[thelist] mozilla questions

Saila, Craig csaila at globeandmail.ca
Wed Aug 13 15:17:04 CDT 2003


Chris W. Parker wrote:
> 1. What's the difference between Mozilla "regular" and Mozilla
> Firebird? I gather Firebird is just a slim version of the "regular"

Essentially, the regular Mozilla is a suite of applications (browser,
mail, editor, etc). Firebird is just the Mozilla Suite's browser (minus
a lot of the Web development features). Both use the same rendering
engine. 

There are a host of technical differences in how the two are built and
relate to other applications (Firebird can be easily customized by
installing "extensions"), and Firebird's UI is designed to be more
friendly for mainstream users.
 
> 2. If they ARE different browsers why maintain two different browsers

The Mozilla Suite is being abandoned, and is instead being broken into
smaller components. The idea is it allows more customization, and lets
people pick and choose what they want. For example, at work, I have to
use Outlook, so I really only need the browser component. 

At some point, when the Mozilla Suite is deemed stable, Firebird will
become the Mozilla Browser, Thunderbird will be Mozilla Mail, etc. 

For more details on all of this, read the latest roadmap:
<http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap.html>

A nice summary is here:
<http://www.mozillazine.org/articles/article3042.html>
(phoenix = firebird)
And debate on the whole idea:
<http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3042>


Right now, IMHO, if you want a polished browser pre-configured for Web
development, download Mozilla. If you want a fast, customizable browser
that displays pages like Mozilla, and are willing to put up with a beta
application, grab Firebird.

-- 
Cheers,

Craig Saila
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craig at saila.com : http://www.saila.com/
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