SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey
Company type	Free and open-source software project
Industry	Internet software
Founded	2005; 21 years ago
Founder	SeaMonkey Council (community-managed)
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	SeaMonkey Council
Products	Internet suite (web browser, email client, HTML editor, IRC client)
Owner	Community-managed project
Website	www.seamonkey-project.org

SeaMonkey is a free and open-source Internet suite that carries forward the heritage of the former Mozilla Application Suite by utilizing the same source code. This suite traces its roots back to Netscape Communicator and served as the foundation for both Netscape 6 and Netscape 7.

Founded in 2005 after the Mozilla Foundation redirected its efforts toward independent projects such as Firefox and Thunderbird, SeaMonkey’s development is now managed by the community through the SeaMonkey Council, in contrast to its predecessor which was overseen by the Mozilla Foundation.

The SeaMonkey browser preserves the classic design reminiscent of Netscape and the Mozilla Application Suite, setting it apart from Firefox. Additionally, it continues to support the older XPCOM-based extension framework, allowing users to enhance functionality with add-ons originally created for Thunderbird or earlier Firefox editions prior to their transition to WebExtensions.

Components

SeaMonkey includes a web browser that descends from the Netscape lineage, an email and news client (SeaMonkey Mail & Newsgroups) which shares its codebase with Mozilla Thunderbird, an HTML editor known as SeaMonkey Composer, and an IRC client called (ChatZilla). The suite offers support for skins, featuring two default themes: Modern and Classic.

Mail

SeaMonkey Mail functions as a traditional email client supporting multiple accounts, spam filtering, message rules, HTML email rendering, address books, and calendar integration. It is developed using the Mozilla comm-central source tree shared with Thunderbird.

Composer

SeaMonkey Composer is a WYSIWYG HTML editor that evolved from Mozilla Composer. Its user interface provides tabs for Normal (WYSIWYG), HTML tags view, raw HTML code editing, and browser preview, generating HTML 4.01 Transitional compliant markup.

Naming

To differentiate it from the original Mozilla Application Suite, the software was renamed SeaMonkey on July 2, 2005. The term "Seamonkey" (with a lowercase "m") refers to brine shrimp and had previously been used internally by Netscape and Mozilla as a codename for unreleased projects. This replaced an earlier internal name considered unsuitable.

The SeaMonkey Council secured trademark rights for the name with backing from the Mozilla Foundation. The project follows its own version numbering beginning at SeaMonkey 1.0, which is directly based on Mozilla Application Suite 1.7 source code.

Because of trademark and copyright considerations, Debian rebranded SeaMonkey as Iceape until 2013.

History

On March 10, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation declared it would discontinue official releases of the Mozilla Application Suite beyond version 1.7.x, choosing instead to concentrate on standalone applications like Firefox and Thunderbird. Nevertheless, it maintained support for community-driven development infrastructure by transferring responsibility for suite development to the SeaMonkey Council.

SeaMonkey’s first public release occurred on September 15, 2005, followed by version 1 on January 30, 2006.

The primary Mozilla project source code was distributed under a tri-license arrangement (later updated to MPL 2.0), offering licensing options among the Mozilla Public License, version 1.1 or later; the GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later; and the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 or later.

Release history

The following table outlines the timeline of SeaMonkey releases along with their notable updates, compiled from official release notes and status meeting records.

Release history
Gecko branch	Version	Release date	Key enhancements and modifications
1.8	1.0 alpha	September 15, 2005
1.8	1.0 beta	December 19, 2005	Default activation of SVG graphics support.
1.8.0	1.0	January 30, 2006	Official launch of version 1.0.
	1.0.1	April 13, 2006	Introduced security patches and added native support for Intel-based Macs (Universal Binary).
	1.0.2 – 1.0.9	April – May 2007	Focused on enhancing stability and security; marked the conclusion of the SeaMonkey 1.0.x series.
	1.8.1	1.1 alpha – beta	August – November 2006	Significant feature development phase.
		1.1 – 1.1.19	January 2007 – March 2010	Continued improvements in stability and security; final versions supporting Windows 98/Me and Solaris 10.
		1.9.1	2.0 alpha – RC	October 2008 – October 2009	Shifted to a new toolkit along with major feature introductions.
			2.0 – 2.0.14	October 2009 – April 2011	Enhanced stability and security; last releases compatible with Mac OS X Tiger and PowerPC-based Macs.
			11.0 to ! rowspan=39 \|60.8 and later	... [Table continues with condensed entries emphasizing official releases, critical stability and security updates, changes in platform compatibility, and omitted versions due to technical complications] ...		2.53.20	January 7, 2025

External links

Mozilla Foundation (March 10, 2005). Mozilla Application Suite - Transition Plan. Accessed March 10, 2005.
MozillaZine (June 6, 2005). Community Mozilla Application Suite Project Not Renamed Yet. Accessed June 6, 2005.
Adot's Notblog (June 6, 2005). It's not a renaming and it's not official. Accessed June 20, 2005.
SeaMonkey Council (July 2, 2005). SeaMonkey Project Continues Internet Suite. Accessed July 3, 2005.