Mozilla.org today released the latest milestone of the Mozilla Suite and platform, 1.8 Alpha 1. This release is the first step towards a new milestone plan, outlined below. New in this release is a basic FTP upload UI, better Linux mouse support, and a number of other features. A more complete change log is also available. Builds are starting to become available on the FTP servers currently.
Mozilla 1.8 Alpha 1 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Seems a bit strange that they’d release a 1.8 version before 1.7 was out the door. Anyone know a release date for 1.7 ?
Hmm interesting to release 1.8 Alpha 1 before 1.7 Release gets out the door.
Until 10 minutes ago I was using Firefox & Thunderbird on Mac OS X, but the new Mozilla ist _much_ faster (on startup and opening or closing tabs and windows).
Simply Great!
Its odd they would release 1.8a when they just released 1.7 RC2 a few days ago. That won’t stop me from trying it tho
I’m I the only one who thinks the Mozilla development speed has broken loose in terms of speed? Compare this to the 0.97 days.
Well, I’m not complaining, I only hope it doesn’t go like 1.8, 1.9, 1.99, 1.999, 1.99999 if you know what I mean. Can’t wait for 2.0 to get separate GRE.
“Intellimouse Explorer Backwards and Forwards buttons are now supported on Linux.” anything that well i well have to do in xfree-4 files for geting this ?
I really wish they would concentrate a bit more on Chatzilla… an IRC client with huge potential, and they don’t even add it to the quick launch in the Windows taskbar.
I sadly await simple DCC commands to arrive… Ah well, I can but hope.
I really feel that Chatzilla is being very left behind the rest of the project.
i am using 1.7rc2. its really strange they have released 1.8a before 1.7 final however i think this might be according to new milestone plan,
anyways does anybody know what are the enhancement for windows?? cause under the hood 1.7 is great improvment than 1.6 however they haven’t mentioned anything about 1.8a. anyone have idea????
Damn! I haven’t test 1.7yet. 🙂
I say piss on Chatzilla. I mean, how many IRC clients are there out there? Like 2 million? Do we really need another one?
Opera is making this mistake by concentrating more on their IRC program than their browser
Personally, Im supprised chatzilla is still part of the Mozilla suite at all, when it really should be an extension. Its already an extension for Firefox, so why not do the same for Mozilla?
“Its already an extension for Firefox, so why not do the same for Mozilla?”
Because you have zero clue how browsers are coded? Just stick with Firefox if you want extensions.
@Darius: Amen to that. We have XChat, Irssi, Epic/Lice, BitchX, AmIRC. When it comes to Mozilla, lets stick to browser & mailer.
Chatzilla looks ugly on Linux.
Granted, there are many IRC clients, but still, Chatzilla is part of Mozilla, and I like the option of bundled apps in one application so I only need install one app and I get all I need…( yea, yea, I know, call me lazy or whatever, i don’t care
)… but the fact that Mozilla now support ftp up and download, also insinuates Mozilla is now a full blown FTP client as well, it really is looking to be an all-in-one Internet suite…. and as I said, I like Chatzilla, and know a number of IRC people who use it…. so your free to prefer BitchX, mIRC, or whatever you like, but please don’t start an IRC client war, we really don’t need that 
A lot of things could be plugins. But the problem is that people doesn’t seam to know of their existence. An example of this is the excelent mozilla calendar that almost nobody uses.
So instead of removing chatzilla, add the calendar by default.
That way we would have fewer people that install MS-Outlook, meaning that we would reduce the risk of virus spread. The existance of a widely used cross platform calendaring application would probably accelerate the adaptation of the free desktop.
But I consider FTP as part of browsin’ experience. You can find meany links that starts with ftp:// so it’s good to have decent FTP support in browser. IRC, OTOH, is nowhere near to be consider as a part of web. 🙂
But I like IRC more than IM. 😀
>But I consider FTP as part of browsin’ experience. You can >find meany links that starts with ftp:// so it’s good to have >decent FTP support in browser.
Ok, you make a very valid point there… Maybe there will be an irc:// sometime soon (after all, we do have a telnet:// )
It feels faster than Firefox. Nice job Mozilla team.
Any have any insights on when or if mozilla will suport XForms?
-best
-greg
anyone else but me who sometimes gets text corruption (only slightly) in mozilla and firefox? This seems to occur when the browser window is partially redrawn (e.g. when moving other windows over the browser window or scrolling the latter).
