27th Nov 2019 The Fate of the Internet Suite

With the SeaMonkey 2.49.5 release the 2.49.x line comes to an end. Unless a catastrophic bug is discovered 2.49.5 will be the last ESR 52 based version. Backporting security fixes and at the same time working on the next, already overdue, major release is not possible with the few remaining developers.n

Plans are to do further interim 2.53 versions based on a much enhanced Gecko 56 base while working on bringing you the next ESR 60 based 2.57 version. After 2.57 we will decide about the future. The current Mozilla Gecko codebase has seen a flow of constant major changes and api removals in the last 2 years and is no longer really usable for our needs. By the end of the year the SeaMonkey project is expected to be completely independent of Mozilla. We will see how this pans out but we are doing our best and already have a new infrastructure in place where we do builds and website hosting.n

We would also like to remind everyone again that this a community project independent of Mozilla. So if you want to continue seeing future SeaMonkey releases please help by either donating money or even better help out with development. We are still committed and hope you are too. n

I first dialed into the Internet during the Summer of 1995 and Netscape 2.0 was my browser.nBesides being a great browser, Netscape 2.0 also included a full mail reader called Netscape Mail,nmaking it one of the first Internet Suites.

Since the demise of Netscape Communications and the advent of Mac OS X,nI have switched browsers several times (Camino, Safari, SeaMonkey, then Firefox),nbut the idea of a Internet Suite — a one click stop for email, RSS, newsgroups, and the Web — still sounds appealing.

I am sorry to hear SeaMonkey is suffering,nbut hopefully new sponsors and a few generous donations will turn the fate of the Internet Suite around for the few of us who still browse different.