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MozillaQuest the on-line computer magazine

June 7, 2001

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Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 Browser-Suite Released

Mike Angelo -- 7 June 2001 (c)

Webmaster´s Note: Mozilla Milestone 0.9.5 was released October 12, 2001. Please see our story, Mozilla Milestone 0.9.5 Browser-Suite Released, for download links and the details.

The Mozilla Organization released the Milestone Mozilla 0.9.1 edition of its Mozilla browser-suite today as it slowly moves ever closer to the elusive Mozilla 1.0. The Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 browser-suite is cross-platform and open source. Builds are available for the BSD, Linux, Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, Sun, and several UNIX platforms. Source code is available if you want to custom compile your own Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 build.

Note: The May roadmap table revision indicates the Milestone release date of Friday, 1 June rather than Monday, 28 May. On the other hand, the text explaining the release-date change states the anticipated release date to be 6-Jun-2000" (sic) -- "Therefore, the mozilla0.9.1 ideal release date has been moved to 6-Jun-2000. (sic) We hope this is a more accurate prediction, even if it's less ideal. (Mozilla Development Roadmap, mozilla.org, May 10, 2001) So, for the time being our roadmap table uses the 1 June 2001 date rather than the 6 June 2000 (sic) date. On the other hand, the Mozilla Milestone Plan (mozilla.org, May 19, 2001) shows, 28 May as the Mozilla 0.9.1 release date. So does this line of text from the Mozilla Development Roadmap mozilla0.9.1 (or 1.0 if we work hard and fortune smiles on us) starts on 20-Apr and releases around 28-May. We have asked the Mozilla Organization staff several times over the past thirteen days to clarify these inconsistencies in their documents. However, the Mozilla Organization staff so far has failed to clarify these inconsistencies in their documents -- nor have they corrected these inconsistencies on their Web site.

The Mozilla Organization Roadmap and development plan calls for Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 to have been released to the public on 28 May, a week ago -- or 1 June depending upon which Mozilla Organization document and/or document text you want to go by. However, it was not released until today. For more information about that please see Mozilla Roadmap Plan Changed Again -- Mozilla 1.0 Set Back to Q4 2001.

Mostly, the changes in this pre-1.0 edition of the Mozilla browser-suite are behind-the-scenes improvements in performance and stability.

The most noticeable change is an overhaul of the Mozilla Modern skin. It has new widgets and icons. The remodeled Modern Mozilla theme has a warmer and friendlier tone. It´s the best remake of the Modern Mozilla skin yet. (Please see Figure 1 below.)

There are also lots of bug fixes in Mozilla 0.9.1. However, there still are many unfixed bugs in Mozilla too. Please see the bugs list in the right-hand sidebar on the MozillaQuest front page (mozillaquest.com) for updated Mozilla bug counts.

Some new, visible, features previously added for March's Mozilla 0.8.1 edition are a hierarchical history, a routine to un-install themes, and some Gopher support. There also are lots of changes to ChatZilla, the Mozilla-based chat client in that release. For more information about the features added or improved in the Mozilla .0.8.1 browser-suite Milestone, please see Lizard On The Move: Mozilla Milestone 0.8.1 Browser-Suite Released.

There has been lots of rewriting too. For example the image library was rewritten for Mozilla 0.9. The disk cache subsystem was rewritten also. The level-1 cache rewrite was included in Mozilla 0.9, and the level-2 cache rewrite is in Mozilla 0.9.1. For more information about what's new and improved in 0.9, please see our article, The Snail Moves: Mozilla Milestone 0.9 Browser-Suite Released.

Here is what the Milestone 0.9.1 Release Notes list as new in Mozilla 0.9.1:

The Modern skin has been overhauled. The new version of Modern sports a lighter and smoother look with all new icons and widgets.
A new status bar which combines the old taskbar and statusbar into one toolbar freeing up screen real-estate (reflected in both skins)
Typedown addressing against an LDAP server has been implemented for Mozilla Mail.
Many performance improvements in layout and networking.
Bi-directional text support enabled for Hebrew and Arabic.
Stability greatly improved since Mozilla 0.9 with 34 of our most frequently reported crash bugs fixed.

Figure 1. Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1's Modern theme remake.

In May, the Mozilla Organization changed its development-tree diagram to push a projected Mozilla 1.0 release back to October 2001 or later. That tree diagram anticipates at least four, 0.9.x Milestone releases before there is a Mozilla 1.0 release.

For more information about the Roadmap revisions, please see Mozilla Roadmap Plan Changed Again -- Mozilla 1.0 Set Back to Q4 2001.

The new Netscape 6 browser-suite is based upon the cross-platform Mozilla browser-suite. AOL/Time-Warner's Netscape division released its Netscape 6.01 browser-suite minor upgrade 8 February 2001. There also appears to be a NS 6.5 beta afoot.

Note: If the AOL-Time-Warner Netscape Division follows its Netscape 6 beta nomenclature you might see Netscape 6.5 beta-1 named Netscape 6.5 Preview Release 1 (NS 6.5 PR1) or something such as that rather than Netscape 6.5 beta-1. However, the Netscape 6 Preview Releases were heavily criticized. Netscape 6.0/6.01 has been heavily criticized also. So, do not be surprised if the Netscape Division tries to keep the NS 6.5 betas under wraps. It seems the Netscape Division's damage control strategy is to play ostrich and to go underground rather than to address the damage publicly and head-on.

It appeared that the Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 branch was also to have served as the branch point for the upcoming Netscape 6.5 beta-1, Mozilla-based, browser-suite product. That perhaps had put even more focus and pressure on quality of the Mozilla Milestone 0.9.1 release version.

However, it now appears that the AOL-Time-Warner Netscape Division might try to branch its upcoming Netscape 6.5 beta directly off the Mozilla development-tree trunk at a time later than the Milestone 0.9.1 branching. Does this mean that the AOL-Time-Warner Netscape Division does not feel that Mozilla 0.9.1 is good enough to serve as its Netscape 6.5 beta?

"The milestones are intended to be periodic check points for progress on the project, stability of builds, porting status, and are entry points for additional mozilla (sic) contributors to provide testing and engineering help on the project." (Project Sea Monkey, mozilla.org, March 26, 2001)

Nevertheless, pre-Mozilla-1.0 development builds now are pretty much features-complete, stable, and usable. Mozilla development work now is focused on bug squashing, improved stability, and better performance. Browser-wise, we find current Mozilla Milestone releases good enough for regular use. We also find the latest Mozilla Milestones to be better, browser-wise, than Netscape 6.0.

MozillaQuest Magazine is giving the Mozilla 0.9.1 builds a preliminary try out now. Check back for more information soon. In the meantime, if you want to test drive the brand new Mozilla 0.9.1 builds now, we recommend that you install Mozilla 0.9.1 in it own directory, that you do not get rid of your current browser(s), and that you do not set Mozilla 0.9.1 as your default browser -- yet.

0.9.1 Download Links

Here are the FTP download links for Mozilla 0.9.1 for you readers that cannot wait to try Mozilla 0.9.1.

Linux Builds

Red Hat Linux 7.x Builds

Windows Builds

Macintosh Builds

Other Builds

Mozilla 0.9.1 Source

Milestone 0.9.1 Release Notes

Stay Tuned.

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