You can already find irc:// links. If every web browser had a bare bones irc client like chatzilla, then maybe some websites wouldn’t put up those stupid java applets which go to there irc channel.
Please stop saying crap like “OMG do we really need another (insert kindof software here)”. First of all its not your decision unless you actually contributing. Second, variety in software is one thing that keeps worms and viruses from effecting linux systems.
Does the linux version now use the Backspace key to go back in the history like the Windows version? I always found it annoying, switching from my windows box to my linux box.
That way we would have fewer people that install MS-Outlook, meaning that we would reduce the risk of virus spread.
I don’t think Outlook is any more of a virus magnet than any other email program, since the newer viruses are using their own SMTP engines and scanning the hard drive for email addresses (which also makes Linux worms possible.) Plus, newer and patched versions of Outlook have been locked down tighter than a vice grip
Personally, I don’t really mind if other apps are included with the browser, so long as they are modular and don’t start up everytime the browser starts – that’s just wasted resources for those of us that prefer dedicated apps instead of half-ass bundled ones.
For people wondering about the “new milestone plan, outlined below”, the whole article is taken directly from mozillazine.org. You’ll find the milestone article there as well.
Frankly, I’ve got to wonder at the ethics of simply cutting and pasting a story from another news site, especially when it’s as visibly botched as this.
Outlook locked down? ROFL. Come on man… I am not a major advocate for any one OS or app in a particular field, but this comment is hilarious. Also, the way in the vast majority of common worms operate, they would not function on a Linux box. This is not to say that Linux worms are impossible, your comment just seemed to imply that the same worms floating around these days also put Linux in danger.
–Ab
According to here:
http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/release-status.html
1.7 rc3 is due out today 2004-5-21
and
1.7 final is due in one week 2004-5-28
“I don’t think Outlook is any more of a virus magnet than any other email program, since the newer viruses are using their own SMTP engines and scanning the hard drive for email addresses (which also makes Linux worms possible.)”
Pray tell how you get an email program on Linux to install a smtp engine and give it executable rights without the user manually having to do it.
Most other email programs on windows do not autoexecute attachments.
There is another gaping hole in Outlook (both): they use IE’s rendering library, so they are vulnerable to the (unnumerable) unpatched holes in Internet Explorer. That’s how worm, viruses and malicious spam trackers work nowadays.
Bye, Renato
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20618
One would think that they’d get up their behinds to solve a bug reported by 249 users!
But no. Let’s add more features and to hell withusability.
Also, the way in the vast majority of common worms operate, they would not function on a Linux box. This is not to say that Linux worms are impossible, your comment just seemed to imply that the same worms floating around these days also put Linux in danger.
I’m saying that if you can get someone to execute a worm in Linux, as long as the SMTP engine is built inside the executable and if any files in the user’s /home directory has email addresses in them, why wouldn’t it work?
Pray tell how you get an email program on Linux to install a smtp engine and give it executable rights without the user manually having to do it.
If you promise the average Joe Sixpack nude pics of Britney of Christina, he’ll recompile the kernel if he has to
Most other email programs on windows do not autoexecute attachments.
I don’t even think newer versions of Outlook will allow you to even view attachments, much less autoexecute them.
There is another gaping hole in Outlook (both): they use IE’s rendering library, so they are vulnerable to the (unnumerable) unpatched holes in Internet Explorer.
True, but newest versions of Both Outlook & Express allow you to turn off the rendering, so they becomes as secure (or insecure) as any other Windows mail program.
Much better speed compared to 1.7.
More probably 1.10, 1.11, 1.12… will come after 1.9.
— “Because you have zero clue how browsers are coded? Just stick with Firefox if you want extensions.”
No need to be an asshole, especially while revelling in your own ignorance. Im sure that your overgeneralized reply was your attempt to say that Mozilla doesn’t have extensions. Well it does. The Mozilla suit doesn’t have the same nice extensions framework that Firefox has, but there are many extensions for Mozilla.
Heres some:
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/main.php/Mozilla
Please try to avoid such ridiculously childish displays in the future. Thanks!
You can turn off IE rendering in Outlook… good, but it’s an ugly workaround. You lose functionality and you get nothing in return.
In thunderbird and mozilla I get the html rendering AND I get the offsite image blocking, and so on.
Bye, Renato
— “A lot of things could be plugins. But the problem is that people doesn’t seam to know of their existence. An example of this is the excelent mozilla calendar that almost nobody uses.
So instead of removing chatzilla, add the calendar by default.”
