SeaMonkey is a
free and open sourceFree and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
cross-platformIn computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
Internet suiteAn Internet suite is an Internet-related software suite. Internet suites usually include a web browser, e-mail client , download manager, HTML editor, and an IRC client....
. It is the continuation of the former
Mozilla Application SuiteThe Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...
, based on the same source code. Core Mozilla project source code is licensed under a disjunctive tri-license that gives the choice of one of the three following sets of licensing terms:
Mozilla Public LicenseThe Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...
, version 1.1 or later,
GNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, version 2.0 or later,
GNU Lesser General Public LicenseThe GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
, version 2.1 or later.
The development of SeaMonkey is community-driven, in contrast to the Mozilla Application Suite, which until its last released version (1.7.13) was governed by the
Mozilla FoundationThe Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that exists to support and provide leadership for the open source Mozilla project. The organization sets the policies that govern development, operates key infrastructure and controls trademarks and other intellectual property...
. The new project-leading group is the
SeaMonkey Council.
Components
SeaMonkey consists of a
web browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
(SeaMonkey Navigator), which is a descendant of the
NetscapeNetscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
family, an
e-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and
news clientA newsreader is an application program that reads articles on Usenet . Newsreaders act as clients which connect to a news server, via the Network News Transfer Protocol , to download articles and post new articles...
program (SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups, which shares code with
Mozilla ThunderbirdMozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
), an
HTML editorAn HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
(SeaMonkey Composer) and an
IRCInternet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
client (
ChatZillaChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting....
). The software suite supports skins. It comes with two skins in the default installation, Modern and Classic.
Mail
Mail features includes support for multiple accounts,
junk mailSpam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
detection, message filters, HTML message support, a dictionary, an address book, customizable labels , add-ons and mail views as well as integration with the rest of suite.
Composer
SeaMonkey Composer is a
WYSIWYGWYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
HTML editorAn HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related...
. Its main user interface features four tabs: Normal (WYSIWYG), HTML tags, HTML code, and browser preview. The generated code is
HTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
4.01 Transitional. As of version 1.1.13, SeaMonkey Composer supports basic text formatting and styling, insertion of
hyperlinkIn computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s and images, and the creation of tables. It does not support the addition of form elements (text fields, check boxes, and buttons). SeaMonkey Composer is scheduled to be updated with the release of
KompoZerKompoZer is an open source WYSIWYG HTML editor based on a rewritten version of the now-discontinued Nvu editor. KompoZer is maintained as a community-driven fork and is a project on Sourceforge....
0.8 which is currently under development.
Portability
The SeaMonkey project releases official builds for three
operating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s:
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
,
LinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, and
Mac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. It also releases "unofficial" 64-bit builds for Linux. Unofficial ports exist for
FreeBSDFreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
,
OpenBSDOpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
,
NetBSDNetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
,
IRIXIRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
,
OS/2OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
,
SolarisSolaris is a Unix operating system originally developed by Sun Microsystems. It superseded their earlier SunOS in 1993. Oracle Solaris, as it is now known, has been owned by Oracle Corporation since Oracle's acquisition of Sun in January 2010....
, AIX and
BeOSBeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
/magnussoft ZETA.
Reception
A
PC WorldPC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
review by Dennis O'Reilly described Seamonkey version 1.0 as easy to use, except for ChatZilla. The reviewer found the program buggy and gave it 3.5 stars out of 5.
A Softpedia review thought the software suite version 1.0 was both easy to use and feature packed. Nistor rated the program 4 out of 5 stars. CNet users rated it 4/5 as of the 2.0.14 release.
Naming
To avoid confusing organizations that still want to use the original Mozilla Suite, the new product needed a new name. After initial speculation by members of the community, a July 2, 2005 announcement confirmed that SeaMonkey would officially become the name of the Internet suite superseding the Mozilla Suite.
