Product Description

Firefox is a fast, free Internet browser from Mozilla that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux Computers. According to spreadfirefox.com, to-date there have been ~ 23 million downloads since the release of Firefox 1.0 in September 2004, and MS IE usage has been dropping at the same time. Thunderbird has seen more than 2 million downloads. It is an email, RSS, and newsgroup client that is designed to make email safer, faster, and easier. Firefox and Thunderbird Garage is a book dedicated to helping readers get the most out of these new programs from download to installation to configuration. This book includes extensive information on how to take advantage of all of the additional features of the browser and email client to meet individual needs and interests. It also covers migrating from existing programs to ease the transition process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #762591 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover

Welcome to the next Internet revolution

Enter your Firefox and Thunderbird Garage...where you master the incredible free software that's helping millions of people use the Web and email faster, more efficiently, and more safely. Your guides know Firefox and Thunderbird better than anyone. They're the Mozilla insiders who helped create them—sparking a new Internet revolution, in which real people take back the Internet from monopolists, spammers, and spyware artists!

The basics are just the beginning: this book shows how to customize and extend Firefox and Thunderbird so they'll work exactly the way you want, and do more than you ever thought possible. We're talking better productivity, faster searches, easier downloads, and more fun.

• Discover why Firefox and Thunderbird blow away Internet Explorer and Outlook Express

• Make Firefox even more secure: Manage passwords, clean caches and history, and more

• Trash unwanted popups, ads, and other Web annoyances

• Make the most of Firefox's built-in search tools and shortcuts

• Create "live bookmarks" that update automatically

• Harness tabbed browsing to get more done faster

• Download files more quickly and reliably

• Install today's hottest Firefox and Thunderbird plug-ins

• Set up email, RSS, and newsgroup accounts fast—and manage them efficiently

• Organize the messages you want, and dump the messages you don't want

• Get under the hood! Hack Firefox and Thunderbird configuration files

• Includes quick-references to keyboard/mouse shortcuts, security, and more

With its easy, quick-learning modules, insider tips, rants, and blog entries, Firefox and Thunderbird Garage is far more than a software manual: it's your guide to the new Internet revolution!

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

About the Author

About the Authors

Chris Hofmann is Director of Engineering at the Mozilla Foundation. For eight years, he worked at Netscape and was involved in every Netscape and Mozilla Browser release since Netscape 3.01. In August 2003 he was hired as the first employee at the Mozilla Foundation and spent the first 18 months in startup mode, working with the small team that has been successful in getting the Mozilla Foundation off the ground and running as a independent and self-sustaining organization and continuing to organize the work of thousands of open source contributors to make great Internet software. In 2004, he contributed a wide variety of management efforts that led to the worldwide release of Firefox 1.0 in November, and is helping to fulfill the Mozilla Foundation's goal of continuing to support open web standards and provide innovation and choice for Internet client software.

Marcia Knous is a Project Manager at the Mozilla Foundation and has been working with the Mozilla Project for five years. She is involved with both the Firefox and Thunderbird projects. In the freelance realm, she is a frequent contributor to a number of online websites, including http://www.fanstop.com, where she writes a weekly NFL column called Monday Night Musings. In addition, she has written dozens of online articles about the historical contributions women have made to the world of sports. Marcia has a Masters in Cinema-Television and enjoys working on films in her spare time. She recently wrapped up cinematography on the documentary Common Hours. Born and raised in the splendid confines of New England, Marcia now resides in the Bay Area.

John Hedtke has written 24 books, close to 100 magazine articles, and hundreds of manuals and online help systems for all kinds of technical and non-technical documentation for all levels of readers. John owns and operates a company that provides writing, consulting, and training services to private and government clients in all fields. He also speaks to professional groups all over the world on subjects such as career planning, time management, and writing books and magazine articles. John is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. In his spare time, John writes buttons for a button company in California, donates blood, and sings and plays banjo and guitar (something he's been doing since 1971). He says he gets a lot of requests when he plays the banjo, but he goes ahead and plays it anyhow. A long-time resident of Seattle, John now lives in Eugene, OR, with his amazingly patient wife, Marilyn, where they share four cats. He can be reached through his website, http://www.hedtke.com.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Forword

The Internet has become central to our lives—it’s how we communicate, find, and share information with colleagues, friends, and family. It has permeated the fabric of our lives to the point where its enticements can now be found on prominent display on television, print media, movies, and any other form of advertising you care to think of. The Internet has grown so rapidly and taken such a hold, not just because of its fundamental utility, but also because of the ease of which people are able to make use of it. In the 1980s, for the first time computer software evolved to a point where it was possible for ordinary people to transmit and receive information through networks. The early 1990s followed with the development of the World Wide Web and software designed to navigate it—web browsers. The rich nature of the web with its graphics, flexible presentation options, and open construction made it easy for people to connect, contribute, and benefit. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, software vendors have focused on making connecting to the Internet as simple as possible. They have had a large degree of success. In 2002, the CIA’s The World Factbook estimated 159 million Internet users in the United States alone.