Its ironic you should say that. Although I didn’t add it to my comment, I was thinking as I posted it that they should remove chatzilla and put in the calander app in its place!
Its deffinatly excellent, and more deserving of a place in the default install then chatzilla IMO.
You can turn off IE rendering in Outlook… good, but it’s an ugly workaround. You lose functionality and you get nothing in return.
Not necessarily – Outlook 2003 allows you to turn the stuff on and off just like Mozilla/Thunderbird does.
I mean, I’m not saying that Outlook is better (I actually prefer Thunderbird), but newer versions of Outlook aren’t exactly the security nightmare of old, and I think that saying that most mail viruses are specifically tied to Outlook leaves people using non-Outlook email programs on Windows with a false sense of security. In other words, if you were to launch these newer mail viruses with something like Thunderbird, you’d be just as screwed as if you had did it with Outlook.
I suppose if the Linux user had WINE and the worm happened to only use things that WINE was capable handling, then maybe… But the code itself… it’s not written to work on Linux.
-Ab
anyone else but me who sometimes gets text corruption (only slightly) in mozilla and firefox? This seems to occur when the browser window is partially redrawn (e.g. when moving other windows over the browser window or scrolling the latter).
Yes, you can fix it by changing the display resolution (in font settings) to 96dpi. Dont know why that would make a difference, but it fixed the problem here (atleast in firefox)
I have the same problem. But only with Linux (SuSE 8.2), I’ve never seen it on W2K. I wonder if it has something to do with SuSE or with XFree86/toolkit/etc. in general.
Good to hear the news about Outlook 2003… kinda ironic though that you need to shell undreds of EUR just to get a semi-decent mail client that’s just now copying stuff from his open and free counterparts.
And btw, I’ve seen Outlook2003 yesterday for the first time… OMG it’s absolutely UGLY! I really can’t imagine using it more than 30 seconds in a row, let alone work with it…
Okay, okay, my spelling sucks… I’m in ssh with links, so don’t be too picky! 🙂
Bye, Renato
I suppose if the Linux user had WINE and the worm happened to only use things that WINE was capable handling, then maybe… But the code itself… it’s not written to work on Linux
Sorry, I didn’t mean that the same worms would work in Linux. I’m just saying that a similarly-written worm could conceptually work.
Good to hear the news about Outlook 2003… kinda ironic though that you need to shell undreds of EUR just to get a semi-decent mail client that’s just now copying stuff from his open and free counterparts.
You’re right in the aspect of the HTML-rendering options. But when it comes to the PIM stuff and overall general conception, I’d say Evolution is a blatant rip-off of Outlook. Besides, unless Evolution is available for Windows already, I don’t know of another open source email app that has calendars, tasks, etc.
And btw, I’ve seen Outlook2003 yesterday for the first time… OMG it’s absolutely UGLY! I really can’t imagine using it more than 30 seconds in a row, let alone work with it…
Agreed. I don’t care for it either.
It might just be me, but it sounds like you’re saying that since these worms don’t operate easily on Linux, that’s a bad thing for Linux, heh.
–Ab
That’s funny
In your XF86Config-4 you should have something like this:
Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “ExplorerPS/2”
Option “Buttons” “7”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection
Pray tell how you get an email program on Linux to install a smtp engine and give it executable rights without the user manually having to do it.
Most other email programs on windows do not autoexecute attachments.
Actually, you do not need to install any software to propagate a worm. It could utilize an already running program e.g. trough some buffer overflow in that program.
The problem with outlook is probably not that it sends virus e-mails. As Darius point out the viruses/worms are capable of doing that themselves, but rather that it makes it too simple to by mistake run executable content of questionable nature sent to you.
But viruses or no viruses it would still be nice to have a cross platform internet package, containg web browsing, mail and calendaring.
Not all softwareplatforms is flodded with IRC clients …. some people might use severel softwareplatforms – whoose only common point is Mozilla.
>And btw, I’ve seen Outlook2003 yesterday for the first
>time… OMG it’s absolutely UGLY! I really can’t imagine
>using it more than 30 seconds in a row, let alone work
>with it…
Agreed. I don’t care for it either.
I have to use it at work, and I agree, but I must say that Outlook 2004 (which I use at home) is much improved, probably the only thing in Office 2004 that easily shows improvement for the end-user (and OneNote, which just didn’t exist before).
