What is SeaMonkey and why is it in Puppy

[GustavoYz]

I'm surprised to read that SeaMonkey crash...
I use No Script add-on on the SeaMonkey2.0.6 (Quickpet) on LuPu501, and sometimes the page don't download complete, but this is a desired behavior (actually that is the main reason to use this add-on).
No Script, running under the mentioned conditions, never make SeaMonkey crash on this PC ...
Repeat, I'm surprised...

[L18L]

thank you, gcmartin, for this thread.
There is always something to learn (not only for newbees)

Rename it as something you understand such as addblock.xpi, and save it to your hard drive. To install, just drag and drop the file into an open seamonkey window. Bingo. This way, you can build a collection of add-ons for future installs.

thank you, DaveS

[gcmartin]

I very much appreciate the post here to use the download feature for SeaMonkey add-ons.

Reason: I run/support LANs that have multiple machines on it. Using this approach, I have made a "central" library that I download the SeaMonkey add-ons into. Now, I just send notices out to everyone to drag and drop from the central library to their SeaMonkeys. Cuts down on the WAN traffic when that add-ons are local on the LAN.

Even though this can be useful for any product that uses add-ons, it is useful, here, for SM.

Again, thanks fot this suggestion!
P.S. Here's a list of someone else's Must-Have Add-on favorites

[gcmartin]

Current versions of SeaMonkey can be found here...

[DaveS]

Seamonkey 2.1 Alpha 3
I have been using Seamonkey 2.1 alpha 3 for a week or so now. No crashes, no bugs. In fact, it seems faster, renders better, and now can use Personas like Firefox. Bookmarks can also be shared with Firefox.
I have been using it in Lucid 5.1.1. If you want to give it a try, proceed as follows:
Download the .tar.bz2 file from here http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/2.1a3
Click on the file, and xarchive will load. Use this to extract the program, just follow the onscreen prompts. It will extract into a folder called seamonkey.
What you do next will depend on which browser you have downloaded previously in Lucid. A safe option is to move the seamonkey directory in to /root/ When you have done that, open the directory and click on the seamonkey file. Seamonkey 2.1 alpha should load just fine.
Naturally, that is NOT what I did. I had Seamonkey 2.0.5 installed as my default browser. It was installed in /usr/lib/seamonkey2
I just went in like a nutcase, deleted all the files in /usr/lib/seamonkey2, and put all the files from the seamonkey alfa directory in there instead. It all worked just fine, including the menu entry
If you want to try that but want to be more cautious, rename /usr/lib/seamonkey2 to seamonkeyold or somesuch, create a NEW /usr/lib/seamonkey2, and drop the alpha files in there. That way, you can always reverse the process.

Check out personas here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/personas/

[James C]

Excellent how-to.

Just upgraded my Wary install to SeaMonkey 2.1 Alpha 3........it does seem faster.
Being able to use Personas is nice too.......

[gcmartin]

Seems that there is a Nightly site with a Pre-Beta

[DaveS]

Seems that there is a Nightly site with a Pre-Beta

Been running the pre beta all day.. no problems. Seatab X has already been updated to work with 2.1x. Its a 'must have'
http://www.tom-cat.com/mozilla/extensions.html near bottom of page.

[mjaksen]

I've been using various Puppies since 2.xx and have religiously replaced Seamonkey with various Operas or Firefoxen. I liked Opera because I used it in Win98 and XP, it had vertical tabs, and it had everything I ever wanted. And when Opera inexplicably became buggy with 10.xx, I ventured into Firefox country to get swept up in its never ending misma of unneccesary (and sometimes conflicting) addons.

With Quirky, I immediately dismissed any thoughts of my once beloved Opera. All the 10.xx are buggy under Quirky and Flash 10. Youtube is unusable, and working with > 10 tabs caused constant crashes. So I rolled out Firefox 3.6x to find that I needed 5 addons to make it behave like a proper browser (Opera-like <smile>). It also crashed when I viewed on > 4 Youtube pages or > 15 tabs.

Finally, as a last resort and cursing Barry all the way, I dealt with the Monkey. The thing about Seamonkey is that it's ugly, and mildly inconvenient. Yes it's robust. Yes it's reliable. Yes I could view lots of Youtube pages and > 20 tabs with not one crash. But it's so damn ugly.

And so we come to the problem with Seamonkey. Seamonkey is a victim of user apathy. It has no active community creating cool themes. It has no hoards of developers writing addons. It has a clunky interface of dialog boxes (!!!) that is vaguely embarrassing. SM2 has 5 good themes. Firefox has thousands. Opera has world class management of Search Engines. SM2 feels like 1980 all over again. Firefox has thousands of (sometimes) useful addons. SM2 has 10.

There is no excuse for this complete neglect of a truly amazing product. I ignored this great browser for 5 years because no one supports it! Even now (as I write), I've turned off every toolbar but the always visible (horizontal, grr) tab bar and now only use shortcut keys to do everything. I have enormous screen real estate, I have a super fast surfing experience, and I DO NOT CRASH.

Yes it is ugly. Yes it is clunky. Yes it reminds me of Ronald Reagan. But the thing works.

