GNU/Linux

The new browser: Mozilla

Mozillais a new browser available for Linux ...and for Windows and for MacOS and for OS/2.. It's based in the sourcecode made available by Netscape from its latest browser, version 5 (although it's on the market under the name "Netscape 6"). This browser is very advanced, it is distributed under a licence similar to the GPL, supports Themes and, overall, is a more modern browser than Netscape Communicator 4.x

But, of course, it has some drawacks: it is still in a beta stage (although it works pretty well), requires lots of RAM and CPU cycles, it takes a while since you "click" and you get the window, and, the worst thing, getting Java to work is, at least, not intuitive at all. Let's work on that last point.

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Java in Mozilla

Scenario: you are browsing with your shinning Mozilla, you get to a page that uses Java and it does not work. But you get a window saying "To view this page, you need the Java Plugin. Do you want to download it?" . We answer [YES]. We get a page where Netscape asks if we want Java Plugin either for Windows or for Linux. We choose Linux, we download the plugin, it looks like it gets installed, it says that everything is OK, we re-start Mozilla... but, again, it does not work!

To solve this situation, first we need to have installed either JDK or JRE from Java, with version 1.3.0 or better. Install it as user root.

Next, you need to create a simbolic link from the file /usr/java/jdk1.3.0_01/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so (if you have JDK version 1.3.0_01, for example), or from the file /usr/java/jre1.3.0_02/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so (if you have JRE version 1.3.0_02, for example), inside the directory /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ (or to the directory where you have installed Mozilla). Start Mozilla, first as user root, close Mozilla and now start it as a regular user. It works!

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Plugins in Mozilla

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