Just the basics:
-layout of email views is better, with a full-page style preview-pane and a number of options for organizing email without having to move things around all the time (should also note that the preview pane itself just has a significantly better appearance asthetically speaking)
-when setting default preview options to text-only, one click restores HTML view, another click will download images in the email (both clicks being in a region at the top of the email, the same as restoring line-breaks if Outlook clobbers them)
-junk email filter works much better (well, anything would be better than before, but it’s like night and day), especially at medium or high sensitivity after a few days of actively marking anything it misses as junk.
I really don’t mess with most of the other stuff in Outlook (though my wife does, mostly with scheduling synched with the PocketPC, and the address book), I’ve simply found it easiest for me to deal with when I’m using multiple email addresses, and it handles some web-mail as well (ie Hotmail support). Then again, I haven’t tried another Windows email application in a few years simply because Outlook’s done fairly well for me.
“really don’t mess with most of the other stuff in Outlook (though my wife does, mostly with scheduling synched with the PocketPC, and the address book), I’ve simply found it easiest for me to deal with when I’m using multiple email addresses, and it handles some web-mail as well (ie Hotmail support). Then again, I haven’t tried another Windows email application in a few years simply because Outlook’s done fairly well for me.”
give thunderbird a try.its pretty good compared to outlook
first off, thunderbird != outlook, as outlook is a groupware app, and thunderbird is a mail client. evolution would be closer…
outlook 2k4 is vastly improved in many ways, not the least of which is stopping the auto-execution of attachments. the big problem is still the holes in ie, combined with the preview pane and html rendoring both being enabled by default. i would never use an app with hooks that deep into the os on the web, unless i really trusted it. i dont trust ie.
there are about a billion irc clients for every platform ever conceived by man.
irc and ftp are both internet protocols. the web is another way of talking about the hyperlinked connected http servers. just wanted to make that small correction, neither ftp or the irc is part of the web 😉
as for worms/virii on linux, its not a lack of email engines, its the fact that user activity is more tightly restricted then windows. on a normal *nix system, a normal user doesnt have the ability to trash the system, no matter what he does. so a virus comes in, it cant trash the system either. unfortunately, this tends to turn off the brains of many people in regards to securing their linux boxes, just like you would never in a million years run windows connected to the net without a firewall and anti-virus software running, you should never have a linux box connected to the net without first making sure all your permissions are set up right, your software is up to date with the latest security patches, and you have decent iptables rules set up. the difference between windows and linux in this regard isnt that linux is bulletproof and windows isnt, its that it takes a hell of alot to get into a linux box thats competently administered, and significantly less to get into a windows box thats competently administered.
last but not least, many people out there like suites when it comes to software. what you may like to try is just best of breed working in tandem. find the best browser you can, best email client you can, best irc client you can, and best ftp client you can, then try and get them working together. you may be suprised at the result 😉
@raskolnikov
“…anyone else but me who sometimes gets text corruption (only slightly) in mozilla and firefox?”
If you can duplicate the steps or provide information that may lead some to duplicate the issue you should report it in Bugzilla:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
How about a newsreader that can decode multipart MIME messages for, … uh …. stuff.
I have to use it at work, and I agree, but I must say that Outlook 2004 (which I use at home) is much improved, probably the only thing in Office 2004 that easily shows improvement for the end-user (and OneNote, which just didn’t exist before).
And just how did you get your hands on Office 2004 when Office 2003 (and Outlook 2003) are the latest versions?
BTW, I’ve seen and used Outlook (and office) 2000, XP and 2003, there is not much difference between any of them visually other than some polish between each version.
I think he means Office 2004 for the Mac.
Yep. One line of text in the lower portion of the screen gets “scrunched” (vertically compressed). I’ve seen it for a few years in multiple releases on a variety of monitors and video cards.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that the same worms would work in Linux. I’m just saying that a similarly-written worm could conceptually work.”
True that, but how well it would work would depend on the underlying installed libraries. Suse, Redhat, Debian, Gentoo, etc will all have differing libraries installed. Some versions may not even had the library installed at all, depending on which libraries the virus would call though. I doubt such a beast would spread too far due to this reason.
“But when it comes to the PIM stuff and overall general conception, I’d say Evolution is a blatant rip-off of Outlook.”
And I have yet to understand why the designers of Evolution made this so, but then I prefer the Kmail interface myself.
“Actually, you do not need to install any software to propagate a worm. It could utilize an already running program e.g. trough some buffer overflow in that program.”
Easily solved on Gentoo at least. Compile the entire system with the -fstack-protector CFLAG.