Oracle apps to work with Mozilla
The database company is working on a project to let Mozilla's open-source desktop software work better with Oracle's business applications.
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Oracle and Mozilla confirmed the joint project Friday, just before the next week's start of the LinuxWorld conference in New York, a hotbed for Linux and other open-source software announcements. Oracle, a Microsoft rival, pledged at the most recent LinuxWorld in August to move all its developers to Linux computers.
The collaboration is intended to ensure Mozilla software, which runs on desktop computers, can tap into Oracle software that runs on central servers, said Oracle spokeswoman Jill Schroeder. For example, Mozilla has an e-mail module that can tap into the e-mail server that's part of the Oracle Collaboration Suite.
"We're still in the development stages right now," Schroeder said. Oracle expects to announce the collaboration formally "in the next year," she said.
Oracle has been an open-source software proponent for several years and heavily promotes the Linux OS as a platform for its server-based software, including its applications and database systems. Its work with Mozilla is among Oracle's initial efforts to extend Linux support to client-side programs as well.
Mozilla, which was recently spun off from AOL, develops applications for Web browsing, e-mail and online chat.