What's New in SeaMonkey 2.0 Alpha 3

This document outlines a few of the new features implemented in SeaMonkey 2.0 Alpha 3, important bugfixes and any new problems. See the SeaMonkey Trunk Tracker for a more comprehensive list of fixes. Please note that these changes are relative to SeaMonkey 1.1.14.

Major Changes

* SeaMonkey switched to Toolkit, the same backend Firefox uses internally. Due to this change SeaMonkey is now much closer to Firefox as far as user profiles, add-ons and functionality of user interface elements are concerned.
* The default location of user profiles has changed. Legacy profiles, e.g. from SeaMonkey 1.x, are migrated automatically, excluding third-party add-ons (extensions and themes). The old profile will not be touched (instead, copies are made).
* The new Add-on Manager allows to install, update, disable and remove extensions (add-ons), themes and plugins using the same mechanisms Firefox uses. This should ease extension management and development considerably.
* Session restore (crash recovery) has been added. Now, when SeaMonkey crashes, all your browser windows and tabs will be restored automatically or on request (including data entered in web forms!). In addition, users can select to always restore the browser windows and tabs from their last open session when starting SeaMonkey.
* History is now stored in a better database solution, so that it can easily keep more information, and the location bar determines which addresses to autocomplete and/or show in the drop down menu with a smarter algorithm based on what you type, searching in both URL and title of visited pages by default.
* Toolbars in the browser component are now fully customizable.
* Additionally, the icon size and whether to display icons and/or text can be chosen separately for every major toolbar in in both the browser and MailNews components via their context menu.
* The MailNews component now includes support for reading RSS and Atom feeds, And the browser detects feeds offered by web pages. Since the support for previewing feeds in the browser has not yet been included, the feed icon at the right end of the URL bar currently is directly invoking subscription to the feed in the MailNews component, if an account for feeds has already been created there.
* Password Manager was switched to an improved version, allowing easier searching, and notification bars replacing modal dialogs for remembering logins.
* Gecko, the rendering engine used in SeaMonkey, has seen many improvements since the version used in the last stable release. Changes range from a better graphics backend (Cairo/Thebes) to improved support for fonts, CSS, DOM and JavaScript. SeaMonkey 2.0 Alpha 3 passes the Acid2 test and most of Acid3.
* Most of the icons in the default theme have been exchanged for newer images that fit better with the look of modern desktop environments.
* Support for Windows 95, 98, Me and NT 4 was dropped. GTK 2.10 is now required on Linux/UNIX. Support for Mac OS X 10.3 ("Panther") was also dropped.

Browser

* Add Undo Close Tab (Bug 350416, Bug 354953)
* Introduce Info Bars (e.g. used when popups or add-on installations are blocked) (Bug 270443)
* Allow to reload individual images using the context menu to aid dialup users canceling page loads (Bug 47475)
* Remove the font download dialog (Bug 352049)
* Add full zoom capability (zooming images and objects as well as text) (Bug 4821)
* Port new Firefox page info to SeaMonkey (Bug 379183)
* Beautify FTP/File/Jar/Gopher directory listing (with new layout, icons and sortable columns) (Bug 294800)
* Add "Send This Link" to link context menus (Bug 137007)
* Save form inputs' state with Save Page As (Bug 293834)
* Switched to a better graphics backend (Cairo/Thebes), improving display of all web content and application chrome significantly (Bug 322938)
* Acid2 test renders correctly in most cases (Tracked in Bug 289480)
* Lots of improvements to Acid3 test rendering (Tracked in Bug 410460)
* Support WHATWG <audio> and <video> tags (Bug 382267)
* Implement cross-site XMLHttpRequest (Bug 389508)
* @font-face support: implement downloadable font support on Linux (Mac and Windows have already been addressed in bug 441473) (Bug 458169), implement @font-face { src:local() } on Linux (Bug 468218), enable downloadable .otf fonts on Windows (Bug 458160), improve handling of format hints for downloadable fonts (Bug 465452)
* Toolbar customization: Navigator part 2 (real customizability for browser toolbars on Linux+Windows) (Bug 471372), use sheet popup instead of popup window on Mac OS X (Bug 406780), make menubars customizable (without regression on Mac OS X) (Bug 475920)
* Use Places backend for SeaMonkey history (including location bar) (Bug 382187)
* Implement progress bar/scrubber for video controls (Bug 462113)
* Decode non-ASCII characters in the urlbar (like in FF3) (Bug 425480)

