Future Eudora Based on Thunderbird 264
theefer writes "Qualcomm announced that future versions of Eudora will be based upon the same technology platform as the open source Mozilla Thunderbird email program. Future versions of Eudora will be free and open source, while retaining Eudora's uniquely rich feature set and productivity enhancements. Qualcomm and Mozilla will each participate in, and continue to foster development communities based around the open source Mozilla project, with a view to enhancing the capabilities and ease of use of both Eudora and Thunderbird. [...] The open source version of Eudora is targeted to release during the first half of calendar year 2007. Once the open source version of Eudora is released, Qualcomm will cease to sell Eudora commercially."
An odd thing in Qualcomm's portfolio (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a decent Wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org] on it for anyone wanting to know the background, but basically it's been around for an astonishing 18 years. It's evolved gently as a mail client, so any Eudora user can use a new version quickly. Compare this with Outlook which radically redesigns the whole interface every release or so.
To be honest, Eudora probably isn't the simplest mail client in the world. But it's a very powerful, very secure client that's ideal for power users.
When I first heard about this move I went "uh-oh". But on reflection, this could be a good thing. Eudora has some really cool features that would work well in Thunderbird, and both products appeal to the same type of people. I only hope that they don't break Eudora in the process of changing it!
Re:An odd thing in Qualcomm's portfolio (Score:2, Interesting)
hopefully this will stabilize thunderbird (Score:5, Interesting)
Qualcomm and Mozilla will each participate in, and continue to foster development communities based around the open source Mozilla project,
Hopefully this will do wonders for Thunderbird's reliability; I had to stop recommending thunderbird to clients because of the near constant complaints. Disappearing email, crashes, disappearing contact lists. At least 6 months ago, Thunderbird had all sorts of problems with mailboxes and indexes getting corrupted, which would lead to fun bugs like my clients checking their mail, getting 5 new messages according to the new message count next to the mailbox...and not finding the 5 messages actually IN their inbox. Some bugs related to the index not getting cleaned up properly when messages were deleted, and "rebuilding" the mailbox didn't fix the index; you had to completely remove the index files by hand. WTF?
It stunned me how much 'housekeeping' the Thunderbird developers expect users to do to keep it working properly, and how thoroughly they knew of many problems...yet had done nothing to fix them.
I'd also like to see some effort to make GnuPG configuration part of the default install and get users set up with a keyset...and encourage them at every step of the way to use signing and encryption with their email.
Things not in TFA: (Score:5, Interesting)
2. Which license(s) the new Eudora will be using. Presumably, it'll be MPL, but TFA didn't say.
3. Whether Qualcomm considers this move as shifting Eudora into shutdown mode, economically, or whether they genuinely see a potential for future profits from the new FOSS Eudora.
Makes perfect sense though (Score:5, Interesting)
Fast-forwarding to the present: As Thunderbird slowly gains acceptance as an alternative email client in its own right (due in no small part to the continuing success of Firefox) the combination of Eudora and Thunderbird technologies could only help Eudora. If they want to ride Mozilla's coattails to greater acceptance in the email program marketplace, they are certainly welcome to do so. Every time a company adopts open source, an angel gets his wings.
Hmmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
I was reading the blurb and wondering what kind of viable long-term plan that scheme has -- apparently they don't have one.
It's certainly laudable of them to wind it down so gracefully. Like a lot of others, apparently, I haven't used it in ages but there was a long time when it was the only decent GUI for Internet email. I ditched it when I switched to OS X and Entourage at home, and they make me use Lotus Freaking Notes at work, but whatever it looks like nowadays, it has to at least be better than the latter.
I'll miss it (Score:2, Interesting)
Looking back, looking ahead (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:An odd thing in Qualcomm's portfolio (Score:3, Interesting)
I've used Outlook (full) for the last 6 years. The UI *has not* changed significantly over that time. Fact.
I still use Eudora for its portability... (Score:5, Interesting)
I tried going to Thunderbird a few years ago. I couldn't make the switch because the Thunderbird search wasn't as good as the Eudora search and Thunderbird couldn't do simple things like sort search result dates in "date order". Maybe it's better now...guess I'll find out one way or another.
Re:An odd thing in Qualcomm's portfolio (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Things not in TFA: (Score:4, Interesting)
If you read the Penelope page [mozilla.org] at the Mozilla Wiki, you'll see that the six core members of the project are Qualcomm employees. "QUALCOMM continues to have a keen interest in the users of Eudora, and is being kind enough to donate the time of the above staff members to the Penelope project." Rather than becoming faceless contributors to Thunderbird, they chose to continue the Eudora legacy.
If they wanted to build a Outlook killer... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:A most excellent day! (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe the other way around (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:An odd thing in Qualcomm's portfolio (Score:3, Interesting)
Why, to this day, is expunge still not an automatic thing with them?
Oh yeah, because of Exchange - but why does OE still suck with IMAP?
And subscriptions is still a convoluted mish mash of un-intuitive MS bantery.
Re:Makes perfect sense though (Score:2, Interesting)
I love Firefox. It's my browser of choice. If only I could convince my University to install it universally all over campus, I could leave IE as a historical relic like it should be. However I can't do that with T-Bird, for this reason.
About a year ago I upgraded from Eudora 3.51 to (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been using Eudora since around 1997 and it's been just fine for me. One great thing about it is that it's completely portable. Back in the 20th century, I ran it from a zip disk that I carried from home to the office and back. I had all my mail with me and it worked great. With the advent of USB flash drives a few years ago, I ditched the zip.
I've never been infected with a virus, although lots of them have appeared in my mailbox. Automatically opening attachments as a default is a huge no-no, but all you
That said, I've used Thunderbird here at the office for work email and think it's a great client, so I'm pleased to see this development.
Original USENET post announcing Eudora (Score:3, Interesting)
I used Eudora and supported it for awhile, in the mid-90's. It's main advantages were for power users. Back then, I thought that in every user was a power user waiting for an opportunity, so I installed it for them. Well, we all must outgrow our childhood dreams some day