14 DAY TRIAL // The Mozilla-backed, SeaMonkey project has released SeaMonkey 2.4 Beta 2, the latest testing version of the upcoming all-in-one internet suite, based on the underpinnings of Firefox 7.
Naturally, SeaMonkey 2.4 Beta 2 benefits from all of the enhancements and improvements in the upcoming Firefox 7, which is also in beta. However, apart from some minor fixes, the latest major version of the internet suite doesn't really bring anything new.
"SeaMonkey 2.4 Beta 2 is now available for free download on the SeaMonkey website. We encourage testers to get involved in discussing and reporting problems as well as further improving the product," read the boilerplate announcement.
If you're really curious about what's new, here's a rundown of fixes on Beta 2:
- An Ampersand (&) on the URL broke Translate Page; - 'news:' URIs could not be opened in a new tab/window; - Tags were lost with condstore servers.
And here are the fixes from the first beta, compared to SeaMonkey 2.3:
- Some parts of Sync setup and preferences (e.g. Change Password and My Sync Key) were not working anymore; - Bookmark This Group of Tabs was greyed out after restart with session restore; - Some icons in the Add-ons Manager were missing with the Modern theme.
But don't let the short list of improvements discourage you, SeaMonkey 2.4 is a worthwhile upgrade, for the under-the-hood improvements inherited from Firefox 7 alone.
One of the biggest improvements is a great reduction in memory usage. A big undertaking at the Mozilla development team led to several fixes and changes in the way Firefox uses and frees up memory.
This should result in not only a lower memory footprint, but also less memory leaks, meaning that you'll be able to run the browser for hours on end and it will still be as fresh as when you first launched it.
SeaMonkey for Windows is available for download here. SeaMonkey for Linux is available for
download here.
SeaMonkey for Mac OS X is available for download here.