Mozilla


Program Info

Fedora/GNOME menu

Internet > Web Browser

Mandrake/KDE menu

Internet > Web Browsers > Mozilla

Terminal command

mozilla

Program URL

http://www.mozilla.org


Let me tell you a tale of a little browser rendering engine that was developed by a big company, was abandoned by that company, and then rose to become even greater than that company. Let me tell you a tale about the Mozilla Web browser (see Figure 5.1). In the late 1990s, facing the rise of Internet Explorer in the browser wars, Netscape released its code as an open source software project. It created a team of developers, called the Mozilla Organization, to work on the project. Netscape was both supporting the open source software community and enlisting its help to move the Netscape browser forward. As time wore on, AOL bought Netscape, and the Mozilla Project was alternately embraced and abandoned. In 2003, all ties were severed between AOL's Netscape and Mozilla. Now the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization, leads the development and release of new versions of Mozilla and related software projects.

Figure 5.1. Mozilla running in Fedora.


Why bother to tell you any of this? Because it's funand because you might notice a marked similarity in Mozilla to Netscape. Most of the menus, some skins, and many features of the two browsers are the same. Mozilla has been breaking away along its own path in the past couple years, though, and is creating new software projects and adding new features to its browser.

Mozilla is the browser darling of the Linux world. The browser comes installed with both Fedora and Mandrake. Even Windows users are starting to switch to Mozilla and its other browser project, Firefox, because of security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Mozilla features a full suite of Internet applications, including the browser, a mail client, a newsgroup reader, a chat client, a Web page composer, and a blender. Okay, not a blender, but it would be nice if Mozilla could make a good daiquiri.

The Mozilla browser, still labeled as Navigator from its Netscape days, can feel a little heavy at times with all the features and other programs in the suite. The browser features tabbed browsing, a pop-up ad blocker, an image manager, theming options, and tools for managing cookies, passwords, and downloads. No wonder the browser can be slow to load on some computers.

The layout of Mozilla is similar to that of most browsers. You have a menu, a toolbar, an address bar, a bookmarks bar, a main content area, and the status bar. In the menus, you have access to all the tools and preferences that you will need. Here are a few of the more interesting menu items:

  • File > Edit Page Enables you to open the current page in Composer.

  • File > Work Offline Enables you to save content for offline viewing, a handy option for laptop computer users.

    UNDER THE HOOD

    THEME ME

    Mozilla has great support for themes, but the themes in Mozilla can get confusing. You can change or add themes by opening the Preferences dialog box, Edit > Preferences. In the Category sidebar,go to Appearance > Themes. The themes you have installed display in a list. To choose one, highlight it in the list and click OK. You can download new themes by clicking the Get New Themes link. Now, here is where things get confusing. Mozilla is under constant development, so the API for the program changes. This means that a theme that worked for one version will not necessarily work for another. Find out which version of Mozilla you are running by going to Help > About Mozilla. Then use the version key icons on the Mozilla themes site to make sure that you choose a theme that will work for your version of Mozilla.


  • Edit > Preferences Serves as the place to set up your home page and really configure Mozilla how you want it.

  • View > Text Zoom Changes the size text is displayed at, to make it easier to read for visually impaired users or for me when I am kicked back in my chair far away from the screen.

  • View > Apply Theme Gives quick access to installed themes to change the look of Mozilla.

  • Go > Shows your last few Web destinations in a list, for easy backtracking.

  • Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks Lets you organize, add, delete, import, and export bookmarks for the Bookmarks menu and for the Personal Toolbar Folder (the bookmarks bar).

  • Tools > ___ Manager Each of the different Manager items lets you control the saved content for a particular Web page.

  • Tools > Web Development > JavaScript Console Opens a window that can aid in finding errors in and developing JavaScripts.

  • Help > About Plug-ins Shows a display of currently installed multimedia plug-ins.

Looking down the rest of the Mozilla interface, you see the toolbar, bookmarks bar, main content area, and status bar. On the Mozilla toolbar, you find the buttons for controlling page navigation, Back, Forward, Reload, and Stop, but you also see the address bar and a Search button. With the search function, you can type search terms into the address bar and click Search to perform a search using your favorite search engine. The bookmarks bar has a Home button for returning to your browser home page and a listing of all the bookmarks in the Personal Toolbar menu in the Bookmarks menu. The main content area displays Web pages. The status bar tells you when something is loading and displays security information.

Using Mozilla is easy. Most computer users have used a Web browser. The extra features that the Mozilla development team has added to Mozilla, and the improvements that are added with each new release, mean that Mozilla is just going to get better and better. Each new software project from Mozilla supports Linux and takes advantage of new opportunities given by the desktop environments. New releases are frequent and allow for user feedback in between releases through its Bugzilla program (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/).

TOOL KIT 5.1

Get Your Essential Mozilla Preferences Set

I always set a few preferences options as soon as I open a newly installed version of Mozilla. When you spend enough time online, you start to get particular about the tools that you use. So, open the Preferences dialog box in Edit > Preferences to get started.

1.

Set Your home page: Navigator.

I am an odd duck who lives online, so I create my own home page full of links to supplement my bookmarks. You're probably not so weird, so choose a good starting place for you on the Internet, such as a search engine or portal site.

2.

Choose a search engine: Navigator > Internet Search.

The Search button on Mozilla's toolbar is a very nice feature, but it can be annoying if the search engine that the button uses is not set to your favorite search engine. The popular favorite right now is Google.com.

3.

Enable all tabbed browsing options: Navigator > Tabbed Browsing

I love to use tabbed browsing, so I always check all the boxes for tabbed browsing so I only ever need one browser window open.

4.

Decide your cookies preferences: Privacy & Security > Cookies

Cookies are a touchy subject in Web browsers. Advertisers and Web sites can use cookies to measure and report your Internet browsing habits for their own demographic information. Some people don't care about it. Some people think that it is spying and hate it. I've landed on both sides of that argument at different times. Decide how you feel, and choose the settings that you want.

5.

Make sure pop-ups are blocked: Privacy & Security > Popup Windows.

I'm not sure that there is anyone who doesn't hate pop-up ads on the Internet. Mozilla's built-in pop-up blocker works well. You can choose whether you want Mozilla to notify you when a pop-up ad is blocked. I like to be paranoid and double-check that this feature is enabled.

When you are done, be sure to click OK to apply your changes. Use Mozilla for a bit, and then open the Preferences dialog box again to explore the other options you can adjust to suit you.




Linux Desktop(c) Garage
Linux(R) Desktop Garage
ISBN: 0131494198
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 141

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