Been waiting long for Mozilla 1.0? Well, the wait for this open-source browser just got a bit longer.
As usual, the Mozilla.org team responded to user criticism of Release Candidate 1 and wisely decided to work out a few kinks in a second release candidate, thus delaying the final 1.0 release. RC 2 doesn't deliver any significant new tools, features, or functions in the meantime, but its bug fixes make for a slightly more stable and usable browser. Unfortunately, RC 2 still has a few rough edges, which we hope Mozilla smoothes out by version 1.0.
Java done right
According to Mozilla.org, the Mozilla browser RC 1 should have no trouble running Java applets on PCs that, among other things, already contain the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.3.0_01. However, in our informal testing of RC 1, we couldn't always get Java applets to work, no matter which JRE we used. But apparently, RC 2 has licked that problem, even on Windows XP, where we never got Java to work with RC 1.
Better e-mail privacy
One minor new feature in RC 2 aims to close a security hole caused by the spam e-mail that secretly plants cookies on your PC. This leaves you vulnerable not only to spammers, who use cookies to track whether you read the spam and click links therein, but also to crackers, who want to know when you're online. Mozilla 1.0 RC 2 now gives you the ability to reject cookies when you're reading e-mail and newsgroup postings. Go to the Edit > Preferences menu and click the plus sign next to the Privacy And Security label to show several subheadings. Click the Cookies subheading to see all of the cookie options. To disable e-mail cookies, simply check the "Disable cookies in mail and newsgroups" option, then click OK.
Lingering bugs
Unfortunately, RC 2 still contains a few bugs. For example, in Windows XP, although Mozilla's Cookie Manager (Tools > Cookie Manager > Manage Stored Cookies) lists all the cookies stored in your browser, Mozilla doesn't display a scroll bar to let you skim that list. Instead, you must click one of the cookies, then use your keyboard's up/down arrows or Page Up/Page Down keys to scroll through the list. This is annoying when you have a really long list of cookies and you're trying to find and delete a specific one.
Same old, same old
Otherwise, RC 2 hasn't changed much, and that's both a good and a bad thing. At this late stage, Mozilla engineers should stick to polishing existing features rather than overhauling them. The improved e-mail client hasn't changed, and the browser seems just as fast as RC 1, according to our unofficial tests. But Mozilla still hasn't fixed the Netscape 6.x incompatibility issues we noted in the first release candidate. To recap: When we installed Netscape 6.2.2 and Mozilla on our Windows XP test machine, the sidebars, the panes that display bookmarks and similar items, disappeared in both browsers.
Need help? Do it yourself
Mozilla's tech support hasn't changed either. Since Mozilla is freeware, it has no huge support department to help you debug problems. Mozilla.org hosts some newsgroups, but they're aimed at developers, not end users, so you're pretty much on your own.
So close you can smell it
Slowly but surely, the Mozilla team is squishing major bugs. RC 2's remaining issues, in fact, are fairly minor; plenty of commercial software ships as finished with much more serious bugs. We figure Mozilla's in pretty good shape heading into the homestretch. Stay tuned for the final analysis.
Mozilla 1.0 Release Candidate 2
Company: Mozilla
Price: Free download
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