Mozilla Lightning 0.1 Released

Mini-Geek writes "MozillaZine is reporting that Lightning 0.1 is released. Lightning is a new Mozilla-made calendar extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that will eventually (once it becomes more mature and stable) be built into Thunderbird. From the article: 'The Lightning Project is a redesign of the Calendar component. Its goal is to tightly integrate calendar functionality (scheduling, tasks, etc.) into Mozilla Thunderbird.'"

Screenshots :)

[B3ryllium]

I'm using it at home already. Screenshots at my blog. [beryllium.ca]

Re:Sunbird?

[fosterNutrition]

Lightning and Sunbird share the same codebase, and therefore have the exact same functionality and bugs, but Sunbird is standalone, whereas Lightning requires Thunderbird or the like.

I used Sunbird for a little while a while back, and while it is a step in the right direction, it really needs a lot of work. Of course, this new release may have fixed all the bugs that irked me, and it is of course only version 0.1 - and with that in mind, Sunbird/Lightning really is a factor to consider, but not quite ready for widespread use. When it is though, it will be good.

Syncing with Thunderbird/Sunbird

[the grace of R'hllor]

Well, Finchsync is a program that allows you to sync your contacts with Thunderbird, and apparently your appointments with Sunbird (though that was broken last time I tried it).

Re:Sunbird?

[MikeyTheK]

Actually, I believe you're both wrong. Sunbird can run standalone, within Firefox, within Thunderbird, or within the Mozz desktop suite. The only reason I know this is because I was trying to make it work with a certain Yahoo Day Planner widget (the 0.2 version of Sunbird does work, the 0.3 version does not). I am asking the same question - why do we care about Lightning?

Re:Sunbird?

[MSG]

Lightning and Sunbird share the same codebase, and therefore have the exact same functionality and bugs

That's not quite it. Sunbird and Mozilla Calendar share the same codebase, and therefore have the same functionality and bugs. The difference between them is *only* packaging. Sunbird is packaged as a standalone app, while Mozilla Calendar is an extension for Firefox or Thunderbird.

Lightning, however, is a Thunderbird extention that puts the calendar UI directly in the Thunderbird window. The calendar provided by Sunbird/Mozilla Calendar uses a separate window. The group of products probably shares a codebase for handling calendar and related data, but the UI code is different between Lightning and the others. It's going to have its own share of bugs and features.

Re:Info on Google Calendar

[MagicM]

CL2 was discussed here [slashdot.org] more recently than that.

Re:Info on Google Calendar

[AndroidCat]

Discused on Slashdot this March 10th [slashdot.org]. Apparently it's in closed beta. (A beta beta?)

Re:Agreed

[B3ryllium]

Lighting is and always will be a Thunderbird plugin. It is not a separate product. It is a plugin for calendaring that integrates into the Thunderbird GUI. If you don't need it, don't install the extension. Simple as that.

Re:Pocket PC Compatability

[Klaruz]

Have you heard of FinchSync?

http://www.finchsync.com/ [finchsync.com]

FinchSync is a tool for synchronizing contacts, appointments and tasks from Mozilla email and calendar products with a Pocket PC.

NOT

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. Because MS merged thier calendar stuff with thier email stuff and now people expect them to be joined at the hip. Sad but simple.

Not so sad and not so simple. Email and calendar functions have been integrated into "groupware" type apps since the mainframe days. It provided a single place to go to since those functions are typically related in most businesses. It may not make sense for ones personal use, but it makes complete sense from a business standpoint. I don't need to have six different apps open all the time for various functions.

MS was hardly the first...

[Richard Steiner]

Both IBM (PROFS) and UNISYS (OfisLink) had mainframe e-mail systems which combined both mail and meeting/calendar functionality a number of years before MS did it.

It's a functional expectation of old-school corporate e-mail, not an MS "innovation"...

Re:Will it sync with Outlook Calender?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a few clients with this same issue. They'd switch away from the Outlook headaches to Thunderbird in a second, but the problem of being sent Outlook invites/appointments nixes it.

To me, this is pressing development need #1.

Re:Sunbird?

[MSG]

Sunbird is the name given to the standalone distribution of the old calendar application. The XPI extension for Thunderbird or Firefox was named Mozilla Calendar. Aside from packaging, they were basically the same application. So, as a minor correction, "Sunbird" does not run within the other Mozilla products, the Mozilla Calendar does.

Lightning is a completely different UI, designed to integrate better with Thunderbird than the Calendar application does. It'll provide some of the same things that Outlook does, which would have been moderately difficult, and possibly confusing in the old Calendar application.