With so many people using the Internet and the technology behind computers still being something of a mystery to most of us, in the past few years, Internet users came under attack. Computers began to slow down and crash. Data was lost or, even worse, stolen. The web experience began to degrade as more and more sites began showing popup windows with advertising. Junk email was on the rise. It became harder and harder to get value out of the Internet when much of people’s time was spent dealing with this new generation of digital annoyances. The situation was in part due to the open design of the underlying systems—Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook/Outlook Express were never intended to be exploited in such ways, in part due to tricks of social engineering and in part due to flaws in the Internet software most people used. Microsoft had won market dominance after several years of fiercely competitive battle with Netscape Communications Corporation and ended up distributing its software to every user of Microsoft Windows, in effect becoming the portal to the Internet for most people.

Microsoft designed Internet Explorer to be a developer’s paradise, an extensive programming API that allowed for rich content and add-ons to be effortlessly deployed to thousands of users. With the flexibility came a price, however—it was not long before individuals sought to capitalize on users’ lack of understanding to foist “spyware” software onto their machines: key loggers, data grabbers, popup ad generators, viruses, and other deviants. Microsoft Outlook suffered a similar set of problems whereby users could inadvertently run malicious programs attached to unsolicited email.

One of Netscape’s last great acts was to open its client development process with the creation of mozilla.org in 1998—the source code of its web browser and email reader would be opened for all to read, understand, and contribute to. Two and a half years after the source release in November of 2000, Netscape released Netscape 6.0 based on the results of this effort to date. The product was exceptionally buggy, slow, and laden with misguided attempts to make a quick buck from browser users. It was a product marketing disaster, and much of the remaining user base abandoned Netscape for Internet Explorer. But the core was solid, and Netscape and the open source community continued to develop the browser over the following years, improving the performance, stability, and features. Security was always important to Netscape and its customers, so the software was designed with a more restrictive view of how content should be handled.

Eventually, a group of us who had worked for Netscape during the 6.0 development cycle and some others from the Mozilla community decided that the secret to better success in the marketplace was better presentation—more of a focus on relating to the user, more focus on simplicity of purpose, and then selling the resulting software on those strengths first to a technically adept set of early adopters and then to the world as a whole. It was this set of ideals that led to the formation of the Firefox browser project, initially known as Phoenix and Firebird and the Thunderbird Email project.

By staying true to these principles, the relentless pursuit of perfection in the details of user conversion, and optimizing common tasks such as searching for and managing information while staying true to some of the original design philosophies of Mozilla and Netscape software, we have created a useful tool that is also remarkably successful at keeping much of today’s Internet nastiness at bay.

That said, no software is perfect, and, as I have said, many exploits are cunning tricks of social engineering. What is really called for is an increased awareness from people as to what’s going on when they browse the web. We’ve tried to make increased awareness easier in Firefox and Thunderbird, and we will continue to develop them to better alert you when we think you might be going down an undesirable path. But fundamentally, the more you know about the way your software and the Internet works, the safer you’ll be from exploitation.

This book should give you a better understanding of what makes Firefox and Thunderbird tick, how to get the most out of them so that you get the most out of the Internet, and how to stay safe when you’re online. I hope you enjoy your Internet experience with Mozilla software. Stay safe out there.

—Ben Goodger, Lead Engineer, Firefox Project

Customer Reviews

For Beginners
Ever since software stopped shipping with printed user manuals, users new to a software package typically look for an introductory text to familiarize themselves with the program if that program is not self-explanatory. For those new users to FireFox and Thunderbird, this title provides just such an introduction. For the most part, this title overviews the programs from the perspective of the user, covering the basic interface and dialogs spawned by toolbar and menu items. Readers should not expect to get any deeper into the applications than what is immediately available within the Options dialogs.

In regards to the FireFox section of this title, showing the information they do in a straight-forward manner would have resulted a text one third as long as what they printed. To flesh this out, the authors have both taken the position that readers are not only new to FireFox, but new to internet browsing in general, and have added both very remedial information as well as a huge amount of filler. For instance, an entire chapter appropriately titled "Websites to Waste Your Time With" does nothing more than provide you eight solid pages of links to web sites that you can - waste your time with. Another chapter appears to be a dedicated advertisement for a blog managing extension download. And as a last example, one chapter has a two page table that covers what each toolbar button does, including a picture, name, and description (such as "New Window: Does the same as the File | New Windows command").

For the Thunderbird section, much of the same fluffed up information as presented in the FireFox section can be found. However, as an email client is a more complicated application than a browser, this section can serve as an excellent Wizard (if you will) for guiding the user thru the often difficult task of account setup and migration, as well as learning how to use the Thunderbird interface instead of your current email program.

Only those that are looking for a beginners guide for FireFox and Thunderbird should consider this title. The book definitely covers the basics of the applications and does so in a way that is easy for the reader to understand and follow. Those that just want the facts and would prefer not to have to sift thru fluff and personal opinion may find this text trying at times, but will get the information they need. Much of the information presented in the book is also presented for free in the on-line help included with both applications, but readers will find value in the extra programs and links presented throughout the chapters.

