Will Mozilla fill Open Office product holes?

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Right Idea, Wrong Projects: Lightning is a Thunderbird calendar extension based on Sunbird. It's not well integrated, especially compared to alternatives (including Outlook, gmail, etc.). I stopped using it because I don't have a full gigabyte of RAM to dedicate to a calendar app that slows down my e-mail client and everything else I need to run.

Sunbird is one of the most bloated pieces of software I've ever encountered. It should fit right in with Open Office's unrestrained girth -- something that some apparently think won't matter in a smaller and more mobile future.

That smaller and more mobile future is likely to mean users will have something similar to Google Apps or similar services that are built on Microsoft Silverlight. These technologies are growing faster while desktop use either stagnates or declines (depending whom you ask and on which day). They're already portable, they're already mobile, they don't require massive hardware to run. That's in stark contrast to Mozilla's roadmap (and Open Office's).

Throwing $3 million into Thunderbird isn't going to make Thunderbird more portable than Opera or Outlook, nor is it going to make Thunderbird more relevant in an age of increased mobility. Mozilla's focus -- and the same goes for Open Office -- should be on mobility, not on further tying users down to their desktops. It also would (should) mean re-integrating e-mail and browsing.

I agree that integrating projects like Mozilla and Open Office together would be very beneficial, but both projects are playing to a 1990s crowd anymore. Google will integrate, improve, and secure their Apps, Calendar, and gmail much better and much sooner than disparate projects like Mozilla and Open Office can figure out how to slim down their offerings, much less integrate them.; Posted by: lucky 13 Posted on: 09/19/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use