Release Day Is Upon Us

Posted on October 15, 2003

Lots of news from the Mozilla Project today! First, they’ve finally released the new set of apps based on the Mozilla 1.5 code base. That means that the final release versions of these applications are available for download:

• Mozilla 1.5, the complete Mozilla application suite (browser, e-mail, chat, etc.)
• Mozilla Firebird 0.7, the excellent stand-alone browser
• Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3, the excellent stand-alone e-mail program

(Note that Mozilla 1.5 is scheduled to be the last version of the old application suite, so if you haven’t tried Firebird and Thunderbird yet, now’s an excellent time to do that — I’ve been using them for months and I can testify that they’ve far outstripped the old suite in performance and usability.)

They’ve also unveiled the new look for the mozilla.org Web site, designed to appeal to end users (finally!). They’ve got some new services to help further that goal as well, like the ability to buy tech support incidents (important for corporate users). Another interesting idea is the option to subscribe to Mozilla — a subscription costs $15.95/year, and subscribers get each major release of Mozilla mailed to them on CD for the term of their subscription, along with e-mail updates of upgrades and other special offers. Not bad, and the price is low enough to make it worth considering even if you could care less about the CDs and all you want to do is support Mozilla. (They’re also selling Mozilla CDs with the latest version of the browser, if you don’t want to subscribe — $3.95 for a single CD or $14.95 for a 5-pack, plus S&H.

Of course, if you want to, you can still always just donate to the Mozilla Project as well. I mean, think of all the great software they have given you over the last few years, all for free! The least you could do is throw them a couple of bucks, ya cheapskate 🙂

This is great news and a testament to the continuing vitality of the Mozilla Project. Now that they’ve finally shaken loose from AOL and don’t have to worry about stepping on Netscape’s toes anymore, here’s hoping we keep seeing more good work like this from them in the future!