Which one(s) should I choose, Firefox + Thunderbird or Mozilla Suite?

Hi Christer

Hopefully Ramona and Westfield will be along shortly to give you a better, more informed answer. But until then, I'll give you my own experience. It really boils down to what you find most comfortable. They both use the same rendering engine so there should not be a substantial difference in terms of speed. I've asked the question you are now asking many times... trying to figure out which was the better way to go. I still haven't quite worked it out in my mind since I'm not convinced anyone can predict which is a so-called dead-end. BUT... from everything I've read to this point it would APPEAR that FF/TB is the future or at least has a better chance of surviving than the Mozilla suite. Of course, now that AOL has revived Netscape and is playing with development of a Netscape 8 version, who can really say. However, FF/TB will develop independent of AOL since it is "out there" ... open source.

For my part.. I've never quite let Netscape go so I tend to hang on to it. I have FF/TB and I use them. You can run both, you know... and you can install and use both the Mozilla suite and FF/TB without any problems since they don't share a common directory. Why not try them both and see which you prefer? My wife prefers FF/TB and refuses to try either the Mozilla suite or the Netscape browser 7.2. She's very happy with her choice.

I'm sure that if you try them both you'll get a feel for which is best for you. As I said earlier... hopefully Ramona, Westside and some of the others will give you a more informed answer.

Regards,
James (aka: leushino)

 

Excellent advice from James. There are little idiosyncrasies between Mozilla and FF/TB and only can be experienced by trying both. Any advice would be subjective and after all what floats your boat is what's important.

 

Since the original question was Mozilla(1.7.5) vs. FF+TB1.0, I can say this:
Mozilla has the same components as Netscape (it is its daddy!), which include Composer for webpages and IRC as IM. If you use the features then you are better off with the Suite. If not the individual components are fine.
I have both Mozilla1.7.5 and the individual components, and Mozilla and Firefox are based on the same rv.1.7.5.
As the final question, I dunno.
Most likely the suite will continue, but it is no reason for that, other than nostalgia.

 

Christer,

Glad to see you hanging out with the Gecko folks! Do try the Mozilla 1.7.5 suite, and Firefox, then Thunderbird for a second Mail client. Both Mozilla and Firefox are excellent browsers, with Firefox being the one to expedite pages faster than Mozilla. No problem running these applications side by side...

As for dead end, I would say that is unlikely at the present for any of the three applications. This excerpt from the Mozilla Roadmap:

what all this does not mean

In the same vein of clarifying by counter-example, here is a list of more things that we are not proposing:

* We are not retiring the SeaMonkey application suite, or its XPFE front end, in the foreseeable future. Several companies have shipped and will ship products based on this venerable component of the application suite, and on the entire suite. Many organizations deploy it or a derivative of it, such as Netscape 7.x. We intend to keep supporting these deployments in at least a conservative, sustaining engineering fashion. However, we still intend to focus on evolving Mozilla toward the more flexible application architecture pioneered by Firefox and Thunderbird. That's where our innovative engineering effort should go.
---

Ramona

 

Christer,

Here is today's MozillaZine headline, concerning the Mozilla Roadmap:

Thursday February 3rd, 2005
Mozilla 1.8 Roadmap Updates

Following on from the recent Mozilla Firefox Roadmap update, the main Mozilla Development Roadmap has also been revised. The big news is that there will be a second Mozilla 1.8 Beta release in March.

Ramona

 

Christer,

Don't try to take it all in at once. Just give the applications a try, and see if you like them enough to make one or the other your default browser. You will begin to gain knowledge as you use the applications. It's a good idea to read the Release notes of the applications before installing them.

To answer your questions:

- is it possible for the two email clients to share the same user folders (email storage location)?

Yes. You can point the Mozilla Mail Account to the Thunderbird Mail Account, or the other way around, if you like. This is done in the Preferences settings.

- is it possible to share the same address book?

No, unfortunately that's the one component that can't be shared.

- is it possible for the two browsers to share the same bookmarks folder?

Yes, you can move the Bookmarks to another location on the HD, and point both Firefox and Mozilla to the location. Or you can select which Bookmark File you wish to use in the Bookmarks Manager.

- is it possible to install the applications to C: and move those folders to D: like I did for IE and OE? (It makes sense when creating backup images of the system partition to have all user data on a different partition.)

I don't have a partitioned HD, but I believe that if you install either Firefox or Mozilla on a partition/drive, other than C:/root directory, the Profile Data will remain on C:, as that is the default location, unless you manually move that Profile. Hopefully, someone with a partitioned drive may either confirm, or correct me... That's not what you asked, but perhaps you will get a more knowledgeable answer.



