What is SeaMonkey?
SeaMonkey is the direct descendant of the original Netscape Navigator browser from 1994, it is TMK the oldest web browser in continuous development, and in effect is a piece of living history. There have been many steps to get here, and the project has been called the Netscape browser, Netscape Navigator, Netscape Communicator, the Mozilla Suite, and finally SeaMonkey. The Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client both are derivative of the original Netscape/Mozilla code. Currently, SeaMonkey is built off of the same Core code as Firefox and Thunderbird, and shares the same rendering engine and many advanced web features and security safeguards.
But isn't SeaMonkey "old fashioned"?
While it's default interface looks "old fashioned", SeaMonkey is not a "legacy" product. It still shares it's Core code with Firefox, and it is a 100% fully-modern web browser capable of rendering any website that Firefox can render, with all of the same underlying security and privacy tools. It also has modern features adapted from Firefox such as Sync, Personas, the searchbar, and Private Browsing. Because it has a smaller development team, SeaMonkey is admittedly a little buggy, but no more buggy than Firefox was when I started using it nearly a decade ago!
So what is actually different between Firefox and SeaMonkey browser?
Forgetting about the various components for now, the most immediately noticable difference between Firefox and SeaMonkey are the tabs. SeaMonkey uses the original style of tabs which were put into the Mozilla Suite way back in 2001, without individal tab closers, with the new-tab button on the left, and no tabs on top. The default arrangement of the nav-bar is also very different from Firefox, and SeaMonkey lacks many of the extra toolbar buttons that Firefox has. The Sidebar is different in SeaMonkey... at one time in the 90's sidebars were all the rage and so SeaMonkey has a comprehensive Sidebar which allows you to manage your addressbook and searches. There are also extensions available to expand the Sidebar in pretty amazing ways. The menu in SeaMonkey is laid out differently than Firefox and it may be confusing how to find some things at first. Also, there are a few keyboard shortcuts which are different. This table shows the shortcuts for en-US on Windows:
Code: Select all
Command Firefox SeaMonkey
Show History Sidebar Ctrl+H F9 (whole sidebar)
Show All History Ctrl+Shift+H Ctrl+H
Show Bookmarks Sb Ctrl+B/Ctrl+I F9 (whole sidebar)
Show All Bookmarks Ctrl+Shift+B Ctrl+B
Private Browsing Ctrl+Shift+P Ctrl+Shift+B
Bookmark All Tabs Ctrl+Shift+D (no shortcut)
Search Ctrl+K/Ctrl+E Ctrl+Shift+S
Urlbar open URL
in new tab: Alt+Enter Ctrl+Enter
How can I make SeaMonkey browser interface like Firefox?
I manage an extension called Sea Fox which fixes most of the major differences between Firefox and SeaMonkey automatically so you don't have to bother with learning a new interface. If you don't want a complete automated make-over, an extension called SeaTab X makes the tabs a little more like Firefox. You can Customize the SeaMonkey interface just like Firefox by right-clicking on the toolbar and selecting Customize. Drag the items you want and change the display to show Icons only. You can also change the following preferences in about:config.
browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent (set to false for pre-Firefox 3.6 style)
browser.tabs.autoHide (set to false if you prefer to not hide the tabs toolbar)
browser.tabs.tooltippreview.enable (set to false to hide the tab hover previews)
browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled (set to false to remove url domain highlighting)
accessibility.typeaheadfind (set to false to disable this IMO annoying feature)
browser.chrome.favicons (set to true to get favicons on all sites like Firefox)
The following userChrome hack will move the New Tab button to the right side of the tab strip:
Code: Select all
.tabs-stack vbox hbox stack { -moz-box-ordinal-group:10!important; }
There are also a few Firefox-inspired themes available for SeaMonkey:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... r-seamonk/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... -for-seam/
Classic Toolbar Buttons also has SeaMonkey support:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/cstbb/
SeaTab-X-2 adds Firefox-style tab closers to SeaMonkey:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... eatab-x-2/
Monkey Fix adds many unique options to SeaMonkey, as well as Bookmarks and History sidebar buttons:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... monkeyfix/
And lastly, Sea Fox adds a plethera of Firefox features to SeaMonkey:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... n/sea-fox/
I used SeaMonkey a few years ago and I didn't like it and it didn't work with some websites, does it still suck?
This was a problem several years ago, but the SeaMonkey developers added the Firefox version number to the "user agent string" so that websites doing "user agent sniffing" will be fooled into thinking they are looking at Firefox. I have not had any problems like this in several months of using it as my primary browser. The SeaMonkey developers have also been migrating Firefox features over to SeaMonkey to make it easier to support so SeaMonkey is now more like Firefox than it was in the past.
Can I keep my bookmarks, history, and passwords if I switch over to SeaMonkey?
Yes! Firefox and SeaMonkey use the exact same back-end to handle most of the stuff in your profile. Start by reading the following article which is concerned with transferring a profile in SeaMonkey:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_ ... _SeaMonkey
Files:
cert8.db
cookies.sqlite
formhistory.sqlite
key3.db
mimeTypes.rdf
permissions.sqlite
persdict.dat
places.sqlite
sessionstore.js -> rename to sessionstore.json (the file is json format in both)
signons.sqlite
signons3.txt (if exists)
Folders:
bookmarkbackups
searchplugins (if it exists)
adblockplus (if you have custom AdBlock filters you want to transfer)
chrome (only userContent.css, not userChrome.css)
Do not transfer the extensions folder or any extensions-related files in the root profile. Also, do not bother transferring prefs.js as it's better to learn the new interface and many Firefox preferences will simply not work in SeaMonkey.
Can I keep my extensions and themes if I switch over to SeaMonkey?
Sadly, there are few extensions and themes officially available for SeaMonkey. If you use Personas (background themes) then those do work with SeaMonkey, and some of the most popular extensions like AdBlock Plus and NoScript are available. You can find extensions for SeaMonkey here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... sort=users
Also, there is now a tool that can be used to convert extensions from Firefox or Thunderbird to SeaMonkey, run by Lemon Juice. It is not guaranteed to work on everything, but there appear to be quite a few extensions it works with:
viewtopic.php?f=40&t=2834855
(Note: The following site is down as of June 2014 for maintenance issues:)
Some Firefox extensions modified by Philip Chee for SeaMonkey are available here (I cannot guarantee how up-to-date they are):
http://xsidebar.mozdev.org/modifiedmisc.html
Philip Chee also maintians a thread here at MozillaZine with links to modded extensions, and users can learn how to modify simple extensions to work in SeaMonkey:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2481107
Themes is sadly a much more bleak situation. I'm hoping that Australis will drive some Themers over to the Dark Side with me! So far myself and Frank Lion have built new Themes especially for SeaMonkey... here is the link to SM Themes:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamon ... te-themes/
Can I Sync to SeaMonkey?
Yes! I have no idea how to do this or how well it works, but yes SeaMonkey does support Sync.
I'm visually impared, can I use SeaMonkey?
For starters, the default theme in SeaMonkey uses button glyphs nearly twice the height of Firefox, in nice bright colors for easy recognition. There are also "Go" and "Search Go" buttons in the Customization palette to make the urlbar easier to use. You can use this extension to make the interface use larger fonts:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/seamon ... e-changer/
SeaMonkey also supports page zoom just like Firefox. In about:config you can change this setting:
browser.zoom.siteSpecific (set to false to use the same zoom level on all pages)
Then press Ctrl+Plus or Menu > View > Zoom to set your global zoom level. Also, under Menu > Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts you can set the minimum font size just like in Firefox.