Joyous news from Mozilla-ville, boys and girls. The Foundation has decided that letting Thunderbird languish is just not what should be done.

In a similar move to the 2005 setup of Firefox as an independent entity, Mozilla today announced the same subsidiary system for the development of the Thunderbird e-mail client. The name of the entity is not yet available, so it may reflect the addition of the Eudora code, and bear a feminine name. After all, six  months or so ago we were told that the Thunderbird project would be changed to Penelope, with the addition of the Eudora team.

Whatever the name used, it is very nice to hear that development will continue. The number of e-mail clients, open or closed source, has been dwindling for the past few years. The only other reasonably complete free client, Pegasus, is still available, but all work on it has been halted.

Of course, Microsoft was quick to downplay the action, which in the browser realm has shown to erode much of the market share its own offering, Internet Explorer, once held. A Microsoft spokesman stated that most people today need more than an e-mail client, making the case that the Outlook - Exchange Server combination was what is needed by many. Although many corporate desks need that sort of connection, the number of users who have no need for scheduling and collaboration as part of a mail program far outweighs those who do.

It is estimated that Thunderbird users number between 5 and 10 million. With the new push by Mozilla, and the addition of the very popular Eudora feature set, the new client will quickly pick up steam, and users.

Complete story.

Mozilla announcement.

[tags] Mozilla, e-mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, Penelope, subsidiary, Firefox model, Microsoft, Outlook, Pegasus [/tags]