[LINK] Mozilla - slow progress

[Craig Sanders]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 12:59:37PM +1000, Robin Whittle wrote:
> Alistair Rankine wrote in a recent message "24 bit GIFs": 
> 
> > The recent releases of Mozilla have been fantastic, and it has
> > almost replaced IE as my primary browser (except on those sites which
> > kick you off unless you're using IE, damn them). It's quick, it's
> > compatible and it's very full-featured. It's also been a long time
> > coming...
> 
> Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org) is making progress, but I find the
> mail/news Messenger impossible to use.  

why not use the appropriate/best tool for each job?

i.e. use a web browser for browsing the web, and a mail client for email
and a news client for usenet news.

expecting those 3 functions in the same program leads you to the typical 
MS Windows jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none result.

IMO, the unix "small tools" approach where each program does only one
job but does it extremely well leads to a much better result. you don't
have to put up with a crap mail client just to get a great web browser,
you can have a great mail client AND a great web browser.


mozilla (and other mozilla-based browsers such as galeon) makes an
excellent web browser. up until a few months ago, i used netscape
because mozilla wasn't quite there yet. for the last few months, i've
been using galeon (which is basically mozilla with only the web browser
stuff) - this is better than any other web browser i've ever used. being
able to open links in tabs rather than windows is great...get the main
index of a site (e.g. a searchable mailing list archive) into a window,
and then open the links in tabs within that window.


mutt makes an excellent mail client.

i don't use news much these days, so i can't recommend a good client -
when i do read news, it's with an nntp-patched version of mutt called
nntpmutt.  it's the least objectionable news client i've found.


if you prefer GUI mail & news clients, there are several available.
IMO, they're all crap but that's because i can't stand the crappy text
editors built-in to GUI clients. if there was one that had a built-in
clone of vi (or vim!) then i might consider using it.


> Mozilla's default arrangement of composing a message in HTML and then
> suggesting that it be converted to plain text unless the sender knows
> the recipient wants HTML strikes me as nuts.   

yep.  html email is evil.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>

Fabricati Diem, PVNC.
 -- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch