Please keep in mind that not every Mozilla 1.0 bug, annoyance, and issue will affect all Mozilla 1.0 users. Mozilla is designed to run with a variety of operating systems and computer hardware configurations. Many of the Mozilla 1.0 bugs, annoyances, and issues apply to only one operating system or to a particular hardware configuration.

Moreover different people use Mozilla differently. Some use only the browser/navigator. Some use e-mail. Some use newsgroups. Some use the Web page composer. And some use ChatZilla. So, for example people who use the browser/navigator but do not use e-mail will not experience any of the e-mail problems.

Moreover, people that use the same Mozilla 1.0 browser-suite components use those components in different ways. For example some people use keyboard shortcuts rather than a mouse to navigate the desktop -- and vice-versa. Mouse users are not likely to experience issues involving keyboard shortcuts. Using the ctrl + c and shift + insert to copy and paste verses drag and drop with the mouse is an example of this sort of different usage style.

In part that means that some Mozilla 1.0 users will not experience any bugs, annoyances, and issues at all. Or the particular small set of bugs, annoyances, and issues they experience will not discourage them from using and liking Mozilla 1.0. Other Mozilla 1.0 users will be sufficiently upset with the bugs, annoyances, and issues they experience to ditch Mozilla.

Standard of Review

The standard of review for a shipping product is much tougher than the standard of review for a beta or pre-shipping product.

Unfortunately, that tighter standard of review leads us to conclude that all in all, Mozilla 1.0 as a 1.0 shipping product is premature. On the other hand, Mozilla 1.0 is not a piece of crap nor is it CrapZilla. As a beta or development release, Mozilla would be pretty decent in so far as it is developed to date.

AOL-Netscape's Mozilla Organization releasing Mozilla as a 1.0 product at its current level of immaturity is indeed unfortunate. It is premature. In time the Mozilla browser-suite could be a very nice product. It's not there yet -- close, but no cigar -- and no brass ring. Mozilla 1.0 is not ready for prime time!

Conclusion

All-in-all, the Mozilla browser-suite still does not offer any compelling, performance reason for people to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to AOL-Netscape's Mozilla browser. On the basis of overall browser look, feel, and performance, Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser still is a better choice than AOL-Netscape's Mozilla 1.0 browser.

In the Linux arena there is a nice assortment of Web browsers available, such as KDE's Konqueror browser and file manager. Konqueror is an integral part of KDE. We see no compelling reason to use the Mozilla browser instead of the Konqueror browser or other popular Linux browsers.

Nevertheless, Mozilla 1.0 is a nice and usable product. Moreover, although Mozilla 1.0 is not rock-solid, it is relatively stable and reliable. Additionally, the Mozilla browser-suite does have many nice and handy features too.

Certainly Mozilla 1.0 is the best Mozilla offering to date even though it also is the buggiest Mozilla ever. If you already are a Mozilla user, you ought to try Mozilla 1.0 if you already have not done so.

However, the bottom line is that Mozilla 1.0 is premature. It has too many annoyances, bugs and issues that need to be resolved before Mozilla 1.0 is ready for prime time. It gets no cigar and it gets no brass ring!

Incidentally, please check the MozillaQuest Magazine front-page (mozillaquest.com) sidebar every now and then for bug-count updates and for Mozilla 1.0 progress updates. MozillaQuest Magazine will have additional Mozilla 1.0 release information as it becomes available. Please check the MozillaQuest Magazine front page regularly for Mozilla 1.0 final release news too.

Stay Tuned.

A Final Note About Mozilla Bugs

Mozilla 1.0 has lots of bugs and lacks some important features such as a spell-checker for the editor used by Mozilla's e-mail, news, and Composer modules. Even though many Mozilla bugs are being fixed, bugs are cropping up faster than they are being fixed. That's not very healthy program development.

Figure 11 is a chart initially generated by Bugzilla and adapted for this article by MozillaQuest Magazine. It graphically shows just how much the number of open/un-fixed Mozilla software bugs listed in the Bugzilla database has increased since 4 May 1999 -- three years ago.