"Seamonkey" was formerly used (but with lowercase m) by Netscape and the Mozilla Foundation as a
code nameA code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
for the never-released "Netscape Communicator 5" and later the Mozilla Suite itself. Originally, the name derived from needing a nicer word instead of ButtMonkey winning a contest for it and chosen with reference to brine shrimp. The SeaMonkey Council has now
trademarkA trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
ed the name with help from the Mozilla Foundation. The project uses a separate numbering scheme, with the first release being called SeaMonkey 1.0. Despite having a different name and version number, SeaMonkey 1.0 is based on the same code as Mozilla 1.8.
Due to trademark and copyright reasons
DebianDebian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
rebranded SeaMonkey and distributes it as Iceape.
History
On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation announced that it would not release any official versions of Mozilla Application Suite beyond 1.7.x, since it had now focused on the standalone applications
FirefoxMozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
and
ThunderbirdMozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. The project strategy is modeled after Mozilla Firefox, a project aimed at creating a web browser...
. However, the Foundation emphasized that it would still provide infrastructure for community members who wished to continue development. In effect, this meant that the suite would still continue to be developed, but now by the SeaMonkey Council instead of the Mozilla Foundation.
The
SeaMonkey Council, which is the team responsible for project and release management, currently consists of Philip Chee, Karsten Düsterloh, Robert Kaiser, Ian Neal, Neil Rashbrook, Andrew Schultz and Justin Wood.
The first version of SeaMonkey, 1.0 Alpha, was released on September 15, 2005, followed by SeaMonkey 1.0 stable released on January 30, 2006.
Release history
Parts of this table are based on the SeaMonkey
release notes, the
roadmap and the
meeting notes.
| Gecko Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
Branch |
Version |
Release date |
Significant changes |
| 1.8 |
1.0 Alpha |
September 15, 2005 |
|
| 1.0 Beta |
December 19, 2005 |
|
| 1.8.0 |
1.0 |
January 30, 2006 |
Official Version 1.0 release. |
| 1.0.1 |
April 13, 2006 |
Security updates and native support for Intel-based Macintosh computers, via Universal Binary. |
| 1.0.2 |
June 1, 2006 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.3 |
July 27, 2006 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.4 |
August 2, 2006 |
Small fix for a regression with the Microsoft Media Server Microsoft Media Server is the name of Microsoft's proprietary network streaming protocol used to transfer unicast data in Windows Media Services . MMS can be transported via UDP or TCP...
protocol in 1.0.3. |
| 1.0.5 |
September 14, 2006 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.6 |
November 8, 2006 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.7 |
December 20, 2006 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.8 |
February 27, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.0.9 |
May 30, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. Marks the end of life for SeaMonkey 1.0.x series. |
| 1.8.1 |
1.1 Alpha |
August 30, 2006 |
Major feature work |
| 1.1 Beta |
November 8, 2006 |
| 1.1 |
January 18, 2007 |
Official Version 1.1 release. |
| 1.1.1 |
February 28, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.2 |
May 30, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.3 |
July 19, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.4 |
August 3, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.5 |
October 19, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.6 |
November 5, 2007 |
Several small problems in displaying certain web pages corrected |
| 1.1.7 |
November 30, 2007 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. Problem with running SeaMonkey from read-only application directories corrected. |
| 1.1.8 |
February 7, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.9 |
March 25, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.10 |
July 2, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.11 |
July 15, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.12 |
September 23, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.13 |
November 12, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.14 |
December 16, 2008 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.15 |
March 18, 2009 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.16 |
April 8, 2009 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.17 |
June 22, 2009 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.18 |
September 3, 2009 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.1.19 |
March 16, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. End-of-life of 1.1.x product line. |
| 1.9.1 |
2.0 Alpha 1 |
October 5, 2008 |
Toolkit transition and major feature work |
| 2.0 Alpha 2 |
December 10, 2008 |
Toolkit transition and major feature work |
| 2.0 Alpha 3 |
March 3, 2009 |
Toolkit transition and major feature work |
| 2.0 Beta 1 |
July 21, 2009 |
Follows Gecko Gecko is a free and open source layout engine used in many applications developed by Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation , as well as in many other open source software projects....
