thunderbird

A new Mozilla Foundation effort to improve its Thunderbird open-source e-mail software now has an official name--and its first public goals.

Thunderbird 3.0 is due to ship by the end of the year with a more comprehensive search feature and official integration of the Lightning calendar add-on, said David Ascher, chief executive of the newly named Mozilla Messaging subsidiary. The first alpha release will come sooner, though, for those who want to test the software.

"I'm expecting we'll have some public releases probably within three months," Ascher said.

Mozilla is best known for its success with the Firefox browser, which has dented Microsoft Internet Explorer's dominance and sparked programmers to build a rich selection of extensions. Now the group is trying to apply the formula to e-mail software. Even though many rely on Web-based services for the chore, e-mail software is still widely used, and Thunderbird could open another major beachhead for open-source software in mainstream computing.

Although Mozilla Messaging's priority is to produce good software, not specifically to dethrone Microsoft's dominant Outlook software, the new calendar ability makes Thunderbird a more viable competitor, particularly in corporate environments.

Adding a third Mozilla group can be confusing, so let me spell out the distinctions for those of you who haven't scrutinized every development in the last 10 years since Netscape and its acquirer, AOL, spun off the Mozilla project in 1998. The Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit group, is in charge overall; for-profit subsidiaries Mozilla Corp. and Mozilla Messaging run the Web browser and e-mail projects, respectively.

Mozilla Messaging also has named a three-person board of directors: Ascher; Chris Beard, general manager of Mozilla Labs; and Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, the open-source database company Sun Microsystems has just agreed to acquire for about $1 billion. More are likely to be added later as the organization grows, Ascher said.

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On Wednesday, the Danish security company BullGuard announced it will offer its spam filter product as a free download. The BullGuard Spamfilter (download) integrates with Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail clients. It runs on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista.

The BullGuard product relies upon fellow users to identify spam; once e-mail is marked as spam, all other Spamfilter users will no longer receive that e-mail in their in-boxes. It will be available within the spam folder instead.

According to Google's Postini, 2007 saw record spam levels, with as much as 90 percent of all … Read more

Mozilla Corp., the for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, has promoted Chief Operating Officer John Lilly to chief executive, the organization behind the Firefox Web browser and Thunderbird e-mail software said Monday.

Former CEO Mitchell Baker will remain chairman, the organization said, where she'll focus on high-level issues such as standards, interoperability, and issues around people's data.

"John Lilly is the right person to guide the product and organizational maturity of MoCo. John has been doing more and more of this since he took on the COO role in August of 2006. John understands Mozilla, is astonishingly … Read more

What am I, nuts?

Removing the antivirus software from your PC goes against conventional wisdom, but a lot of conventional wisdom is bunk, especially when it comes to technology.

Two of the five PCs on my home network have been without AV software for six months, ever since I made the mistake of loading the beta of Windows Live OneCare 2 on my home network. This stellar example of the programming art brought my entire network to its knees in a matter of minutes. After three days of repairs, my network was working again, but I realized that two of … Read more

The Mozilla folks always think of Mac users. I've already extolled the virtues of Mozilla Firefox in the past and I still think it's a great browser even when up against Apple's Safari. Mozilla's other Mac browser, Camino, is like a slimmed-down model built from the ground up using native Mac OS X technologies and toolkits. But I'm not here to talk about browsers. The Mozilla folks have another great product for Mac that just got an update.… Read more

As great as it is to have tools like Firefox and Thunderbird, backing them up can be a tedious process. MozBackup is a tiny program that makes saving and restoring all your bookmarks, extensions, and other personal settings a streamlined and stress-free experience.

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The Mozilla Calendar Project has upgraded Lightning, the calendar plug-in for Thunderbird to 0.7, and is aiming for a 1.0 sometime in 2008.

As we've noted before, Lightning makes Thunderbird soar above Outlook for home use, and places them on nearly equal ground in the office. The latest update includes an overhauled interface with easier-to-use buttons for jumping from your mail to your calendar, LDAP directory support for event invites, and Sun Java Calendar Server support.

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Shortly after the Mozilla Foundation announced a subsidiary to focus more attention on the Thunderbird e-mail software, two of its main developers are leaving Mozilla for other pastures.

Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu each announced their departures on blog postings last week. And David Ascher, chief executive of the Thunderbird company, confirmed the move Saturday on his own blog.

"Both Scott McGregor and David Bienvenu have posted that they are leaving Mozilla Corp. My understanding from chats with them weeks ago...is that they have decided to start a new venture," Ascher said. "They've worked on … Read more

"You may be an Olympic-level jumper when it comes to leaping from reading your RSS feeds to reading your e-mail, but two Web sites now offer a way to eliminate the wasted time switching from one app to the other. RssFwdand R-Mail drive your feeds directly into your email, simplifying the need to have two separate programs open, or at least two tabs with Gmail and Google Reader." Trying to reduce the differences between reading e-mail and reading RSS feeds is a big but important task for those of us who jump from one to the other--in the way it's important for a jackrabbit to avoid a mountain lion. RssFwd and R-Mail are two Web-based solutions that drive your feeds directly into your e-mail, eliminating the need to have two separate programs open (or two tabs, in the case of Gmail and Google Reader).

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