Review of SeaMonkey - Browser, Email, IRC, WYSIWYG Editor & What not!

SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet application suite. It is a browser, an email client, IRC and it can let you create static webpages too. SeaMonkey is part of Mozilla Foundation and although Mozilla’s main focus is on Firefox & Thunderbird but many volunteer’s are trying to make an all-in-one internet application based on Mozilla’s technology and that’s where SeaMonkey was born. Lets find out how good or bad it is…

PROS of SeaMonkey :

1. All in one application : The biggest feature about SeaMonkey is that it is an all in one internet application suite. It has got a browser, email client, IRC & WYSIWYG editor. So, the good thing is that you don’t have to run around for all these softwares as you can find all this in one application.

2. Based on GECKO : SeaMonkey’s browser is based on GECKO rendering engine (The one used by Firefox) and that means that any webpage, which is made for Firefox will work on SeaMonkey as well and that’s why applications like Gmail or Google reader work perfectly fine on SeaMonkey and it doesn’t have to struggle like Opera has to.

3. Not a memory hog : Seamonkey is not a memory hog and works perfectly well even with less memory. So, any computer which has got less memory doesn’t have to worry about wastage of memory, while running seamonkey.

4. Plugins & Extensions : Seamonkey has got various plugins and extensions and most of the plugins which are available for Firefox are also available for Seamonkey. So, if you are using an excuse that your favorite plugin will not work with seamonkey, then start to think on a better excuse.

5. Various required features : Seamonkey’s browser itself has got lots of features that it can become a bit hard to cover all the features in this single post. It has got inbuilt form manager, password manager & download manager. Chatzilla is the program which is used for IRC. Email client is also fully functional and supports both POP & IMAP. The email client can also detect junk email with the help of junk filters. Composer (i.e. the WYSIWYG editor or the HTML editor) is basic and can’t be compared with other advanced HTML editors but yes it can create very basic pages.

6. Easy to use interface : Even though, it is an all in one application and has got so many features but still the interface of SeaMonkey is simple and quite neat. It easily gives access to all the applications and features and one doesn’t have to worry much about making any changes in the application. The tabbed browser allows you to run various websites in one single window.

CONS of SeaMonkey :

1. Not focused by the developers : Although, SeaMonkey is a quite stable application (more stable than Firefox) but still it is not a focused project of Mozilla foundation. It is still a volunteer based project. It is one of the drawbacks of this software.

2. No Live Bookmarks : It doesn’t have an inbuilt RSS reader, however the extensions can fulfill that requirement.

3. No standard shortcuts : The problem with SeaMonkey is that it doesn’t follow the standard shortcuts which are followed by Internet Explorer and Firefox. Well, to be honest not all and over here I’m referring to just one single shortcut and that is the CTRL+ENTER shortcut, while typing a URL in the address bar (if you are not sure about this shortcut, then simply open Internet Explorer and type Yahoo in the address bar and then press CTRL+ENTER and see what happens)

4. Needs to be preloaded for faster startup : SeaMonkey needs to be preloaded at the startup of the computer for faster startup of the application. Although, it doesn’t take much memory but still for faster startup, I think it must not be preloaded and it should be quick enough to load fast on its own.

Overall View & Ratings :

SeaMonkey is great application as it can serve most of your Internet related tasks. It is nice on the computer memory and even though it is feature rich, the extra features don’t bother you much (too many features can trouble you sometimes). The application is quite stable and I believe that Mozilla foundation must focus in promotion of this software as well. I’m a big fan of Firefox but SeaMonkey is impressing me too much and I’m now using both and slowly shifting toward SeaMonkey. It is definitely worth a try and you won’t regret.

Links : SeaMonkey Homepage | SeaMonkey Extensions

Technorati : Browser, Email, IRC, Mozilla, ReviewSaurus, Seamonkey, WYSIWYG Editor