MailNews

* Rename TLS and SSL in SMTP preferences to what they really mean (STARTTLS, SMTP-over-SSL) (Bug 185662)
* Make Reply, Reply All, Forward and Next buttons dual-mode (adding Reply to Sender, Reply to All Recipients, Forward Inline/As Attachment, Next Message/Flagged Message/Unread Thread) (Bug 17796)
* Do not lose keystrokes while email composer is saving draft (Bug 352310)
* Speed up deleting attachments containing UNIX line breaks (Bug 365751)
* Add "Stop Filter Execution" filter action (Bug 358684)
* Allow to set marking junk as read independently for automatic and manual cases in preferences (Bug 377920)
* Do not fall back to insecure authentication after SMTP authentication failure (Bug 311657)
* Support opening a message from the command line (Bug 386919)
* Remove "Copy Folder Location" context menu entry, moving functionality to Location field in Properties dialog (Bug 369393)
* Add ability to select IMAP trash folder (Bug 182274)
* Allow user to reorder newsgroups using drag&drop (like in NS4) (Bug 150274)
* Display clickable references for newsgroup messages (Bug 62033)
* Show new newsgroups in Subscribe dialog (Bug 40260)
* Spell check the subject line when composing mail (Bug 391964)
* Show folder address in Folder Properties dialog (Bug 180546)
* Implement mail "back" and "forward" (Bug 74959)
* Make local body search work when mail body is encoded as Base64 (Bug 132340)
* Show text in multipart messages with empty Content-Type (sent by Outlook) (Bug 155537)
* Allow to filter news based on any headers (Bug 16913)
* Make delete message work if header of message preview pane has focus (Bug 419379)
* Allow to do a complete import (settings, mail etc.) at any time (Bug 399312)
* Get rid of the Send in UTF-8 question dialog, just silently switch to UTF-8 if necessary (Bug 410333)
* Allow to kill/ignore a news subthread (branch, not the whole thread) (Bug 11054)
* Add "Recent Folder Target" to Move and Copy menus (Bug 416669)
* Allow renaming of already-attached attachments (Bug 190298)
* Make sure IMAP code does not deadlock when it cannot reach the network (Bug 410747)
* Persist message priority across moves after changing it via filter (Bug 181561)
* Add a pref to decide whether to quote text attachments in replies (Bug 384599)
* Limit growth of junk token store (and thereby memory) (Bug 228675)
* Speed up displaying saved searches with lots of results (Bug 436960)
* Add a way to entirely disable marking a message as read when viewed (Bug 297534)
* Add ability to show only IMAP mails that have not been deleted (Bug 190974)
* Load IMAP/news messages from memory (if present) when offline (Bug 213729)
* Use better chunk size calculation when mail.imap.fetch_by_chunks is active (speed up sending of large emails) (Bug 425849)
* Quote just the selected portion of a message during Reply (Bug 23394)
* Allow signature to be placed above the quoted text when forwarding messages (Bug 273114)
* Improve online IMAP experience by using pseudo-offline Delete and Move (decouple IMAP operations from UI changes) (Bug 435153)
* Allow filter of "To or CC" to use "is in Address Book..." and "is not in Address Book..." (Bug 187768)
* Make Get All New Messages work with Movemail accounts (Bug 278383)
* Enable filters to move mail after copying it (Bug 376235)
* Add confirmation dialog for Empty Trash action (Bug 179891)
* Rename 'Unsent' folder to 'Outbox' (Bug 387656)
* Allow to specify whether to run filters when checking mail, run manually, or both (add a separate manual filter context) (Bug 440635)
* Add ability to filter only selected messages in a folder (Run Filters on Selected Messages) (Bug 444209)
* Play back tags to IMAP server when switching from offline to online (Bug 141606)
* Add ability to show just the name and not the email address in the message pane (Bug 309057)
* Allow to change IMAP expunge threshold using a pref (Bug 399835)
* Implement auto-expunge for IMAP mailboxes (Bug 359284)
* Enable Mac OS X system address book per default and add UI (Bug 397811)
* Disable JavaScript in MailNews for now (Bug 453943)
* Make IMAP folders offline by default if they are newly created and mail.server.default.offline_download pref is true (Bug 452615)
* Add ability to download IMAP messages preemptively/automatically in the background (Bug 436615)
* Add birthday fields to address book (Bug 13595)
* Enable threaded/grouped-by-sort views for saved searches across multiple folders (Bug 379806)
* Fix importing mail from Outlook 2003/2007 (Bug 408323)
* Port Thunderbird RSS/Atom reader to SeaMonkey (Bug 255834)
* Allow extensions to add custom filter actions (Bug 419356)
* Mark message as read when deleting it from local folder (or POP/IMAP when offline) (Bug 463849)
* Do not collect addresses into Collected Addressed that occur in other ABs (Bug 58769)
* Implement Undo Mark All Read (Bug 65775)
* Move message to Inbox if user marks a message in Junk folder as Not Junk (adds hidden pref mail.spam.markAsNotJunkMarksUnRead) (Bug 208197)
* Disable JS for message content (mail and news, making javascript.allow.mailnews pref stop working), enable it for non-message content by default (Bug 374577)

