Mozilla Happenings

Lightning strikes Mozilla

Mozilla ventures into the world of integrated calendaring with the release of Lightning 0.1. Will the addition of calendaring capability give Thunderbird a popularity boost?

Lightning 0.1 is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux as an extension for Thunderbird. Currently limited in its functionality and not yet ready for a production environment, it does offer a handful of calendaring functions, all of which are integrated into Thunderbird.

Installing it is simple. Download the .xpi file and then install it into Thunderbird as you would any other extension. After restarting the e-mail application, you are rewarded with a changed interface. Under the list of e-mail inboxes and folders on the left-hand side of the application is a new mini-calendar along with a three-tab interface for accessing an agenda, a to-do list, and calendars. Clicking on the Calendars tab causes the message list and message preview window to be replaced with a one-week calendar view. The view appears to be limited to one week at a time; clicking on a particular day brings up a appointment entry dialog box.


Firefox 2.0 alpha available

Curious to see what's in store for Firefox 2.0? An alpha of 2.0 with some new features has appeared on Mozilla's FTP servers.

Due out later this year, Firefox 2.0 promises a handful of improvements and new features over what is already a very solid browser. (By way of disclosure, I use Firefox 1.5 exclusively on my PCs and laptops)