1.9.1.1 stable release, major feature work |
| 2.0 Beta 2 |
September 12, 2009 |
major feature work |
| 2.0 RC 1 |
October 10, 2009 |
first release candidate |
| 2.0 RC 2 |
October 19, 2009 |
second release candidate |
| 2.0 |
October 27, 2009 |
Official Version 2.0 release. |
| 2.0.1 |
December 15, 2009 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.2 |
January 11, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.3 |
February 17, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.4 |
March 30, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.5 |
June 22, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.6 |
July 20, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.7 |
September 7, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.8 |
September 15, 2010 |
Stability improvements only. |
| 2.0.9 |
October 20, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.10 |
October 28, 2010 |
Security fix. |
| 2.0.11 |
December 9, 2010 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.12 |
March 2, 2011 |
Security fix. |
| 2.0.13 |
March 23, 2011 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 2.0.14 |
April 28, 2011 |
Stability improvement and security fixes. |
| 1.9.3 |
2.1 Alpha 1 |
May 18, 2010 |
feature work |
| 2.1 Alpha 2 |
July 7, 2010 |
new addons manager, feature work |
| 2.0 |
2.1 Alpha 3 |
August 24, 2010 |
Third alpha release |
| 2.1 Beta 1 |
October 20, 2010 |
First beta release |
| 2.1 Beta 2 |
February 14, 2011 |
Second beta release |
| 2.1 Beta 3 |
April 7, 2011 |
Third beta release |
| 2.1 RC 1 |
May 12, 2011 |
First release candidate |
| 2.1 RC 2 |
June 6, 2011 |
Second release candidate |
| 2.1 |
June 10, 2011 |
Official Version 2.1 release. |
| 5.0 |
2.2 Beta 1 |
June 22, 2011 |
First beta release |
| 2.2 Beta 2 |
June 28, 2011 |
Second beta release |
| 2.2 Beta 3 |
July 2, 2011 |
Third beta release |
| 2.2 |
July 7, 2011 |
Official Version 2.2 release. |
| 6.0 |
2.3 Beta 1 |
July 25, 2011 |
First beta release |
| 2.3 Beta 2 |
July 31, 2011 |
Second beta release |
| 2.3 Beta 3 |
August 6, 2011 |
Third beta release |
| 2.3 |
August 16, 2011 |
Official Version 2.3 release. |
| 2.3.1 |
August 23, 2011 |
Official Version 2.3.1 release. Added a security certificate in order to avoid disabling future automatic software updates. |
| 2.3.2 |
August 31, 2011http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/ |
Official Version 2.3.2 release. Removed root certificate for Diginotar. Many downloads erroneously identify themselves as version 2.3.1. |
| 2.3.3 |
September 6, 2011http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/ |
Official Version 2.3.3 release. Removed trust exceptions for certificates issued by Staat der NederlandenThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Fixed an error with .gov.uk domains. |
| 7.0 |
2.4 Beta 1 |
September 6/7, 2011 |
First beta release |
| 2.4 Beta 2 |
September 12, 2011 |
Second beta release |
| 2.4 Beta 3 |
September 18, 2011 |
Third beta release |
| 2.4 |
September 27, 2011 |
Official Version 2.4 release. |
| 2.4.1 |
September 29, 2011 |
Official Version 2.4.1 release. |
| 8.0 |
2.5 Beta 1 |
September 30, 2011 |
First beta release |
| 2.5 Beta 2 |
October 7, 2011 |
Second beta release |
| 2.5 Beta 3 |
October 14, 2011 |
Third beta release |
| 2.5 Beta 4 |
November 9, 2011 |
Fourth beta release |
| 2.5 |
November 22, 2011 |
Official Version 2.5 release. |
External links