Claire’s Random Thoughts

This is post 1/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

SeaMonkey is my favorite and most frequently used web browser, not to say that I don’t use other ones. Its main function is for web browsing, but it also serves many other useful purposes, such as html editing, IRC, and as an email client. I think of it as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird combined with a few additional features.

Since web browsing is its main function, I will begin at that. Why do I prefer browsing the web through SeaMonkey over other web browsers. SeaMonkey is based on Mozilla code, the code from the ever so popular Mozilla FireFox. Before I discovered SeaMonkey, I was a FireFox user, but now I use SeaMonkey so I can have a program similar to FireFox with many additional features. The Mozilla code is considerably safer from hackers than the old standard Internet Explorer. Tabbed browsing also originated with FireFox, which allowed for considerably more organized navigation. Yes, Microsoft stole the tabbed browsing idea and added it to their own Internet Explorer. That’s all they do, copy other software developers’ ideas. Sorry for the rant, now back to the browser.
The other standard features that attracted me to FireFox are also all included in SeaMonkey. A popup blocker and the “find as you type” feature. The “find as you type” feature allows you to search the page for specific letters or terms if you simply type in what you are looking for. There is no need to open the “search” function. So, you get secure browsing, organized tabbed browsing, no annoying popups, and a convenient way to search whatever pages you are on as basic features of the SeaMonkey browser.

SeaMonkey also features an html editor, which is very useful for web designers, such as myself.

It features a WYSIWYG mode, a mode that highlights tags, plan html source editing, and allows you to preview a page, all with the simplicity of clicking on the desired tab. This definitely eliminates any need for me to use a separate html editor.

For those of you who use an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client, SeaMonkey also features a great alternative to whatever your current IRC client may be. Its features can be comparable to those of Mozilla’s ChatZilla. I am not a regular user of IRC, but I thought I would mention the feature in case it might encourage somebody else to download the suite.

Last but not least, I would like to mention the email client feature, for those of you who still use an email client instead of email in a browser. I prefer checking my email directly in the browser, but this is a great alternative to those of you who use Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. Since the entire suite is based off Mozilla code, SeaMonkey’s integrated email program can be comparable to the features of Mozilla Thunderbird.

SeaMonkey is one program, whereas if you would like to use more than one of its features, FireFox, Thunderbird, html editors, and ChatZilla are multiple programs for similar features. I also think FireFox, Thunderbird, and ChatZilla are great open source programs, but the combination of multiple programs uses more computer resources, I am choosing to go the route of one simple suite to suit all my needs. The only potential drawback I can think of is that when you run separate programs and one crashes, the other is unaffected. If you use SeaMonkey for all your needs, all its features are affected in the event that the program crashes. However, this minor inconvenience is greatly outweighed for me by the benefits of using the SeaMonkey suite.

SeaMonkey does an excellent job of integrating multiple internet applications into a single suite without compromising quality for quantity. I am already grateful for its many features, but in the future, I would like to see an FTP client and possibly also a bittorrent download feature.

Related posts:

1. Opera - A Browser Worth Trying I first got introduced to Opera, because I was...
2. Top Free Applications I will spend this week, the week of November...
3. Which Download Accelerator? My blog is finally up again after losing hours...
4. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition This is post 2/7 in my weekly series of...
5. OpenOffice.org - More Than Just Poor Man’s Microsoft Office This is post 5/7 in my weekly series of...