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Mozilla Releases Mozilla Sunbird 0.2

Posted by simoniker on from the flutter-by dept.

Gentu writes "Along with the new Mozilla-Japan initiative and the release of Mozilla 1.8a3 today, the Mozilla team released the first 'official' beta release of Mozilla Sunbird, version 0.2, a stand-alone calendaring application (similar to Apple's iCal). There are two flavors of this project, one that works as a ~700 KB plugin to Firefox/Thunderbird/Mozilla (titled Mozilla Calendar) and the ~8 MB stand-alone calendaring application, Mozilla Sunbird (rate the apps over at GnomeFiles.org). These builds are the first to feature a new default theme, a new logo and the customizable toolbar functionality. Note that Sunbird is still an experimental technology preview that contain bugs, but it is pretty stable."

39 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the Readme:
    • At-rule for matching on site/document URL. Among other things, this makes site-specific user style rules possible (Great for changing it.slashdot.org's color scheme!)
    • Undetected document.all support has been added to Mozilla (Good for some dumb IE-only sites)
    • Support for translucent windows on Windows and GTK2 (Oohh!)
    • Preliminary support for CSS columns has been checked in (Too bad IE won't support this for years, if ever)
    • The new npruntime plugin scriptability API (Good, good)
    • Users can now disable CSS via Use Style > None or a global preference (Well, they can't all be exciting)
    1. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by sweetooth · · Score: 4, Funny

      it.slashdot.org? That's nothing compared to games.slashdot.org, that's where you really need the custom stylesheet.

    2. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by medeii · · Score: 5, Informative

      Read the damn bug yourself. (Note: copy and paste the link, Bugzilla rejects visits from Slashdot.) It is not designed to encourage bad writing: support for document.all will ONLY activate if the web developer really was stupid and did not use any sort of test to detect it.

      Additional discussion can be seen from the Mozillazine article published weeks ago.

      --
      got standards? --- http://www.w3.org/
    3. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by NutscrapeSucks · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since when have Mozilla folks started to work around IE brokenness, and why?

      Maybe since years of a hardline position on the point have resulted in a 2% marketshare?

      Maybe they finally realized that in the big picture, the minor naming issue of "all[]" versus "getElementById()" wasn't worth getting their panties in a wad over -- especially relative to the bigger issue of XHTML/CSS versus Vendor HTML?

      Either way, I welcome the new Realism over at mozilla.org.

      not to mention encourages writing MORE bad DHTML

      Almost everyone who actually writes Javascript understands that document.all is legacy. However, a huge portion of DHTML is just copy-n-pasted over-n-over again by Dreamweaver jockeys -- who barely understand programming much less standards nuances. Mozilla was trying to educate a group that is impossible to educate.

      --
      Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
    4. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by damiam · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't think it's possible for Slashdot to get any more invalid than it already is. :-)

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    5. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by kikta · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's an interesting comparison you make, IT's tan on white versus games's purple rain.

      The former makes you go blind and the latter makes you wish you were blind...

    6. Re:Some of the new Mozilla 1.8a3 features by NeoSkandranon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What it does is reduces the likeliehood of someone going "My favorite site doesnt work in Moz, so i'm sticking to IE"

      --
      If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
  2. Angry people by Dashing+Leech · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thunder ... Fire ... Sun .. all hot, loud, destructive things. I guess there's no cuddly hippie people at Mozilla.

    1. Re:Angry people by csguy314 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thunder ... Fire ... Sun .. all hot, loud, destructive things.

      Well what can you expect when the entire project is apparently named after a giant, fire breathing lizard?
      Maybe the next project will be named GunFox?

      --
      This is left as an exercise for the reader.
    2. Re:Angry people by el-spectre · · Score: 4, Funny

      Depends on your perspective... these are also elements of nature... could very easily be a hippy influence :)

      If the next app is SUVBird, we'll know for sure.

      Or, if you wanna go rude, just TheBird

      --
      "Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
  3. NAME CHANGE by drsmack1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    When is the first name change scheduled?

