“The SeaMonkey Council announces a new developer release, SeaMonkey 1.0 Beta. Compared to the Alpha version released in September, SeaMonkey 1.0 Beta enhances the product with new features like tab drag and drop, but also is the first release branded with the new SeaMonkey logo, which was unveiled earlier this month. While much of the core code is shared with the popular Firefox 1.5 browser, SeaMonkey comes with the the look and feel familiar to users of its ancestors, the Mozilla Application Suite and Netscape Communicator packages.”
Start Firefox with all your extensions turned off. Open several pages and close them. Open seamonkey, open a few pages and close all but the last again. Check your memory . On my box it shows Firefox consuming 156MB, while seamonkey consumes 132MB. I think this is important to keep in mind since someone will almost certainly complain about bloat here without defining bloat. Where’s the bloat now?
I have been working since 7:30 AM, it’s now 11:40 AM and I have three tabs opened on my Firefox 1.5 and only 90 megs have been used.
Where did you get 156Mb from?, Firefox 1.5 is currently on while typing this is using 44.3Mb
On linux Firefox and seamonkey use much more memory.
Start Firefox with all your extensions turned off. Open several pages and close them. Open seamonkey, open a few pages and close all but the last again. Check your memory . On my box it shows Firefox consuming 156MB, while seamonkey consumes 132MB. I think this is important to keep in mind since someone will almost certainly complain about bloat here without defining bloat. Where’s the bloat now?
Which one is faster ?
Which one is faster ?
That’s fine and dandy assuming all you’re doing is browsing the web, but if you have other things happening in the background (compiling, music player, im client, word processor, etc), memory usage can really matter.
Which one is faster ?
I actually use both every day and seamonkey *is* faster. And it’s always been that way. Maybe it’s just with me, but it’s been completely consistent. Java is slow on seamonkey, I don’t know about firefox because I don’t use java with it.
Seamonkey’s default theme is dead ugly but all you have to do is download the Mostly Crystal theme and icons from Catthief.
As extensions go, I haven’t had any problems so far. Wait, adblock didnt go well with seamonkey’s first alphas, but it seems to be ok now.
–bleyz
seamonkey is faster also. I tried loading several pages in seamonkey and Firefox 1.5 and seamonkey loaded them faster. This is interesting: faster, less memory requirements, more advanced options — Seamonkey. More marketing spin, simpler UI, Googling backing, extensions gives you Firefox.
Seamonkey still sucks and Firefox is a superior browsing experience. Sure, they both use the gecko rendering engine and are both based off of the netscape codebase, but which is better?
I can find an extension for firefox to do anything, I can’t say the same about Seamonkey. I do agree that Firefox (even 1.5) has a memory leak somewhere or 3 and needs to be profiled better. Overall, firefox (or epiphany) is the better browser.
Funny, i prefer the old mozilla suite exactly because i dont need to mess around with extensions, while i in firefox need extensions to get some of the features present in mozilla back.
The only program i use where i have actually bothered looking for extensions is world of warcraft, which i find is a big bother too, especially since they keep breaking whenever the game is patched, but the interface just annoyed me too much.
Your opinion appears to be solely based on extensions. If that is how you judge a product then; k-melon, konqueror and the rest must also suck because they lack extensions. I think your rational is flawed.
The moz suite has enough built in tools (for most people). I actually have only 2 extensions installed; that is all that I need.
Seamonkey still sucks and Firefox is a superior browsing experience.
The fact of the matter is…
Firefox Leaks memory, Mozilla suite does not.
Firefox is less stable than classic Mozilla suite.
Firefox is slower than classic Mozilla suite.
Firefox is just a browser, Mozilla suite is much more.
I find Seamonkey, Mozilla, Firefox about equivalent in speed (linux… comparing Mozilla builds, not my distro’s). I love Firefox’s default behavior of opening new tabs in background, and it’s RSS live bookmarks.
But firefox’s mailto: still unrecognised, I’ve encountered many pages that render properly in Mozilla but not in Firefox, Firefox slows down the longer my sessions (memory leak?), and it becomes impossibly slow if I load -any- extensions (no I’ve not tried them all).
Seamonkey shows promise, but I’m reluctant to direct-compare it to Mozilla since it’s still beta.
Opera is fastest of all, but not as reliable as Mozilla (it’s default of opening pages in tabs conflicts with some sites design) and I don’t like it’s chat, rss, or mail.
If I could have only one browser at this moment, Mozilla would get the job. Different story on windows platform though,… a no-brainer: Firefox rules!
Seamonkey still sucks and Firefox is a superior browsing experience I’m not so certain about that statement as being accurate. I have used both and they perform well for browsing. The Seamonkey suite actually has more advanced preferences in the GUI for power users. The incorporation of the extension system will happen eventually. If you are going to say something is superior you need to define what makes it superior to pose a good argument.
let me define
for firefox:
* marketing
* budget
* short name
* packaged already for most os bundles
* the reason why mozilla browser (teh old one) has to be killed..
against seamonkey
* longer name
* senseless logo
* this warning: Warning! This is a testing-only version of SeaMonkey http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/
* not really supported by mozilla foundation (ak. knight rider foundatino)
and more to come..
None of these points actually say anything about the real performance of Firefox or seamonkey. Use something because it has better marketing? Are you certain you are at the right site. This is about open source software. If you want excellent marketing spin perhaps stick with Windows Vista and Explorer
This is the end of Firefox.
