| Firefox, Thunderbird to target Vista |
Aug. 24, 2006
  Mozilla Corp. and Microsoft Corp. -- companies that don't interact very often -- have said publicly that they will likely be working together to port Mozilla's Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client to Vista.
Through an Aug. 19 blog post on Google Groups, Microsoft's Director of Open Source Software Lab Sam Ramji offered help toward ensuring interoperability between the two key Mozilla products and the upcoming Vista operating system.
"I'm writing to see if you are open to some 1:1 support in getting Firefox and Thunderbird to run on Vista," Ramji wrote. As part of my mission as an advocate for open source applications on Windows, I've gotten spaces set aside at the Windows Vista Readiness ISV Lab ... I'm committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects."
The Microsoft lab is a four-day event held in Redmond every week through December 2006, Ramji wrote. "We provide secure office space for 4 people, hardware, VPN access, and 1:1 access to product team developers and support staff," he added.
Mozilla staff member Mike Beltzner replied Aug. 21 with a definite "yes," and the conversation has been continuing.
"I think we're already in discussion with someone on your team about this, but for the record: yes, we'd definitely be interested in getting some 1:1 support," Beltzer replied in the thread.
"The facility and program that you describe should really help to ensure that we get the proper integration issues looked at for Firefox 2 and Thunderbird 2," Beltzner wrote.
The thread points out that there will be issues to smooth over, however, including a major one: how to allow third-party developers into the mix. Others include: - effects of running in the new application security mode
- interacting/integrating with InfoCard
- integration with the common RSS data store and services
- integration with the Vista calendar and address book
- linking to MSDN resources
A Mozilla spokeswoman said Aug. 24 that the company would have no comment on the interchange.
We at DesktopLinux.com will keep an eye on this one to see how it develops.
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