Beonex Communicator Explained

Beonex Communicator
Author:Ben Bucksch
Developer:Beonex Business Services
Released:Never
Latest Preview Version:0.8.2-stable
Latest Preview Date:21 March 2003
Operating System:Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD
Genre:Internet suite
Discontinued:yes
License:MPL/Netscape Public License[1]
Language:English, German
Programming Language:C++, XUL, XBL, JavaScript

Beonex Communicator is a discontinued open-source Internet suite based on the Mozilla Application Suite (MAS) by Ben Bucksch, a German Mozilla developer.[2] It was intended to have a higher security and privacy level than other commercial products.[3] [4] The Internet suite contains a Web browser, an email and news client, an HTML editor (based on Mozilla Composer) and an IRC client (based on ChatZilla).[5] [6]

Beonex Business Services offered the suite for free and provided documentation, easy install routines for third-party plug-ins, and tried to sell support and customer-specific changes on the browser.[7] [8] The main goal was to implement Kerberos, OpenPGP, and LDAP in Beonex,[9] but that was marked as failed in mid-2004.[10] It was discontinued before reaching production release stage.

History

Mozilla Organization stated that the Mozilla Application Suite was only for developers and testing purposes and was not meant for end users.[11] [12] [13] [14]

On 5 January 2001 Beonex was included in the Linux distribution kmLinux version S-0.4, but was removed in version S-0.5 released on 23 March 2001.[15] Beonex 0.8 was released in June 2002 received positive reviews about its speed.[16]

Beonex Launcher (BeOL, spoken B-O-L), was an additional upcoming product that never left alpha status; it was a stripped-down version of Beonex Communicator: a Web browser combined with an email client and a chat client.[17]

With a few preview releases of version 0.9 in mid-2002, Bucksch showed some new features he wanted to integrate, but before this version gained a stable status, he announced on 2 March 2004 that no new releases were planned until the Mozilla Foundation decided its future policy.[18] In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation officially changed its policies and created the Mozilla Corporation to provide end-user support.

Beonex Communicator 0.8.2-stable has several known security issues.[19] Beonex never received much market share.

In October 2020, the distributor of Beonex joined the Coalition for App Fairness, which defends the rights of app developers.[20]

Comparison with Netscape and MAS

The browser does not transmit referrers by default and has the possibility to create a fake referrers.[21] The browser deletes all cookies upon exiting and disables several JavaScript functions which could have served as attack vectors.[22] [23] Beonex also allows changing the user agent.[24]

In the following comparison table not all releases of Netscape and MAS are included. For a more complete table see Gecko (layout engine).

Mozilla Application SuiteNetscapeBeonex Communicator
VersionRelease date
0.66.00.6[25] 14 November 2000
0.9.26.1
0.9.46.2
0.9.4.16.2.20.78 November 2001
1.00.8[26] 5 June 2002
1.0.17.00.8.1[27] 19 September 2002
1.0.27.01 and 7.020.8.2[28] 10 March 2003
1.10.9pre27 August 2002

Differences from Netscape

In contrast with Netscape, Beonex has included nearly the same features except the proprietary parts like the integrated Net2Phone,[29] and the AOL Instant Messenger. For online chatting, ChatZilla was integrated[30] and the sidebar and the search engines are also pre-configured.[31] Beonex is less resource-intensive than Netscape.[32]

Beonex includes a migration tool to import old profiles from Netscape Communicator.

