Mozilla Calendar

Mozilla Calendar is an open source calendar and personal information manager based on the open iCalendar standard. It is developed as part of the Mozilla project.

As with other Mozilla projects, Mozilla Calendar is cross-platform, and uses the XUL user interface language. It works with Microsoft Windows, Linux (on both PC and PowerPC), and Mac OS X.

Mozilla Calendar

The Mozilla Calendar project was announced by the Mozilla Foundation in October 2001. The Mozilla Calendar code was contributed by OEone (now Axentra), who had developed it for use in their Mozilla-based HomeBase DESKTOP system. The project was initially led by OEone employee Mike Potter.

The initial plan was for Mozilla Calendar to eventually be integrated into the Mozilla suite alongside the other components (the Navigator, Mail & Newsgroups, Address Book, Composer and ChatZilla). However, this plan was dropped when mozilla.org decided to focus on its nascent standalone applications rather than the integrated suite.

The project suffered a blow in March 2003 when OEone decided to scale back their involvement. A few months later, in July 2003, Mike Potter retired as the head of the project and handed over the reins to fellow OEone employee Mostafa Hosseini. It was also announced that future development work would focus on creating a standalone version of Mozilla Calendar.

Today Mozilla Calendar can be installed as a component in the Mozilla Application Suite, or as an extension in either the Mozilla Firefox standalone browser or the Mozilla Thunderbird standalone mail and newsgroups client.

Sunbird

Mozilla Sunbird is the standalone version of Mozilla Calendar, announced in July 2003. The latest version is 0.2, released on February 4, 2005.

On June 15, 2004, the Sunbird developers asked the Mozilla community to submit possible new default themes and logos for Sunbird. The resulting theme was developed by Mark Carson and Chris Cook, based on Firefox's default theme. Three proposed Sunbird logos were submitted to a community vote; Mark Carson's entry was declared the winner on August 12, 2004.

Lightning

Announced on December 22, 2004, the Lightning project aims to create an extension that adds calendar and scheduling functionality to the Thunderbird mail and newsgroups client. It is separate from both the Mozilla Calendar and Sunbird projects, though there will be code shared between them. Unlike the Mozilla Calendar extension or Sunbird, Lightning aims to integrate tightly with Thunderbird.

The Lightning project is headed by longtime Mozilla volunteer and current Oracle technical staffer Mike Shaver. The project is currently in the very early stages and the first general user release is planned for mid-2005.

See also

• List of personal information managers
• List of open-source software packages
• Comparison of personal information managers

External links

Project pages

• Mozilla Calendar
• Sunbird
• Lightning
• Portable Sunbird — An USB drive-friendly version

News articles

• MozillaZine: mozilla.org Announces Calendar Project
• MozillaZine: OEone Scales Back Calendar Development
• MozillaZine: Mozilla Calendar Project Lead Mike Potter Retires, Mostafa Hosseini Named as New Head
• MozillaZine: Mozilla Sunbird Standalone Calendar Project Launches
• MozillaZine: Lightning Project Launched to Provide Calendar Features for Mozilla Thunderbird
• CNET News.com: Mozilla's Lightning to strike Outlook?