Mozilla's messaging story gains credibility
Mozilla isn't just about browsing anymore.
While the foundation made its name with the increasingly popular open-source Firefox browser, it is quickly moving beyond its roots, particularly in the area of e-mail. With the launch of Raindrop, its Google Wave-like unified messaging and collaboration system, as well as corporate uptake of Thunderbird, Mozilla may soon extend its reach well beyond its browser base.
Corporate America hasn't done much with Mozilla's Thunderbird, a competitor to Microsoft Outlook. Europe, however, has given it a warm reception. For example, the French tax authority recently selected Thunderbird to power 130,000 of its personal computers, replacing IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook.
It's a massive deal for Mozilla, though in the grand scheme of things, it's still tiny. Even so, it's an indication that Mozilla's e-mail story is credible, and could lead to greater adoption of Thunderbird and, eventually, Raindrop.
Much of Firefox's early traction was in Europe. The same could hold true for Thunderbird and Raindrop.
The question for me, however, is how it gets funded. Google has essentially funded Mozilla's browser development for years. It's unclear who the "Google" is for Mozilla's messaging ambitions, or whether the foundation intends to sell subscriptions to use the software through its for-profit corporation.
Regardless, Mozilla's presence in the messaging market is welcome. While we already have an exceptional open-source competitor to Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino in Zimbra, given the importance of messaging and collaboration to enterprise computing, it's useful to have an open-source foundation involved, too. About the only organizations that won't like this increased competition are the proprietary incumbents.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
Thunderbird needs to be tied to some sort of commercially supported structure to gain broader acceptability in IT shops, and it needs it soon. It would give it a major leg up on it's current situation, and might put some more pressure on Microsoft to drop some of the painful bloat that has infested Exchange and Outlook.
I can't say I like the sound of Thunderbird being bundled with OOo, either; if you want to talk about painful bloat, OOo doesn't need any new programs integrated into it.
(There's a whole separate rant here somewhere about Firefox, originally intended to cut out the bloat in the Mozilla browser/mail suite, is now more bloated than ever.)
...ever stop to think that maybe they're shooting for consumer acceptance first?
This is a good point indeed. However consumers are largely adopting webmail instead as stand alone applications. The days were Outlook-Outlook express were the requisite to access mail are over. Thunderbird is still for power users that need more than what single webmail solution can offer. In this respect, full support of Exchange would be a great and welcome addition that would strengthen the current user base, attract new one mostly in IT. But that is not the only one missing. Calendaring is still poor (lightning, despite the name is super slow and not very well integrated), and that is also a must-have option.
Eventually, the suite was split up so the pieces could evolve independently, and that led to Firefox, Thunderbird, and Composer (since discontinued).
Thunderbird has been around for as long as Firefox, to suggest that the Foundation is "expanding its roots" ignores the fact that messaging has been part of those roots, going back even before the Foundation was created.
- by pjk0 October 30, 2009 6:34 PM PDT
- Thunderbird a "competitor to Microsoft Outlook"?!?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(9 Comments)BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! What are you smoking?
Despite the fact that I generally want nothing to do with Microsoft "back office" apps including Exchange and its front-end Outlook, to call Thunderbird a competitor to Outlook is utterly bizarre. About the only function they both have in common is email, and Outlook is far from simply a rudimentary email client.
Thunderbird really competes with Outlook Express, or Windows Mail. (at least in terms of Microsoft products) And personally I don't think any of them is all that hot, even for a dedicated email client. I'd rather have old Eudora or Pegasus Mail over any of those, for most purposes.