Certificates

* Allow to export certificate or full chain in Certificate Viewer (Bug 315871)
* Introduce error pages (and ability to create exceptions) for invalid-certificate errors (Bug 327181)
* Allow configuring used certificate per mail identity (Bug 278549)
* Implement new security exception handling backend for MailNews (Bug 429843)
* Introduce new certificate error page which better separates user information from technical details (Bug 463504)
* show expanded technical details on SSL error pages when expert mode is active (Bug 471075)

ChatZilla

* Change Switch Text Direction shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+X (was: Ctrl+Shift+E) (Bug 333570)
* Do not open multiline input when dropping link in single line input (Bug 332588)
* Add IRC-Hispano to default network list (Bug 227366)
* Add IRCnet to default network list (Bug 135926)
* Allow styling all parts of ChatZilla with motifs (Bug 235169)
* Allow disabling Bugzilla link detection on a per-channel basis (Bug 349137)
* Allow to reorder tabs using drag and drop (Bug 194913)
* Add auto-away feature (Bug 382085)
* Display WALLOPS messages (Bug 379087)
* Support multiple selected users with context menu commands (Bug 408527)
* Display IRCX ONJOIN messages (Bug 303631)
* Make double clicking user open query view (WHOIS) (Bug 432235)
* Display all-numeric channel names as links (Bug 433703)
* Do not discard changes when topic edit mode focus is lost, add Cancel button (Bug 399450)

DOM Inspector

* Allow inserting/creating new nodes (Bug 112775)
* Add File / Save DOM As... (Bug 72494)
* Allow to hide processing instructions (Bug 360898)
* Show separate menu entries for Inspect Content/Chrome Document (Bug 337069)
* Add ability to pick open pages (as opposed to open windows) (Bug 109481)
* Offer DOM Inspector as an add-on on AMO (Bug 271812)

Windows

* Create a new Windows installer based on NSIS (Bug 351917)
* Support new shell service for setting SeaMonkey as default application (better Vista integration) (Bug 380347)
* Remove "turbo mode" (quick launch) (Bug 361682)
* Make Debug QA and Palm Sync extensions optional in Windows installer (Bug 385377)
* Make ChatZilla optional in NSIS installer (Bug 409490)
* Support "? queryterm" from the command line (launch the default search engine and search for 'queryterm') (Bug 408248)
* Create UI for new shell service (setting as default application and mail/news handler) (Bug 441050)
* Enable .wdseml (Windows Search indexer) file opening support for Mail/News (better Vista integration) (Bug 433697)
* Let downloaded files inherit NTFS properties (like permissions, compression, encryption) from parent directory (Bug 224692)
* Cleanly unload in case of exiting or restarting Windows (Bug 212316)
* add support for Windows sounds to menus (Bug 83056)