[gcmartin]

"Ugly girls make good wives ...", so said my Dad to my cousin.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here's, Howto build webpages using SeaMonkey without installing anything

Also, as far as I have been using Seamonkey, I use ALL of the Firefox add-ons with it. Simple Preference change. Haven't run into difficulties (probably because I don't need a lot).

Enjoy the Ugly girl. She's a great woman ,too.

[gcmartin]

I've been running the SeaMonkey Beta with no problems. For some "unknown" reason, I have found that the Beta on QuickSet with 3 Seamonkey windows open and about 30 tabs, the CPU utilization is way-way down from other releases. I am now in the 6-8% area with a download going and a youtube video. (But, my surfing is still as fast as ever, too...probably pre-fetching or something)

Maybe a fluke, huh?

[Shep]

The thing about Seamonkey is that it's ugly, and mildly inconvenient. Yes it's robust. Yes it's reliable.

My past experience precluded any association of the word "reliable" with Seamonkey. I got sick of it crashing and could not have been happier since moving to Firefox. So I'm pleased to hear you report that Seamokey is now much improved. (Firefox is by no means perfect. Far from it!)

I did briefly try Seamonkey 6 months ago, and was dismayed to rediscover (time and time and time again!) that the designers in their wisdom placed Seamonkey's close current tab button right where Firefox users are habituated to finding the open new tab button.

Please tell me that these clowns have seen the error of their ways, and standardised the layouts! Please!

Imagine a rental van where the foot pedals are the reverse of those on your own! It was chaotic.

[DaveS]

I did briefly try Seamonkey 6 months ago, and was dismayed to rediscover (time and time and time again!) that the designers in their wisdom placed Seamonkey's close current tab button right where Firefox users are habituated to finding the open new tab button.

I agree.... stupid beyond belief. Fix it with the tiny Seatab X extension from here http://www.tom-cat.com/mozilla/extensions.html

[Shep]

I agree.... stupid beyond belief. Fix it with the tiny Seatab X extension from here http://www.tom-cat.com/mozilla/extensions.html

Ah! Necessity is the mother of invention.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'd better make a note here so that it gets included in my trail of postings so I can find it when/if I need it.

[yarddog]

I noticed recently in Seamonkey 2.0.8 that it auto upgraded to Seamonkey 2.0.9 and after Seamonkey 2.0.10 came out, my Seamonkey 2.0.9 auto upgraded to Seamonkey 2.0.10.
This is a neat feature since it saves downloading the full version each time a new one is released

yarddog

[Newcrest]

I did briefly try Seamonkey 6 months ago, and was dismayed to rediscover (time and time and time again!) that the designers in their wisdom placed Seamonkey's close current tab button right where Firefox users are habituated to finding the open new tab button.

Given that Seamonkey has the older pedigree, shouldn't it be the Firefox designers that you should be blaming?

Ctrl+w closes the current tab and I find it quicker than searching for a little x on the screen.

[thelash]

I started on mozilla 1.4 way back in my win98 days, after an ie5 hijack borked my whole system. Appreciated the all in one setup, but was annoyed (on my slow PI box) with the slow opening/closing times - especially as the little mozilla icon loaded/unloaded from the system tray. So I migrated to firefox(or whatever it was called then)/thunderbird as soon as I could and got used to them.
Since seeing the light (ie migrating to first linux, and then puppy), I've added firefox and tbird to my os where I could. I play with the seamonkeys in each version of puppy I have, but firefox has become a personal preference. My main setup now is lucid 5.1.1 with firefox 3.6.12 and thunder bird 3.1 in a frugal install. Since stumbling on this post, I've installed the lucid seamonkey2 pet, and upgraded to seamonkey2.1bpre - At last! - able to use personas and get away from that clunky win95 look that ordinary themes aren't able to. At last! - seamonkey mail works with my gmail (I use pop3 not imap for various reasons). And mail is simple and works more like tbird 2 without the clunky 2 steps forward/3 steps back mashup that is tbird 3. And all the media plugins etc seem to work well too.
And it's smooth and fast.
I'm not a real power user, don't write websites so haven't used composer, and it seems to me that my acceptance of seamonkey rises in proportion to the way it works like firefox. I may stick with this seamonkey for a while because it works well and is smaller than the combined ff/tbird.
For me it's just a personal preference thing, may be different for others.

[DaveS]

This speedial topic has had a little activity latey if anyone is interested http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 412#464412

[Béèm]

I did briefly try Seamonkey 6 months ago, and was dismayed to rediscover (time and time and time again!) that the designers in their wisdom placed Seamonkey's close current tab button right where Firefox users are habituated to finding the open new tab button.

As Newcrest points out it are the FireFox developers who made the bad step.
Whenever I am in FireFox, my tabs get closed being to close that close X
In my eyes a bad design.

[Shep]

I did briefly try Seamonkey 6 months ago, and was dismayed to rediscover (time and time and time again!) that the designers in their wisdom placed Seamonkey's close current tab button right where Firefox users are habituated to finding the open new tab button.

As Newcrest points out it are the FireFox developers who made the bad step.
Whenever I am in FireFox, my tabs get closed being to close that close X
In my eyes a bad design.

Yes, it should be a double click to close a tab.