What was Seamonkey mistake?
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What lead to the fall of the Seamonkey Browser?
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@breemark SeaMonkey never fell because it never rose. It is still under development, so it has not fallen in that sense.
But: it is not promoted in any way, it never did anything to distinguish itself from Firefox meaning there is no special reason for anyone to use it, and its only unique feature is that it packages an email client that it doesn't even integrate into the browser. The email UI and the browser UI are different windows, and it's not possible to see any part of one while using the other. The email client is essentially Thunderbird but with fewer features.
Therefore, if one wants to do what SeaMonkey does, all that's necessary is to install Firefox and Thunderbird, open both of them, and switch back and forth as desired - and both the browser and email experiences will be richer than in SeaMonkey.
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I have it installed and use it very occasionally.
Useful occasionally when I revert to a previous self or I find myself needing a particular feature..
It is a good, stable browser but with few extensions, The email client is not bad not the best but and I was considering replacing M2 with it but I am just too familiar with it..
There is I believe a very small development team at work on it and there are occasional updates (one fairly recently) so I do not think it dead.
it has a few Features I like and many I am not fond of.
With FF purging much of its feature set it is a good one to keep on hand if you still want/need a Gecko driven browser.
Ayespy is correct in saying it never promoted itself. Was pretty much an FF clone. Now an old version of FF. -
I was looking for this kind of thread.
Well guys, with mail and calendar Vivaldi 5 may be the new seamonkey, done right.
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@m33m33 said in What was Seamonkey mistake?:
with mail and calendar Vivaldi 5 may be the new seamonkey, done right
Nice. The Vivaldi devs will be happy about such positive feedback.
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@m33m33 I hope it's going to be the new Opera 12.1x, and it's getting close
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My browser immediately before Vivaldi was Seamonkey. I used it for a good four years or so, but I grew out of love with it because I felt Seamonkey's development had become glacial; it took forever to load up; and its settings dialogue felt stuck in the past. Also, while originally I appreciated the value of a complete suite, over time IRC and the HTML Editor became less useful to me; and it was only the integrated email kept me hooked. So when Vivaldi introduced Mail, that was enough to make me switch for good ^^
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What was Seamonkey mistake?
The name?
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@stardust Well, the name is kind of terrible, but not as terrible as the actual software...
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@ayespy said in What was Seamonkey mistake?:
@breemark SeaMonkey never fell because it never rose. It is still under development, so it has not fallen in that sense.
But: it is not promoted in any way, it never did anything to distinguish itself from Firefox meaning there is no special reason for anyone to use it, and its only unique feature is that it packages an email client that it doesn't even integrate into the browser. The email UI and the browser UI are different windows, and it's not possible to see any part of one while using the other. The email client is essentially Thunderbird but with fewer features.
Therefore, if one wants to do what SeaMonkey does, all that's necessary is to install Firefox and Thunderbird, open both of them, and switch back and forth as desired - and both the browser and email experiences will be richer than in SeaMonkey.
The messenger and browser windows are separate, but you can have both open at the same time. One will overlap the other, but it is easy enough to switch.
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@streptococcus I could do that with literally any email client. In fact I did it for over two years after Opera dumped M2, until I got testing access to M3 in Vivaldi.
There is simply nothing to recommend SeaMonkey. Its browser is not as good as most others, nor is its mail client. And the UI is clunky and depressing.
It's simply two inferior products that you can download and install at the same time, tho you will have to use them separately. My $.02. -
Vivaldi with M3 to the rescue! Save those poor souls that want an uncompromising Internet Suite.
Usually on Win11 running Vivaldi Snapshot builds. Opinionated about working efficiently with email. Folders are evil | Mail workflow: receive, read, reply, mark as read, done.
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@wildente And not only browser+mail, but a syncable calendar as well - something I always wanted in oldeopera but never got. One step closer to shifting away from the Google ecosystem.
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@westlaner said in What was Seamonkey mistake?:
it allowed for a quicker, leaner, more elegant experience
Can't say I agree. Opera was always quick and lean and elegant, it was the clunkyness of the Mozilla Suite that ruined the reputation of the Suite concept. Plus there was no advantage over two applications, quote:
@ayespy said in What was Seamonkey mistake?:
The email UI and the browser UI are different windows, and it's not possible to see any part of one while using the other. The email client is essentially Thunderbird but with fewer features.
The fact that people access their mail via Webmail interfaces these days clearly shows that "mail integrated in the web browser" is, in fact, very common. People do this today all the time. There is no problem with Webmail unless you have more than one account, when you start dealing with different user interfaces for the same thing.
Granted, many (most?) users like the approach of two separate applications. In Vivaldi just like with Opera back then, if mail is not used, you don't notice it's there. So with mail integrated in Vivaldi, there is no problem with still using two applications. But if you actually like mail integrated in the browser (see above webmail argument) being forced to use two applications is super inconvenient.
@westlaner said in What was Seamonkey mistake?:
No doubt there will always be a small percentage of people who long for an all-in-one suite of tools but such a niche of users will diminish over time. Suite are a relic not the future.
This niche of users has been diminished by the lack of available tools to choose from. Opera didn't go haywire dropping Presto and M2 because it was a Suite. With good choices available, the niche will still be a niche, it will rather grow than diminish further because many people don't know that they might actually prefer a suite. Many people also don't know that they would love mouse gestures if they only knew they existed. Vivaldi's problem is becoming known to these people.
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Seamonkey was a product of it's time and the true lineal descendant of the netscape era.Still a solid stable browser i should add but has limited extensions.
See some people prefer what we call the "golden years" and don't really want or need contemporary bells and whistles and are quite happy to use a browser for what it was originally conceived for which was the display of only HTML documents.
However as time has gone on we have inadvertedly added components to a browser like multi media capacities and other extras whichis not in accordance with the purpose of a web browser.Seamonkey still retains the spirit and essence of the original concept of a browser and there are still many people who wish to use such a tool.
Seamonkey was one of the shoulders that modern browsers stood on to get where they are today.