A great book for beginners.
I started using Mozilla when it was still in beta mode and then progressed to Firefox when that came out in beta. Since then, the only time that I use IE is when there are pages that will not render correctly in Firefox. I have also been successful in converting several people at work including my manager to Firefox. The rumor mill has it that our VP of Information Technology is a big fan of Firefox to the point that he is considering making Firefox the preferred browser.

This book covers Firefox and Thunderbird in two independent sections, which is only appropriate since they're two separate programs. The writing, however, is consistent throughout. Unlike other books that I have reviewed that have multiple authors, this book does not exude a conflict in writing styles. That and the easy-going style indicative of the Garage series make this an easy book to read and follow.

I was impressed that security is considered to be the most important aspect of Firefox, second only the actual installation. Chapter two covers the various aspects of security in Firefox, including cookies, pop-up blocking, passwords, plug-in installation, and others, explaining what each of these bits of the Internet are and how they can affect the user's privacy and security, making most of these issues understandable to novices.

The section about Thunderbird follows the same format. The first chapter explains how Thunderbird differs from Firefox as well as the multi-OS installation techniques. The book even explains all of the libraries that are necessary with Thunderbird on Linux. This is nice considering that libraries are often the bane of new, Linux users.

One thing that's odd is that Firefox and Thunderbird are not included with book. I know that combined they're only about 10 MB worth of downloads, which is nothing compared to service pack 1 for Internet Explorer 6 which comes in at a whopping 61 MB; but what better way to entice people to use Firefox than to give it to them right there? One of the small, three-inch CDs would have been more than sufficient to hold the applications and perhaps some of the plug-ins and third-party utilities. I know that 10 MB is not a lot, but I also know people who will not even download files that are that big when what they have (namely Internet Explorer) already works.

Firefox and Thunderbird Garage is a great book for anyone who wants to get away (or anyone whom you would like to get away) from Outlook and Internet Explorer. Lots of screen shots, an easy-to-follow format, and good organization make this a book that all, new Firefox and Thunderbird converts should have next to them at all times.

Great for those new to browsers and email clients
This is an excellent volume for newcomers.

Unlike `Firefox Hacks' which has information for beginners, power users, programmers and web designers `F & T' is squarely and firmly a beginner's book - though it has some material useful for those who have been using the software for a short time. `F & T' provides its value by covering both the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email client with just under two thirds of the book devoted to Firefox.

The book starts with a chapter devoted to the absolute beginning covering such topics as why and what is Firefox as well as installation, importing settings and bookmarks from other browsers and finding your way around the window. `F & T' then continues, explaining in a careful, step by step manner, all that a user might need to know about browsing the net with Firefox.

When I first noticed that `F & T' devoted almost twice as much space to Firefox as Thunderbird I feared that the Thunderbird section had been added to pad the book out without really covering the software properly. Fortunately my fears were unfounded, it is just that Thunderbird is that little bit simpler. Not being a Thunderbird user (I use Google Mail in Firefox) I fired it up and worked through the second section of the book. I discovered that `F & T' covers all the necessary information for getting the best out of Thunderbird for the average user and that little bit more that makes you feel like a power user.

The book finishes with four appendices that cover the shortcuts and menu commands for each program, one on hacking the preferences using about:config and editing the user.js file and a final one that covers digital certificates.

After reading this book and working through about half the chapters I have yet to find any egregious errors or appalling editing. Overall the style is good, though sometimes a little flippant and sometimes a little dry, it feels like there was a good strong hand editing. I find the `dirty' font used in some headings a little hard to read in the sidebars. I appreciate the stylistic quirkiness and `garage' feel but it might have been better a few points larger for my aging eyes. The body type is also a little light for reading in less than ideal lighting.

This is not really a book for geeks. I suspect that anyone who reads Slashdot would think it too basic and too plodding. Having once again found myself supporting "the average user" I'm realising that books for users who have no real interest or expertise in computers need to be basic and step by step. `F & T' seems to me to be perfectly pitched for a book I would recommend to my mother or a friend who wanted a book to help them move away from proprietary `net tools to these open source programs. The `Garage' series seems to be growing as an alternative to that other series of books for beginners, and one that doesn't feel the need to treat users as dummies. While the `Garage' series are definitely pitched at the beginner, they assume a decent level of intelligence and some ability to explore on your own.

If you would like a closer look at the book then you can visit the Prentice Hall site for the book for the table of contents, preface, foreword and two example chapters. Like all Prentice Hall book pages all of these apart from the table of contents are PDF files.

I currently work on a large campus supporting Macintosh users where I find the most common browser unstable and lacking in features and the most common email client just a little buggy and lacking in good support (neither are the free products provided by Apple). I think that a quick install and a copy of this book would solve a number of my problems. I would recommend this volume to all those who want a good beginner to mid level user volume on two excellent pieces of software. I would prefer to recommend this book to a beginner than any other on the topic I have seen as it doesn't attempt to cover too much of the learning curve, rather it goes for width, covering both pieces of software and more of each that might be of interest to the early user.