    --

    Humor from a Genetically Molested Mind

  4. no Palm support by js7a · · Score: 5, Informative
    The calendar does not yet synch with your Palm Pilot.
    -- Sunbird FAQ
    No synching with outlook clients (e.g. Pocket PCs), either, just Outlook .ics format export-import.
    1. Re:no Palm support by Davak · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, sync is a big thing these days.

      I actually use yahoo's sync to backup by outlook contacts, calender, and to-do list. It's cheesy as hell, but it certainly does the job.

      How can I publish my events on a remote server?
      You can publish events from the calendar to an FTP server or a webDAV enabled webserver. You can also use the calendar to subscribe to these events as well.

      If I can figure out what the heck a webDAV enabled webserver is, maybe I can drop yahoo...

      /Off to google

      Davak

    2. Re:no Palm support by ptbarnett · · Score: 4, Informative
      If I can figure out what the heck a webDAV enabled webserver is, maybe I can drop yahoo...

      http://www.webdav.org/

    3. Re:no Palm support by deputydink · · Score: 5, Informative
      apache with mod_webdav is what you want. It works out of the box on Mac actually, since Apple's iCal is built on webDav, which means they'd be compatible (sort of)

      I think it works out of the box on Fedora as well.


      Pretty much any modern web server can do webdav, or has a module that can do it.

    4. Re:no Palm support by irix · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sync support is planned eventually, but some of us are starting to look at it now.

      --

      Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
  5. Strange math.... by wolfemi1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm confused. If the plugin is ~700K, and the Firefox installer for Windows is ~4.6M, then how in the hell can the standalone Sunbird be ~8M, more over 3 megabytes more than the browser and plugin combined?

    1. Re:Strange math.... by jsebrech · · Score: 4, Informative

      The firefox installer skims off a few megs by using 7zip compression (which is why the linux and mac builds are so much bigger, no 7zip). I would imagine the sunbird installer exe isn't built with 7zip support yet.

  6. Lot of work coming from that direction by MadFarmAnimalz · · Score: 5, Funny

    That whole mozilla suite project just seems to be generating a lot of really good software... There's firegoat, thunderbird, mozilla, alotofotherthingsidontknowaboutfox, and mozilla.

    I mean wow, those are some productive developers... Kudos.

    (though I keep on worrying that they'll slip out a kernel one of these days just to complete the operating environment... kernelzilla? mozillOS? Thunderbarf?)

    Just kidding :0 Thanks for all the great work!

    --
    Blearf. Blearf, I say.
  7. Re:Sunbird? Firefox? Firebird? by balbeir · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm waiting for MockingBird

  8. As usual... by almostmanda · · Score: 5, Informative

    The logos are adorable.

    1. Re:As usual... by Omestes · · Score: 4, Funny

      I always thought that the Firefox icon looked like a weasel humping a blue marble. And people seem to be able to recognize it as such.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
  9. And file compatible with Apples iCal too .. by Macka · · Score: 5, Informative

    From their web site:

    iCal and the Mozilla Calendar use the same file format, so events from one should show up without problem in the other. You can also subscribe to the list of events on Apple's website if you like.

    This is great news, and should help to promote both applications.

  10. Re:Ridiculous names by be-fan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sunbird is less descriptive than Excel? Curious.

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  11. Mozilla project names currently in alpha by MerryGoByeBye · · Score: 5, Funny
    • Birdfire
    • Sunfried
    • Friedbird
    • Furredbread
    • Bunfriar
    • Sunblurred
    • Slurredbird
    • Blurbird
    • Boredslurred
    • Slartibird
    • Currybird
    This will go a loooong way to convincing people to switch from silly and confusing Microsoft products! Er...
  12. Re:Mozilla Japan by tigersaw · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't Mozilla just a bit to close to Godzilla for the Japanese market?

