Mozilla to expand Thunderbird

Mozilla wants to reproduce the Firefox Web browser's success with Thunderbird, its open-source email software.

In 2005, the Mozilla Foundation set up a corporation to run elements of the Firefox Web browser operation. Now it's doing the same with Thunderbird, providing the as-yet-unnamed subsidiary with $3m (£1.5m) and beginning plans to significantly expand its programming staff, said Mozilla chief executive Mitchell Baker.

"We're increasing Mozilla's focus with people and money, and we're hoping to use that to create something better, much as we do in the Firefox space... for everyone interested in Internet and email communications," Baker said.

David Ascher, currently chief technology officer at ActiveState and a longtime Mozilla community member, will become the new email corporation's CEO.

Firefox, a rejuvenated incarnation of the original Netscape Navigator Web browser, has been a notable success in the open-source realm. Though it hasn't displaced the browser that largely vanquished Netscape, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it's attained significant market share. Last week, Mozilla said there had been 400 million official downloads of Firefox, an imperfect measure of its actual use but a notably large number nonetheless.

But reproducing the scale of Firefox's success won't be as easy with Thunderbird, RedMonk analyst Stephen O'Grady said. Microsoft's Outlook is tightly tied to its widely used Exchange email server software, unlike the more easily swapped-out Web browser, and much of the new email development is happening in Web-based services.

"They're unlikely to displace Outlook, of course, in Exchange settings, so they'll have to depend on convincing users of Gmail or ISP (Internet service provider) email... that a mail client is necessary," O'Grady said.

The new corporation will draw the two or three dedicated Thunderbird programmers out from under their current Firefox umbrella and hire new staff, Baker said. As with its sister Mozilla Corp, the foundation set up the corporation as a convenient legal mechanism to meet overall Mozilla Foundation goals, not to be a moneymaking business, she added.