| Goodbye Eudora, hello Thunderbird |
Oct. 12, 2006
Eudora, once one of the most popular email clients, is finally being retired. Instead of simply abandoning Eudora's customers, however, Qualcomm is partnering with Mozilla Corp. to create "Penelope," a customized version of Mozilla's Thunderbird email client that will be optimized for Eudora customers.
Penelope is being developed by half-a-dozen of Eudora's most experienced programmers. Their goal is to create a Eudora-user friendly version of Thunderbird that will import their stored mail and contact lists, and all of their Eudora settings.
Specifically, by version 1.0, the following Eudora features will be ported to the new open-source email client:- Importers for mail and contacts
- Remapping of accelerator keys
- Basic settings and personalities
- Filter importing
- Major UI elements
- Unique Eudora message handling operations
- Stationery
- Importer for all settings
- Minor UI elements
The roadmap is still subject to change, depending on what Eudora users want from the new email program, according to Qualcomm.
Qualcomm has announced that this new open-source version of Eudora is targeted for release during the first half of 2007. However, the developers in the Penelope wiki aren't quite so optimistic: "The Penelope project is in its infancy, so please be patient while we get our act together."
In the meantime, Qualcomm has released the last proprietary version of Eudora for Mac and Windows. It will sell for a new, reduced price of $19.95, with a six-month period of technical support. Existing technical support commitments will be honored in their entirety. Once the open-source version of Eudora is released, Qualcomm will cease to sell Eudora.
Steve Dorner, VP of technology for Qualcomm's Eudora Group, stated, "Using the Mozilla Thunderbird technology platform as a basis for future versions of Eudora will provide some key infrastructure that the existing versions lacked, such as a cross-platform code base and a world-class display engine. Making it open source will bring more developers to bear on Eudora than ever before."
Mozilla Executive Director Frank Hecker added, "We're pleased to welcome Eudora and its millions of users to the world of open source. This effort should further enrich the Thunderbird technology platform and provide users of both products with an even richer email experience."
Richi Jennings, an analysis for email research house Ferris Research, said, "This is good news for Eudora users. Eudora hasn't had a bright future for some considerable time -- it's hardly been a shining star on Qualcomm's balance sheet. This will move Eudora users onto a more stable code platform -- one that's being actively developed.
"This is also good news for Thunderbird users, as it adds new ideas to the development team -- a team that at times can feel like the ugly sister compared to the Firefox browser team," added Jennings.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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