Linux
...
Mac OS X
...
Compiling

* Introduce MozillaBuild for Windows (Bug 363079)
* Make Mozilla compile with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (VC8) (Bug 249782)
* Remove non-Cairo GTK2 gfx code (GTK 1 support and Xprint) (Bug 383889)
* Build Chatzilla as an extension (Bug 351715)
* Remove support for --enable-extensions=all (Bug 450015)

General

* Add "Ignore Word" to inline spellchecker used for editable elements (Bug 354580)
* Use bullets instead of asterisks to block out password characters (Bug 97811)
* Make dictionaries part of the locale pack in the installer (Bug 350688)
* Make a backup copy of prefs.js before overwriting it if there were errors reading it (Bug 361102)
* Make downloading using "Save Link As..." successful on a link to a page/file that uses HTTP/FTP authentication (Bug 315227)
* Allow multiple selection of text with Ctrl (Bug 73373)
* Switch backend from XPFE to Toolkit (Bug 328887)
* Add command line handlers for Toolkit (makes -remote work on all platforms) (Bug 335550)
* Update Software Installation preferences pane including options for automatic updates of the application and add-ons (Bug 363700)
* Remove Appearance / Themes preferences pane (moved to Tools / Add-on Manager) (Bug 372856)
* Make Debug/QA UI an extension (that can be disabled or removed) (Bug 381343)
* Offer to migrate Thunderbird profiles (Bug 306175)
* Use FF/TB's extension mechanism (Add-on Manager and backend) (Bug 272429)
* Add migrator for old profiles (Mozilla Application Suite and SM 1.0/1.1) (Bug 329744)
* Replace Quality Feedback Agent by Breakpad crash reporter (Bug 383125)
* Use FF's form manager (satchel, was: wallet), including form field autocompletion (Bug 304309)
* Replace MySpell with HunSpell spelling checker (Bug 319778)
* Provide mechanism to allow users to list, enable and disable plugins in Add-on Manager (Bug 339056)
* Make text and images translucent while dragging (Bug 178513)
* Use new English spell checking dictionary (Bug 397150)
* Enable automatic updates for SeaMonkey (using AUS) (Bug 408190)
* Make Plugin Finder Service work with SeaMonkey (replacing Null Plugin) (Bug 278831)
* Disable direct input of filename into file upload controls (Bug 258875)
* New icon set for "SeaMonkey Default Theme" (Bug 348720)
* Add sanitize (clear private data) option (Bug 416233)
* Add new Helper Applications preferences pane (Bug 417590)
* Integrate addons.mozilla.org (AMO) into Add-ons Manager (Bug 414918)
* Implement geolocation prompt (notification bar) (Bug 459413)
* Enable view-source link-browsing (SRC, HREF) (Bug 17612)
* Use Toolkit Type Ahead Find instead of the old one (Bug 345526)
* Switch to Toolkit password manager: add SMTP protocol handlers (Bug 469807), do not lose newsgroup username/password information when migrating from signons.txt (Bug 470439), let promptPassword unescape user names before use (Bug 472824), main part (use LoginManager, remove Wallet) (Bug 390025), also fixes: If stored SMTP password is incorrect, no prompt is made for correct one (Bug 155172)
* Remove "What's Related" sidebar/module (Bug 468337)
* Auto-save open windows and tabs for later restoration in event of crash (session restore) (Bug 36810)
* Use an error page (about:sessionrestore) for session restore prompt (Bug 459550)
* Make use of emptytext attribute in search textboxes (replace label by text inside textbox) (Bug 460694)

What's New in SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1

SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 contains the following major changes relative to SeaMonkey 2.0 Alpha 3:

