Mozilla betas Thunderbird 2.0, Dec 15, 2006

The Thunderbird email client doesn't get half the attention that its big brother, the Firefox browser, gets, but the Mozilla Foundation has finally gotten around to lavishing some love on it, and the first beta of version 2 is now out.

Programmers from Red Hat, Novell and the Mozilla Foundation have pledged closer cooperation to ease technical obstacles that exist today, work planned to result in versions of the Firefox browser tailored for different versions of Linux.

A study sanctioned by Mozilla gives Firefox 2 a big win over Microsoft's IE 7 in the battle to block ID theft scam sites, but both browsers still come up short when pitted against active phishing URLs.

The early release this week of the Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Web browser is another shot in the arm for the open source IE competitor but one industry analyst is less optimistic about Firefox's ability to compete with Microsoft.

Not to be outdone by Microsoft's recent release of Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla is planning the second major release of its rival Firefox browser tomorrow.

Neither Mozilla Firefox nor Mozilla Thunderbird are likely to be in the next Debian GNU/Linux release. Mozilla is still hoping that it can come to an agreement with Debian but at this point it seems likely that Debian users will see IceWeasel (for Firefox) and IceDove (for Thunderbird).

Depending on whose numbers you believe, Firefox has been continuing to erode IE's (Internet Explorer's) lead.

Use of Internet Explorer is continuing to decline at the expense of Mozilla's Firefox, making the imminent launch of IE7 even more vital for Microsoft.

The truth is, while Mozilla Firefox is open source, it is not entirely free, and it may not even be legally compatible with Debian GNU/Linux, one of the most popular community Linux distribution bases.

Future versions of OpenOffice.org will come bundled with Mozilla's Thunderbird email client and Lightning calendar application.

The OSS Watch Survey 2006 reveals that 68% of the 114 institutions who responded to the survey have deployed Mozilla Firefox or the Mozilla Application Suite on at least some of their campus desktops

Mozilla Corp. on Tuesday delayed the release of the second beta of its Firefox 2.0 browser by a week.

RealNetworks said Wednesday that it has agreed to a multiyear agreement to offer Mozilla's Firefox Web browser with downloads of its RealPlayer, Rhapsody and RealArcade software programs.

The "portable" version of Firefox 1.5.0.5 is now released, developer John Haller reports. "Portable Firefox" is the Mozilla Firefox web browser integrated with a "launcher" that makes it a fully portable app, enabling users to take their bookmarks, extensions, and saved passwords with them to whatever computer they're working on.

The browser wars are heating up, as the first beta of Firefox 2.0 is due on Tuesday July 11th, and Internet Explorer version 7.0 is now on it's third beta release.

Mozilla released an additional "security and stability" update to its Thunderbird email client, v1.5.0.4, on June 1. Thunderbird 1.0.8 is still serving as the final stable release in the Thunderbird 1.0.x product line, with the upgraded version 1.5.0 released in conjunction with Firefox 1.5 last November.

Firefox's emergence as a genuine challenger to Internet Explorer has made Microsoft sit up and take notice. The giant US software group has already started to respond to some of the innovative work done by Mozilla and the open-source community.

A group of self-titled "political activists" in Massachusetts has started an aggressive campaign to get browser users to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's Firefox.

The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox 1.5 blew away the competition to take the top award in the Enterprise Linux category in the Datamation Product of the Year 2006 awards.

While Firefox and Thunderbird are the poster children of open-source Internet application success, the program suite they sprang from, Mozilla, was reborn Jan. 30 under a new name: SeaMonkey.

Marketing professionals rate Firefox a more influential brand than eBay or Sony

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