New Round Of Releases Extends Mozilla Offerings
NEW ROUND OF RELEASES EXTENDS MOZILLA PROJECT’S STANDARDS BASED OPEN SOURCE OFFERINGS
Mozilla Firebird evolves into the new Firefox 0.8 release. Thunderbird 0.5 released.
February 9, 2004 (the Internet) - The Mozilla Foundation today announced the immediate availability of a new preview release of its next generation web browser, Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla Firefox 0.8 represents the bleeding edge of Internet technology and raises the bar for ease of use, performance, robustness and standards compliance.
The new release marks a significant milestone on the development roadmap towards the highly anticipated 1.0 release of the Mozilla project’s next generation web browser. New features in this release include:
A powerful new download manager
that makes tracking multiple downloads easier;
Numerous
improvements to bookmarks handling, making it easier than
ever to keep track of your favorite sites;
Improved
handling of extensions - small, easy to download
applications that can be installed with a few simple mouse
clicks and extend the browser’s functionality. Community
members have created more than 200 such extensions,
including add-ons that remove ad banners, add spell-checker
functionality, and add the ability to search Amazon.com,
eBay or other popular sites from the Firefox toolbar;
An
easy to use installer for Microsoft Windows users;
A new
default theme for Mac OS X users that integrates seamlessly
with the OS X desktop environment.
Firefox 0.8 continues
to build increasing levels of performance and stability into
the browser. Hundreds of volunteer developers and testers
contributed numerous bug fixes, new features and security
improvements during this development cycle, again
demonstrating the strength of the open source community’s
commitment to powerful, stable and secure
applications.
The new release also marks a name change for the new browser, which was previously known as Mozilla Firebird. “We are pleased to release a new preview version of Mozilla Firefox,” commented Mitchell Baker, President of the Mozilla Foundation. “To avoid overlap with another open source project, we have also decided to changed the name of this product from Mozilla Firebird to Mozilla Firefox.”
Along with the new name, Firefox sports a new logo and the Mozilla Foundation is kicking off a grass-roots Get Firefox campaign to spread word about the new browser.
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5: Enterprise-grade
email
The Mozilla Foundation also announced the latest
preview release of its new email application, Mozilla
Thunderbird.
Responding to strong interest in Thunderbird among enterprises and educational institutions, Thunderbird 0.5 includes numerous improvements aimed at enterprise users:
The ability to synchronize address books with Palm
devices;
IMAP performance and interoperability
improvements;
Secure password authentication using SSPI
NTLM for SMTP and POP3;
Improved LDAP support;
Improved migration from Netscape 4.x;
Improved spell
checker and English dictionary;
Numerous other bug fixes
and improvements.
Mozilla 1.6: 1,000 reasons to get it;
closing in on 1,000,000 downloads in 20 days
While
Mozilla Firefox 0.8 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 are preview
releases of the Mozilla project’s next generation standalone
web browser and email application, Mozilla 1.6 is a mature
Internet suite that combines a web browser, email client,
easy to use web page editor and Internet Chat software. In
the twenty days since its release, Mozilla 1.6 has been
downloaded close to a million times, setting a new record
for the Mozilla project – a powerful testament to the
pent-up user demand for an evolutionary, feature-rich,
stable and secure web browser suite. Mozilla 1.6 has
received rave reviews from users and media alike and
includes close to 1000 bug fixes, new features and
performance enhancements.
Getting Mozilla
Firefox 0.8,
Thunderbird 0.5 and Mozilla 1.6 can be downloaded for free
from the Mozilla Foundation’s web site, at www.mozilla.org.
All source code and documentation is freely available under
the open source Mozilla Public License.
Supporting
Mozilla
Individuals and companies from around the world
support the Mozilla Foundation through voluntary
contributions of time, money and resources. To discover how
you or your company can join in and help support the Mozilla
project, please go to
http://www.mozilla.org/about/get-involved.html.
ABOUT THE
MOZILLA FOUNDATION
Established in July 2003 with start-up
support from America Online's Netscape division, the Mozilla
Foundation exists to provide organizational, legal, and
financial support for the Mozilla open source software
project. The Foundation is based in Mountain View,
California and is the heir to the great legacy and tradition
of the Internet’s first widely used browser,
Netscape.
Mozilla and the Mozilla logo are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Bart Decrem,
(650) 387-0625
Catherine Corre, (650)
814-1356
email:press@mozilla.org
For the latest Mozilla-related news and commentary, as well as support and discussion, please visit MozillaZine, http://www.mozillazine.org, the largest independent Mozilla news and support site on the web.
This press release was written with help from Sean Michael Kerner.