* The idenctical same browser core and web feature support as Firefox 3.5.1 is in SeaMonkey now, including all security fixes as well as audio/video, downloadable fonts, JIT-compiled Javascript and more.
* Download manager has been completely reworked, including support for cross-session resumable downloads,
* Localized Windows/Linux/Mac packages are available now, this Beta features 15 languages officially (two additional ones are experimental) from day 1.
* Feed preview is available now in the browser and improves feed subscription with different readers, including the internal one in the mail/news component.
* Support for -new-tab and -new-window command line options was added.
* Toolbars in the mail and newsgroups window are now fully customizable.
* Mail archiving is supported now.
* The Palm Sync Extension has been removed.
* Feed summary or web page can be chosen from menu entries.
* Preferences have been added for for signature text, closing standalone message window when using Del and checking for new mail only after opening the MailNews window.

See the SeaMonkey Trunk Tracker blog for more details about the changes between those pre-releases.
The changes page lists an overview of new features and fixes relative to our last stable release, SeaMonkey 1.1.17.
Downloading
The SeaMonkey project provides official versions of SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in US English and experimental language packs for a small variety of other languages. Community volunteers are also contributing builds for other platforms. You can download SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 here.
System Requirements, Installation and Uninstallation
Before installing, make sure your computer meets the system requirements. SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 will offer to migrate your data from SeaMonkey 1.x or Mozilla 1.x at the first start after installation. You can find more details about installation, profile data and uninstallation in our install and uninstall document.
Extensions and Themes
Extensions installed under SeaMonkey 1.x are not migrated to SeaMonkey 2, and may not be compatible for reinstalling in this version due to major changes in our architecture. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension. Extensions and Themes for SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 can be installed from the SeaMonkey Add-Ons website or the "Get Add-Ons" section in the Add-Ons manager.
Known Issues
This list covers some of the known problems with SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1. Please read this before reporting any new bugs.

* History import from 1.x not working automatically (Bug 484175): As a workaround, close SeaMonkey, go to your profile, delete places.sqlite there, and then start SeaMonkey again, which should then correctly import history.
* Freshly imported downloads sometimes try to restart again (and fail) (Bug 495680)
* MailNews account password prompts are no longer serial at startup (Bug 338549)
* IMAP accounts with over 1000 folders get error popups with message synchronisation switched on (Bug 462539))
* Profile Roaming is not working any more (Bug 378647)
* In some scenarios, multiple master password dialogs appear at once (Bug 381269)

Troubleshooting

* Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with SeaMonkey, including make it crash, slow down page display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of SeaMonkey no longer working, the browser not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart SeaMonkey in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the "Safe Mode" shortcut created in your Start menu or by running seamonkey.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./seamonkey -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:

cd /Applications/SeaMonkey.app/Contents/MacOS/
./seamonkey-bin -safe-mode
When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.
* If you uninstall an extension that is installed with your user profile (i.e. you installed it from a Web page) and then wish to install it for all user profiles using the -install-global-extension command line flag, you must restart SeaMonkey once to cleanse the profile extensions datasource of traces of that extension before installing with the switch. If you do not do this you may end up with a jammed entry in the Extensions list and will be unable to install the extension globally.
* If you encounter strange problems relating to bookmarks, downloads, window placement, toolbars, history, or other settings, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running SeaMonkey with the -P command line argument, choose the "Manage Profiles" button and then choose "Create Profile...". Migrate your settings files (Bookmarks, Saved Passwords, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What can I do to help?
We need help from developers and the testing community to provide as much feedback as possible to make SeaMonkey even better. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting any bugs to Bugzilla. You can also give us your feedback through this feedback form.
Why haven't you responded to the mail I sent you?
Use the newsgroup. The SeaMonkey team reads it regularly, and your email may have gotten lost.
Where can I get extensions and themes (add-ons)?
Extensions and Themes can be downloaded from SeaMonkey Add-ons.
Who makes SeaMonkey?
Lots of people. See Help->About Mozilla SeaMonkey, contributors for a list of some of the people who have contributed to Mozilla and SeaMonkey.
Where's the SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 source code?
A tarball of the SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 1 source code is available at the download page. The latest development code can be obtained from the source repository. SeaMonkey-specific source is in the "suite" directory. Please follow the build instructions.