as can be seen above, you’d better try it out!