14 DAY TRIAL // The Microsoft and Mozilla face-off is by no means exclusively focused on the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. The fact of the matter is that the companies' email clients are equally battling over the dominant position on the Windows operating system. Still, Mozilla Thunderbird is trailing behind Microsoft's outlook at a much greater distance than that separating Internet Explorer and Firefox on the browser market. But Thunderbird will get a second chance, and another take at Outlook, as Mozilla announced that it was funding a new company designed to focus exclusively on the email client software.
"Mozilla will provide an initial $3 million dollars in seed funding to launch MailCo. This is expected to be spent mostly on building a small team of people who are passionate about email and Internet communications. As MailCo develops it and the Mozilla Foundation will evaluate what's the best model for long-term sustainability. Mozilla may well invest additional funds; we also hope that there are other paths for sustainability. We'll be setting up MailCo in the coming weeks. Part of this is forming the team of people, part is developing a transition plan to move Thunderbird into MailCo gracefully while supporting the Thunderbird users," stated Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker.
Microsoft of course reacted immediately to the news that Thunderbird could end up as an equivalent of its own desktop email client. According to the Redmond company, the competition that Thunderbird, rising from its own ashes, will provide to Outlook will be healthy for end users, as it will proliferate choice. But Microsoft failed to indicate that it looks at Thunderbird as a fully pledged rival for Outlook. The Redmond company simply could not miss yet another chance to downplay the open source efforts made by Mozilla.
"Businesses today require more than basic email; they need to communicate and collaborate, and this is what Outlook and Exchange Server deliver," revealed Clint Patterson, public relations director for Microsoft's Unified Communications Group ac cited by UnderExposed. "The open-source development model has yet to demonstrate the ability to support profitable software businesses that can drive the coordinated research and testing necessary to sustain innovation. Many in the open-source software community have shifted to hybrid business models. They are making the same business decisions as any commercial software company in terms of what products and services to give away, what intellectual property to protect, how to generate revenue, and how to participate in the community."