Mozilla Milestone 1.0: the Review

by Kurt "Kurt" Mackey and Aeirould

Mail and Chatzilla - excursus

This article is primarily concerned with Gecko, but we'd be remiss not to at least mention our impressions of these two add-ons. Mozilla is packaged with both a mail/newsgroup client and an IRC client. The Mail client is most definitely not ready for prime time, while the IRC client serves its purpose well for the novice user. Aside from the same non-compliance issues that Navigator exhibits, Mail has a host of functionality problems. For example, it includes an almost useless Local Folders account (which you cannot remove) that apparently is meant to be able to be a central repository for drafts/sent mail for your various accounts. The problem is, it does not remember which account a message came from. Each individual account you create will have its own versions of the same folders in Local Folders. A host of rather serious problems that are present in 1.0 have been fixed in 1.1 alpha, so if you are interested in using the Mail application, you would wise to upgrade ASAP. However, even with 1.1, the Mail client just feels unfinished.

Chatzilla, the IRC client, is a much better, if rather simple program. It does not have all of the features of a full-fledged standalone IRC client, but as a simple IRC chat program it achieves something the rest of the package misses out on � it�s transparent. You can chat away and never even notice the program you�re using to do it. Unlike Navigator or Mail, it doesn�t try to be all things to all people � it�s an IRC chat program, no more and no less. The only real problem is that it does not support file transfers. For that reason, it will probably never replace your current IRC client, but you will probably find yourself using it from its convenient location on the Window menu when you just want to pop in for a chat.

The Bottom Line

Overall, this package rates 7 out of 10, but we should be fair and rate the two major parts separately. Gecko is a solid 9 (and we would rate IE's renderer an 8, for comparison). Aside from the few aforementioned problems, Gecko's standards compliance and its ability to handle less-than-compliant pages well is laudable. The problem is Navigator and the add-ons. Navigator is certainly usable, and admittedly it does have some interesting bells and whistles, but its non-standard, inflexible interface drags its rating down to a 6. Mail seems to be an afterthought, although Chatzilla is quite usable (even if limited in scope). In deciding to rate the overall product, we were left with three options: break the Ars standard and give it a 7.5, or choose 7 or 8. Since we like round numbers, we chose to go with 7 because, let's face it, Navigator is how you use Gecko.

If you currently use IE, you won't lose too much apart from the professional polish by switching over to Mozilla. You will encounter bugs and will have more trouble installing plugins than with IE. Unless the ability to override pop-ups or a browser's look appeals to you (skinability), there is no feature compelling enough to prompt a switch from IE 6, aside from personal taste. Most web pages out there are developed to deal with the known browser incompatibility issues and will display themselves for you correctly in either IE 6 or Mozilla.

If you're dead set against a Microsoft solution, your two major choices are Opera and Mozilla. They're both great, and generally problem free, but Mozilla beats Opera in a few key areas. The interface is arguably nicer, the rendering engine provides better web standards support (especially when it comes to Javascript and the DOM) and it seems to handle current webpages slightly better. I suspect that many Opera fans will disagree, of course.

If you are a Netscape 4.x user, upgrade yesterday. Mozilla is much more stable, renders websites better, and does things quicker. Mozilla won't choke on random bits of HTML like older Netscape versions will, and it's capable of handling advanced features of web development that were previously unavailable to Netscape browsers.

If you are using a non-Windows computer, though, upgrading to Mozilla (or any other Gecko based browser) is a natural choice. Unlike Windows, no other operating system has a browser with the polish of IE 6. The feature-set and standards-compliance of Mozilla is definitely the best out there on non-Windows platforms.

The Mozilla project has been nothing less than a resounding success. The mozilla.org group has created a realistic alternative to IE for both today's web and 5 years from now's web. By creating viable competition for IE they've raised the bar and pushed other browser developers ahead. Is there any doubt that IE6 would be of a much lower quality had the Mozilla project not been looming over the Internet Explorer team? Overall, the Mozilla developers (both the Netscape employees and the outside help) did an incredible job overcoming hurdles and sticking to their stated goals.