Indistinguishable from Jesse

What's the difference between Firefox and Mozilla?

Mozilla (Application Suite, also known as SeaMonkey) is a complete suite of Internet applications, including a web browser, a mail/news client, and a chat client. Firefox is just a browser, which makes it a better choice if you already have a mail client for example. Also, since Firefox is smaller than the whole Mozilla suite, it's faster and easier to use.

Note, though, that Firefox is not just the standalone Mozilla browser. The user interface in Firefox differs from Mozilla in many ways. For example, Firefox has customizable toolbars.

[This question and answer are mostly from David Tenser's Firefox FAQ.]

What do I gain by switching from Mozilla to Firefox?

• Speed. Firefox is much faster than Mozilla.
• Customizable toolbars.
• It's easier to browse with multiple windows and multiple tabs. Shift+click opens a link in a new window and Ctrl+click opens it in a new tab.
• Middle-click autoscroll.
• Form autocomplete.
• Extensions and themes. It's easier to develop extensions and themes for Firefox, so there are more available.
• Update notification.

Will Firefox import my Mozilla settings?

Firefox will offer to import your Mozilla passwords, cookies, and options the first time you run it. You can also use File > Import to import them at any time.

What happened to option XYZ?

The option you want to change might still exist in about:config, or there might be an extension that adds it.

Will Firefox integrate with my default mail client like Mozilla integrated with Mozilla Mail?

You can still press Ctrl+M to open your mail client to compose a new message. The Ctrl+2 shortcut to open your mail client is gone; use your operating system to make a global shortcut instead. You can add a toolbar button to open your mail client using Customize Toolbars. The "Send Link" command still exists, but the "Send Page" command is gone (bug 216168).

If you use Mozilla Mail as your mail client, I recommend that you switch to Thunderbird after you switch to Firefox. Firefox can't integrate well with Mozilla Mail because Mozilla Mail assumes you use Mozilla as your browser. If you use another mail cilent, such as Eudora, you don't have to switch to Thunderbird.

How do I create custom sidebars in Firefox?

To create a custom sidebar in Firefox, bookmark the URL you want to use as a sidebar, right-click the bookmark and select "Properties", and check "Load this bookmark in the sidebar".

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2004 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Mozilla. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.