Keep on dreamin…
Firefox is what most average joe users need. I mean why would they need an IRC chat program or an email program. All this is done through online services such Gmail, MSN, Yahoo chat. IMHO it was abig mistake that Netscape moved from a single browser to a whole suite.
Firefox is what most average joe users need
No thanks, I don’t need Firefox. Opera is better.
Compared to Firefox, I agree. Opera is a lot faster to load and much more efficient browser. Very fast. But its integrated E-mail is horrible.
This IS a test release! Lets at least treat it as such and not compare it to firefox yet. I dont think they released Seamonkey as a means to compete with Firefox.
And think about it, its kind if an interesting idea, packing all these things into one, for a power user, or a geek, or just a heavy computer user, this could be a nice program to promote that “one program for each task” philosophy.
But Im wondering if the memory that someone earlier showed to be used less by seamonkey, i wonder if that is just because it is graphically at an alpha stage and missing some features yet, and this bloat will get higher.
but we should all, really, just wait and see, as this is alpha, something good could very well come of this, no need to shrug it off so quickly!
The extension system used by Firefox actually adds memory requirements to the browser. Programmatically Firefox is more complex than Seamonkey managing extensions, customizeable UI, etc. Seamonkey doesn’t have these systems yet and so it simpler, eating up less memory. Most Firefox users don’t realize that a good deal of memory bloat can be caused by using poorly designed extensions with memory leaks. Each one you add can add to the bloat and potential bugs in Firefox.
firefox has backing from *cough* google *cough* seamonkey does not. Firefox has backing from the mozilla foundation, seamonkey does not.
Do I need to say anything else?
The SeaMonkey council choose the worst icon and design out of the whole lot. I don’t have any faith in them resolving SeaMonkey’s major issues in the future. It’ll still be an incoherent and ugly bloated app for years to come.
why so negative? Seamonkey is completely useable in it’s current form. I see it only getting better. Some users that don’t want to bother with extensions it actually gives them more benefit than running Firefox.
It’s ironic to see Firefox users say other browser is bloated… Ironic in a sad way.
Over here, Netscape 7.1 Compact starts faster than Firefox, and still has more features than SeaMonkey (with Mnenhy and Mouse gestures and so on).
The only thing nitpick I have with Netscape 7.1 is that it doesn’t have Internet Explorer’s/Firefox’s middle-button autoscroller.
Otherwise, Netscape 7.1 Compact is very solid. Oh, yeah, plus it has 6 tabs open since yesterday, and it’s using 30MB RAM.
Plus, it’s so responsive. Firefox will sometimes get its interface stuck a few seconds before I can click on something from the toolbar.
So, in my own scale, the best at the top:
1) Netscape 7.1 Compact
2) Opera 8.5
3) OffByOne
4) Internet Explorer
5) NetPositive
6) Dillo (though very unstable)
7) Konqueror
8) SeaMonkey
9) Firefox
By the way, if it isn’t obvious by now, performance and responsiveness (balanced with features) is my priority.
I don’t care if Firefox is backed by Google, Mozilla, or the Queen of England.
Thanks,
-pp
Excellent reply. Finally someone with common sense solutions. It was funny to see people list marketing and backing by Google as a reason to use a browser. funny stuff indeed.
I wonder why no one has yet commented about the previous logo of a hippo on a boat.
For most of your everyday browsing, it doesn’t really matter which browser you use.
Most of the major NON IE browsers render pages nearly identically to IE, so except for the sites that specifcally block non-ie browsers, it doesn’t really all that much.
I realize there are standards issues, and the nightmare of having to code for different browsers, and I understand that as a developer, but, the end users for the most part couldn’t care less.
So it really comes down to personal preferences as to what features you like, what interface you like, how the tabs work, how much time you want to spend downloading extensions, and how bad of a resource hog you want.
The more choices the better.
I guess the logo was selected by a little and restricted group of devs. I even think the logo was designed by a programmer in Paint or Gimp. It’s plain ugly, just like the rest of the application BTW.
Netscape Navigator and Netscape Suite
Firefox Browser and Seamonkey Suite
I can understand why developers were bored and didnt want to maintain stable Mozilla and created Firefox instead but a stable Mozilla platform was important.
If you are using more than one gecko app like Mail, Calendar, Composer/Editor or IRC it makes sense to use the suite and not have mulitple copies of gecko engine running. Maybe Firefox will find a better way to share gecko with Thunderbird but for now Mozilla Seamonkey makes sense. Mozilla Seamonkey has all I need, so much no messing with extensions.
Look at this screenshot I took comparing memory usage of Firefox, Opera and Konqueror.
http://suseux.commscentral.net:8000/browsers-memory.png
I don’t see any mention of calendar application in the project areas, is this integrated in Seamonkey? Later version?
I believe we’re forgetting that the reason SeaMonkey exsists is that Mozilla.org decided to abandon the Mozilla Project, in whole, to devote resouces mainly for Firefox and Thinderbird.
Some folks didn’t like this decision. They didn’t want the Mozilla Suite riding into the history pages and decided to do something about it. Someone contacted Mozilla.org and now the Mozilla Suite will continue forward as a community-based project.
While there may have a few hiccups, it’s not any show-stopper. This is a new group and they’re moving forward with SeaMonkey. I was quite impressed with their Alpha, and look forward to testing this new Beta.
The Mozilla Suite has always been my preference of browsers. I like the way it functions and I like the results. Mozilla/Netscape sees hardly any crashes when compared to IE.
Lastly, having another browser or browser suite simply provides another avenue of choice to the users which is extremely important to myself and many others, I’m sure.
Edited 2005-12-22 03:33