Differences from MAS

Beonex Communicator was not a fork of MAS; rather, it was a separate branch, so no significant changes were made.[33] HTML email and JavaScript are turned off by default and thus, it displays email only in plain text with bold and cursive additions[34] which were added later in MAS 1.1.[35] The search engines is compatible with the Mycroft project and is located in the sidebar providing more features.[36]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Legal notices. Ben. Beonex Communicator. 28 January 2011. Bucksch. https://web.archive.org/web/20110203045459/http://www.beonex.com/communicator/legal/. 3 February 2011. dead.
  2. Web site: Mozilla-Entwickler mit eigener Browser-Distribution. 14 November 2000. de. 29 January 2011. Heinz Heise.
  3. LinuxUser. Frische Ware. de. 1 February 2011. February 2001. Andreas. Huchler.
  4. Personal Computer Magazine. nl. February 2004. 96, 97. Alternative Browsers. Peter. D'Hollander. 0772-8077.
  5. Web site: Beonex. 1 February 2011. 4 June 2002. Kefk Network. https://web.archive.org/web/20110723172807/http://kefk.net/Open_Source/FS/Beonex/index.html. 23 July 2011. dead.
  6. Web site: Beonex User Agent Strings. 1 February 2011. UserAgentString.Com. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110126084507/http://www.useragentstring.com/pages/Beonex/. 26 January 2011.
  7. Web site: de. https://web.archive.org/web/20041016061010/http://www.blindschleiche.de/shownews.php3/258. Vielversprechender Netscape 6 Konkurrent. 16 October 2004. 29 January 2011. 26 November 2000. Blindschleiche.de.
  8. Web site: Just browsing, thanks. 4 April 2011. 30 November 2003. Eric. IDG. ComputerUser. Foster-Johnson. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110720173155/http://www.computeruser.com/articles/just-browsing-thanks.html. 20 July 2011.
  9. Web site: Announcing Beonex. 29 January 2011. Mozillazine. Mozilla. 29 November 2000.
  10. Web site: Bug 124026 – Roaming – funding via Beonex. Mozilla. 24 May 2004. 30 January 2011.
  11. News: технологии – Mozilla празднует 10-летие. 23 January 2008. CyberSecurity.ru. ru. 30 January 2011.
  12. Web site: Über Mozilla . 30 January 2011 . Holger . Metzger . de . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110719041457/http://www.holgermetzger.de/faqabout.html . 19 July 2011 .
    shorten English version available here
  13. Zahmes Monster. 2002. de. 13. 218. C't. Heinz Heise. Karsten. Violka.
  14. Surfen ohne e – Mit Opera und Mozilla sicherer ins Netz. 2002. de. 25. 106. C't. Heinz Heise. Jo. Bager.
  15. Web site: Entwicklungsgeschichte. 1 February 2011. 6 December 2004. Schleswig-Holstein. 19 August 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100819141858/http://www.lernnetz-sh.de/kmLinux/changes.html. dead.
  16. Jagdgesellschaft . Oliver . 2 . Kluge . 2002 . 12 . 29 January 2011 . de . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110928110158/http://www.linux-magazin.de/Heft-Abo/Ausgaben/2002/12/Jagdgesellschaft/%28offset%29 . 28 September 2011 .
  17. Web site: Ben. Bucksch. Beonex Communicator. BeOL. 7 February 2011.
  18. LinuxUser. Soll der Fuchs ihn holen. de. 7 February 2011. September 2005. Oliver. Kluge. 9.
  19. Web site: Mozilla Browser Cross Domain Violation Vulnerability. Security Focus. 29 January 2011. 16 April 2003. 6 October 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111006045847/http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/7363. dead.
  20. Web site: Coalition for App Fairness, a group fighting for app store reforms, adds 20 new partners. 2020-11-25. TechCrunch. en-US.
  21. Web site: Digitale Spuren – Surfer hinterlassen im Netz Spuren. de. 1 February 2011. 31 January 2003. Christiane. Schulzki-Haddouti. Heinz Heise. Telepolis.
  22. Web site: Beonex-Browser: Mozilla 1.0 mit mehr Sicherheitsfunktionen. 7 June 2002. Golem.de. 30 January 2011.
  23. LinuxUser. Tore zur WWWelt – Sieben aktuelle Web-Browser im Vergleich. de. 8 February 2011. March 2001. 3. Andreas. Huchler.
  24. Web site: http://www.computerra.ru/hitech/32389/print.html. Константин. Лепихов. 17 March 2004. ru:Прыткая ящерица. Computerra.ru. ru. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927014052/http://www.computerra.ru/hitech/32389/print.html. 27 September 2011.
  25. Web site: News. 28 January 2011. Beonex Communicator. Ben. 12 March 2003. Bucksch. https://web.archive.org/web/20110709035418/http://www.beonex.com/support/announce/news.html. 9 July 2011. dead.
  26. Web site: de. Open-Source-Browser Beonex Communicator in Version 0.8. 7 June 2002. 5 April 2011. Heinz Heise.
  27. Web site: 0.8.1. Beonex Communicator. Ben. 29 January 2011. Bucksch. https://web.archive.org/web/20110718095246/http://www.beonex.com/communicator/version/0.8/release-notes/security-alert/081.html. 18 July 2011. dead.
  28. Web site: Release-notes. 29 January 2011. Beonex Communicator. Ben. Bucksch. https://web.archive.org/web/20110707224645/http://www.beonex.com/communicator/version/0.8/release-notes/. 7 July 2011. dead.
  29. Web site: https://web.archive.org/web/20021203134841/http://www.giga.de/dbout/reporter5/fullstories/nr20925.html. 3 December 2002. Zweiter Ableger vom Mozilla. GIGA Television. de. 29 January 2011.
  30. World Wide Web. 2001. de. 1. 26. iX. Heinz Heise. Henning. Behme.
  31. Web site: 29 January 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20020612045509/http://www.linux-community.de/Neues/story?storyid=691. Slimfast für Mozilla. 12 June 2002 . Fionn. Behrens. Linux-Community.de. de. 2 December 2000.
  32. Web site: Netscape 6: Fett, aber schnell (Update). 14 November 2000. de. 29 January 2011. Heinz Heise.
  33. Web site: We are accepting patches. 30 January 2011. Beonex Communicator. Ben. Bucksch.
  34. Nur-Text-Mails im Mozilla. 2002. de. 17. 188. C't. Heinz Heise. Karsten. 7 February 2011. Violka.
  35. Web site: Mozilla 1.1 Alpha ist da. Golem.de. de. 7 March 2011. 12 June 2002.
  36. Browser Comparison. 29 January 2011. 1 March 2002. Ralph. Krause. Linux Journal.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Beonex Communicator".

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