DaniWeb IT Discussion Community - Confused about Mozilla flavors

Quote:

Originally Posted by cscgal

I'm confused about the different Mozilla flavors. I understand that FireFox is the browser and Thunderbird is an e-mail client ... If I were to download the Mozilla suite, would that include both, or is the Mozlla browser (that is part of the Mozilla suite) somewhat different from the FireFox browser? Is Camino simply FireFox with an OS X GUI or is it different? What is the difference between installing the Mozilla Camino browser on my mac ... and skinning the FireFox browser on my mac with a custom theme? (Sorry, I don't mean to start talking about OS X in a Windows forum ... this is just a general mozilla question)

Firefox is basically a lite version of Mozilla. It was started off as an offshoot of Mozilla Corp. to be a streamlined, less bulky, fast browser with the basic functions needed in a browser. However, it still includes things like tabbed browsing and popup blockers, and there are a huge amount of extensions available for download if you need more features. The Mozilla suite would come with the Mozilla browser (bulkier, more features, takes longer to load) and Thunderbird.

Then the difference between Camino and Firefox is basically that although they use the same rendering engine - Gecko - Camino was built on the Mac OS native user interface (Cocoa), so it has a more native Mac feel and better integration with Mac utilities like Address Book, Rendezvous, and Keychain. Firefox has the cross-platform compatible XUL interface, which allows you to use add ons made for other platforms on your Mac (and most aren't normally made for Macs).

I use a Windows platform, and I personally prefer Firefox to Mozilla (although with some very necessary extensions).