Let us know if you have further questions.

Ramona

 

By default, Mozilla and Firefox will be installed on your [C:/ Drive in "C:/Program Files/Mozilla.org/mozilla " for Mozilla Suite, and "C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox " for Firefox. Your profile will also, by default on Windows 2000 and XP, be stored on the C:/ drive in "C:\Documents and Settings\[Log-in Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\ " for Mozilla and "C:\Documents and Settings\[Log-in Name]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox " for Firefox. To change the program location, you must do a custom installation. Changing the profile location can be done by accessing the Profile Manager for both Mozilla and Firefox by opening ".../mozilla.exe" -p for Mozilla Suite, and ".../firefox.exe" -p. Then create a new profile and click the "Choose Folder" button to choose where you want to have the new profile located.

 

Christer,
Ramona is very correct in what you can do and not do....
I feel your pain....

I recently switched to XP HOME from 98se.....
So far no unexpected problems - mostly operator error.
I have PROGRAMS installed on partitioned drive and data on c:\
with c:\data backed up to partitioned drive.....

Regardless of where you store the profile data, you will still have crucial information stored on the c:\ drive....

Two key files are on c:\ by default.
They are:
For Mozilla and NS - the registry.dat file
stored at:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Mozilla\registry.dat
and for FF - profiles.ini
stored at:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\profiles.ini
These files tell Moz and/or FF where to look for the profile data.

IMHO it is a good idea to keep data separate from programs - how ever you choose to do it. I can not stress to much the need to BACKUP your data to a location (preferably another partition or media) from the original data.
When backing up - be sure to get the two files mentioned above.

HTH

regards:captjlddavis

 

"That seems to be what I'm looking for. I would create folders on D: to move the profile to e.g. D:\Mozilla, D:\Firefox or D:\Thunderbird "

Don't move! I am pretty positive that there must be a default folder, in the default location in the C drive. But, it is up to you try. Any subsequent folder can be placed anywhere.
Please, don't make a mess, trying to simplify.

 

Christer,

When you change a setting in your Preferences, add a Bookmark, or an address to the Address Book, a new cookie, adding a password, etc., then a change is made in that session in your "salted" folder which contains all the above data. You won't be able to consider your Profile data "static ". It will change frequently. I use Ghost also, with Iomega Backup, and backup my Firefox and Thunderbird folders daily.

A few more links:
Firefox FAQ
Firefox /Thunderbird CD & Guidebook
Firefox 1.0 Release Notes
Firefox Options Windows
Firefox Tips & Tricks

Thunderbird FAQ
Thunderbird Help
Thunderbird 1.0 Release Notes
Importing Outlook Express

Let me know if you want more information links...

Ramona

EDITED 2/7/05 to change *.slt to "salted ".

 

Yes Christer, Tbird can do that. Just go to Tools/AccountSettings/Server Settings. Check the box that says "Leave messages on server. "

Best wishes with T-bird. I've loved it for a while now, although the last week, I have slowly become addicted to Gmail. We'll see which indulgence wins out.

 

Once they got your name, you will be getting spam. Fortunately my ISP is applying very efficient spam control to any of its own accounts. My primary address was getting up to 100 spams/day. Then I stopped using it, as suggested by my ISP. I have yet to get any at any of my other three address. But last spring Cox started with Spam controls, and I went back to resurrect my primary account. With the server-side controls and the Netscape or Mozilla Junk Controls or filters, I may get one or two, which, promptly end up in the Junk folder. Right now, I started getting Junk at two addresses which I have with other servers. Between 1-5/ day. Very tolerable.

 

Yeah I've come to do something similar. I have icqmail and hotmail email accounts for the spammable situations, and my ISP and google for businesses that I know can be trusted. Hotmail still gets about 5 a week, but that's b/c I was foolish enough to put my hotmail username on their forums. Live and learn.

 

'Scuse me if I'm wrong (as I frequently am ), but I don't think Firefox has used .slt as part of the profile name for several months.

To check, I just uninstalled FF from my laptop computer, moved my profile to a protected location, and removed every reference to FF from the registry. Then, using the 11-15-04 (FF 1.0) executable installation file, I reinstalled FF, using only the default settings ...*.slt appears nowhere.

And, you're right ... the profile isn't static, although the primary changes in mine occur in the bookmarks.html and cookies.txt files. The profiles.ini file, in C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox won't change as long as profiles aren't added, deleted, or changed.