Switching from Netscape to Mozilla

As some of you know, I'm a long-time, loyal Netscape fan, to the point that I refuse to allow any traces of IE on my machine at all (I'm running Win95, so this is possible). However, lately my trusty Netscape 4.79 has started to crash more often, usually freezing up my computer (and/or causing a cascade of BSOD's) as it goes. At the same time, a friend of mine has begun to sing the praises of Mozilla. Maybe it's time for me to make the switch?

But here's my question: Will I be able to import all my email and newsgroup settings, bookmarks, address book, spam filters, subscribed newsgroups, etc., from Netscape to Mozilla? I have a lot of custom settings, and I'd hate to either lose them, or have to try to re-create all of them by hand.

Thanks in advance.

 

Ready to take a risk?

Hi ace,

Sorry to hear that Communicator is crashing, causing BSOD's, etc. As you are an experienced Netscape user, I'm certain you have tried all the obvious fixes.

As to switching to Mozilla0.9.9, I too have read that it is a much improved version. Mind, it is not a finished product. I ran it for a while, but did not make it my default browser, nor did I trust it with my Mail. I hope that some of our veteran Mozilla users will come forward and give you some solid information. I can only assume the following will work:

From the few help topics I could find:

http://www.gerbilbox.com/newzilla/mozilla/usingmoz01.php
Mozilla can be installed anywhere you want and does not share or overwrite any files of your existing copy of Communicator, so you can even run both at the same time. This is because Mozilla is a rewrite of Communicator, so there is nothing between the two of them to share or conflict.

You may have to do a manual transfer of files. Since Mozilla and Netscape 6 use the same Profiles folder, I am assuming that the following will work for Mozilla. You will have to experiment, as I have let Mozilla and Netscape 6 share the same profile, and have no experience with only 4.79 and Mozilla profiles:

You can transfer your Bookmarks from NS 4.79 to Mozilla by copying bookmark.htm, renaming the file to bookmarks.html, and placing it in your Mozilla prefs.js file.

You may be able to import your Netscape 4.79 Address Book to Mozilla, if not, you may be able transfer your Address Book by using a third party program, such as Dawn

The mail files (the ones with no extensions) are the same format in both programs, and may be directly copied from one mail directory to the other, in Windows Explorer. Hopefully your rules.dat file (spam filters) can be copied from 4.79 to Mozilla.

I am looking for info to see whether or not you can copy your prefs.js file from Communicator to Mozilla, which would definitely be the way to go.

Stay tuned,

Ramona

 

What's the URL for downloading Mozilla again, please?

 

Download Mozilla 0.9.9 here (full download, 9.8mb):

http://download.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla0.9.9/mozilla-win32-0.9.9-installer.exe


Release notes
http://mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.9/

Download page
http://mozilla.org/releases/


tranquilo

 

Hi ace,

On importing your Address Book, you may have to save it as an .ldif file, then try importing it into Mozilla.

Let us know how it goes!

Ramona

EDIT:

Well, I see from the Release Notes that if you have a single profile from Communicator, version 4.5 or later, that profile is automatically copied and converted for use with Mozilla. So that took most of the work out of your install. Glad you didn't have to do it manually.

 

Well, I downloaded and installed Mozilla, and it does seem to have copied my bookmarks, address book, newsgroups, and a few other important things from NS 4.79 (although not things like the window layout, fonts, etc.). Now I need to play with it for a while and see how it performs for me.

In the meantime, I've dealt yet again with the "Bookmarks have changed" message that NS always annoys me with whenever changing from Standard to Daylight Time (or vice versa). Hmm, I wonder, does Mozilla do that too?

 

Good going!

Hi ace,

I'm glad to hear that your install went well!

I wonder if theBookmarks error that comes with the time change is Windows 95 specific. I note that I have never had the error on 98SE. Do you just wait until Midnight tonite, or do you have to change/add a Bookmark? Just curious.

You most likely can copy the font, window size, etc., commands from the Communicator prefs.js to the Mozilla prefs.js.

Keep us posted on how the Moz runs. Will you be using it as your default Mail program? I would be very interested in how that works out.

Ramona

 

I haven't had the time I really need to play with Mozilla and get a feel for it - things got kind of busy around here. But I'll explore it in more detail as soon as I get a chance. NS 4.79 is starting to behave oddly, and I may need to replace it anyway; I'm hoping that Mozilla turns out to be the replacement I need.