In many markets, open source has played catch-up for years to the proprietary incumbents. Now, however, open source is taking the lead in areas as diverse as operating systems (Linux), browsers (Firefox), and databases (MySQL).
Oddly, given the ubiquity of e-mail, we've never seen a really good open-source e-mail client. Mozilla wants to change that with Thunderbird.
Mozilla's track record with its hugely popular Firefox Web browser suggests that it may have more than a sporting chance, despite a mostly unproductive history with e-mail. Thunderbird, Mozilla's e-mail client, has been around since 2003, with almost no market share to show for its nearly seven years of development.
Could it be that Thunderbird has been a victim of Firefox's success? If so, has anything changed to suggest that Thunderbird is ready to innovate and lead, as Firefox has done?
The answer is a qualified but optimistic "yes." Mozilla just released Thunderbird 3, and early reports suggest that it's a keeper. CNET, for example, lauds Thunderbird's search capabilities ("Microsoft Outlook doesn't offer anything that comes close to the level of granular control that Mozilla has given Thunderbird users"), among other things, and declares that it "rates as a top-notch e-mail client, and it's definitely the best freeware one around."
Sexiest nun in the convent?
Or perhaps inaccurate?
It may be true that Thunderbird is the best open-source e-mail client, though as an avid and enthusiastic user of Zimbra, I'm not convinced.
Regardless, in terms of freeware...I'm not so sure. After all, while not exactly freeware, Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail are both excellent e-mail clients, and come free...with the purchase of other hardware or software.
But who cares about the client at all? Apparently not Microsoft or Apple, whose e-mail clients have barely budged in terms of innovation in years. They're great products, but they're still essentially the same as they were when I started using them at the beginning of the decade.
Only Zimbra really pushes the innovation envelope because it puts more power in the server than in the client. Given how the world is moving to the Web, shouldn't Mozilla, too, be focusing its development efforts on the server, rather than the client?
Mozilla CEO John Lilly insists that the foundation is doing just that, focusing on both server and client innovation. According to Mozilla Messaging lead David Ascher, Mozilla will be investing heavily in add-on innovation, similar to Firefox, that keeps the platform agile while enriching Thunderbird's functionality. Such add-ons will take advantage of advances in both the client and server.
It sounds promising and comes with a real monetary commitment from Mozilla. The foundation now has 60 people working on messaging, compared with just two back in the early days.
I first used Thunderbird four or five years ago and found it weak. I'm going to give it another try to see if it can replace Apple Mail as my client of choice for personal e-mail. Given Mozilla's impressive track record in browsers and its newfound commitment to e-mail, it may be time for you to check it out, too. Let me know what you think.
Update at 5:06 AM on 12/10/09: I originally repeated reports that Mozilla now has 60 people working on Thunderbird. David Ascher, Mozilla Messaging chief, contacted me to say that this number had been misreported by The Register. The number is actually 16. My apologies for the confusion.
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.
E-mail is no longer about channeling conversations between people, as Alistair Croll suggests. Instead, it has become a record of what we do online and, as such, our in-box must fundamentally change or face extinction.
It's a provocative argument. I suspect that it's also true.
Croll writes:
Today, I have to visit dozens of other sites and services to make sense of my online life. This is a waste: I already have a record of all these transactions in my in-box. I just need a better way to look at them.
Gmail offered a tantalizing glimpse of what in-boxes could be, but it stopped short of recognizing this shift from conversations to a digital record of our online lives. The in-box of the future looks more like log file analysis and aggregation, and less like an e-mail platform.
Amen. I've actually been wondering for years why an e-commerce company hasn't arisen from analysis of the in-box: to know where I'm going, what I want to buy (and what I have bought), and more, all a company would need is a glimpse into my in-box. For real value, I'd give that access in a heartbeat.
Appetizingly, Microsoft is unlikely to be able to transform e-mail with Outlook and the Exchange Server: it is already too deep into its Innovator's Dilemma investment in the old world of e-mail. Plus, its Outlook/Exchange architecture is too calcified to dramatically shift e-mail's focus.
Google could do it with Gmail, or Yahoo could with Zimbra and Yahoo Mail. Done right, I'd put my money on Yahoo or some other open-source e-mail offering because this sort of thing is tailor-made for the community efforts of open source. Let one company or community create the core, and then invite an add-on community to build around it.
Maybe Mozilla should be doing this with Thunderbird? Certainly, someone should.
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
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