New Direction for Mozilla (and ultimately Netscape)

This was announced Monday afternoon by Asa on the Mozillazine forums:

Mozilla is being broken apart and at this time is going to use the Phoenix Browser as the base for Mozilla.

It also has a new name. FireBird


The mail client has been broken off and put into a seperate package called Thunderbird (formerly Minotaur).

They are unintegrating the browser and the mail/news from each other and cleaning up the code. The code is starting to tighten and the downloads are getting smaller. There are still bugs in both pieces of code, but most are not show stoppers at this time.



At this time, the talk is that in the future, they will include the ability to install Thunderbird as an extension to Firebird. In effect sort of like the stripped down hacked versions that people such as Metzger is doing now. If you only want the browser, then you will only get the browser. Only want the mail client, then hey you can get it.

One of the advantages is the speed at which the browser now operates. It is fast. Much faster than Netscape 7 or Mozilla.

That being said, currently, they are not sharing code, so they are both fully loaded into memory when running. This is supposed to change in the future and the memory footprint to get smaller.


At this time, they are planning one more release of the integrated Mozilla and then it will be retired.

I have not heard anything official about how Netscape is going to handle this, but since it is planned for Firebird to be able to be installed as an extension, then I imagine that they will integrate it into one package with an installer to automatically install mail.

 

thanks for the information.
Related thread: http://windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16509

 

Hi Brooks,

As always you bring so much to this Forum. The information on Firebird and Thunderbird is most appreciated, and thank you for the thread!!!

I am watching this transition with great interest, as are many Netscape users. I truly hope that Firebird lives up to the mystical meaning of the Phoenix/Firebird, and it is truly the resurrection of a Browser that once led the Internet.

Ramona

 

Mozilla Thunderbird/Firebird - Branding

New information on Mozilla Branding - Mozilla.org:

Mozilla Branding

3. When referring to Thunderbird or Firebird before or during the 1.4 release cycle, make sure to use the project name with Mozilla pre-pended as "Mozilla Thunderbird" or "Mozilla Firebird" instead of Mozilla alone or Firebird/Thunderbird alone.

After the release of 1.4 we will be doing our primary development on the Firebird and Thunderbird projects. When we do releases of that code base we should be using self descriptive brand identities for the public and the press. New rule:

4. Use the names "Mozilla Browser" and "Mozilla Mail" to describe the Firebird and Thunderbird projects after the 1.4 release.

Also, this branding should be found throughout the projects if possible instead of referring to the Firebird and Thunderbird names directly. Project names are transitory. As long as we have both a mail and browser project, we should be using the mozilla brand and reinforcing it whenever we get the chance.

6. Product Naming in resources, executables and on the desktop

The Mozilla Browser and Mail programs should try to stick to the mozilla product name whenever possible, even in resource names. For example, registry keys would use a key name that includes "MozillaBrowser" or "Mozilla/Browser." For an executable you might use MozillaBrowser, mozilla-browser, mozbrwsr.exe or mozilla-browser.exe, depending on your platform. Desktop links should include the full name of the product, when possible. This means the entire phrase "Mozilla Browser" should be used in desktop links and files. Profiles should also reflect the product name, if possible. This means using ~/.mozilla-browser on Unix or MozillaBrowser on Windows.

Copyright © 1998-2003
The Mozilla Organization
Last modified April 26, 2003
---

FYI,

Ramona