    Prepare for a name change. I'm thinking "Pikascape" or "Mozachu"

    --
    In Soviet Russia, all our base are belong to you!
  13. Possibly a very important project for Open Source by techiemac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sunbird could very well be one of the more important open source projects out there! At least, important for the corporate adoption of Linux. While Linux remains awesome in the server/development arena (after all, it's all I use to write code at work), it still lacks in the "Management" desktop area. Before I get lots of flames about this one, I know about openoffice.org but still, if you look at the dominiance and reliance on Outlook in the corporate environment, you will see why Linux needs a good, integrate calendar application.
    One CEO even mentioned this to me. He loves Linux from what he has been shown/played with but finds it hard to lose the integrated calendar feature of Outlook. For him, that's what is holding back the adoption of Linux. Believe it or not, he hates the quality of Outlook. The only reason he is tied to it is because it is the only viable solution with the proper features.
    The more we look at what our targeted users are using, the better off we will be. This is what Microsoft often does well. They look at who makes the decision to deploy their product, like any good company does, and tailor their product around that user.
    I simply cannot believe that we, as an open source community, have not yet duplicated the todo/email/calendar application that managers so love (with good reason too, their jobs often involve quite a few meetings/action items/communications).
    Hopefully this will fill the void of an integrated calendar/scheduling application (though there could be something already out there... I just don't know about it ;) ).

  14. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  15. Sunbird has no support for proxies - no worries! by hallucination · · Score: 5, Informative

    If, like me, you need to use a proxy server in Sunbird, but found that it doesn't allow you to set one up, you have two choices:

    Use the thunderbird/firefox calendar plugin instead

    OR

    Copy the network.proxy parts of your thunderbird/firefox prefs.js file into your sunbird prefs.js file.

  16. Another goddamn car name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ford Thunderbird
    Pontiac Firebird
    Pontiac Sunbird

    The Sunbird was an even crappier car than the Firebird. Think Cavalier+nasty plastic decorations.

  17. Re:Possibly a very important project for Open Sour by Senjutsu · · Score: 5, Informative

    (though there could be something already out there... I just don't know about it ;) ).

    Ximian Evolution is the Managerial, Outlook-esque product for Linux that you seem to be missing.

  18. Re:Sunbird? Firefox? Firebird? by bccomm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some sort of text-to-speech engine?

  19. Etymology of Mozilla by sbszine · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well what can you expect when the entire project is apparently named after a giant, fire breathing lizard?

    Intarweb folk history has it that the word Mozilla is a contraction of Mosaic-Killer (with a nod to Godzilla, of course).

    --

    Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling

  20. Re:Has to be said by be-fan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obviously old people who never saw Power Rangers as a kid modded this down. This might not be funny, but it's hardly off-topic. I mean, c'mon! They might as well rename the Mozilla Suite "Megazord," seeing as how it's what you get when you combine Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird!

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  21. Re:Open Contacts format by Ramsed · · Score: 5, Informative

    vCard ?

  22. Re:Open Contacts format by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, Mozilla, KAddressBook, and OpenLDAP support LDIF. That seems like a pretty feature-complete standard for sharing directory information.

    --
    Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  23. Still lacks most important feature: useful alarms! by Dolphin26 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The whole point of a calendar program, at least for me, is the alarms. Sunbird has them, but they don't go off unless the calendar is open. This means you can (for example) have Thunderbird open with the calendar plugin, but if you don't have the calendar window open, you won't be reminded about anything. Sunbird won't be useful to me until this is fixed.



    See requirements here
    and the tracker bug here. At the tracker bug, you can add your email to the CC, and put in a comment to let the developer's know that it is important to you!

    In order for this

  24. Don't forget Chandler by sphealey · · Score: 4, Interesting
    When considering Free calendaring applications, don't forget to look at Chandler from the OSA Foundation. I wish they were moving a bit faster with usable releases though.

    sPh

  25. Re:Still lacks most important feature: useful alar by helix400 · · Score: 4, Informative

    A minimize to tray extension is in the works that would help this problem out to a degree.

    Minimize To Tray Extension

    The extension works pretty well for Firefox and Thunderbird, and if/when Sunbird allows extensions, it will be extended to work with that too. This of course means Sunbird/Calendar would always be running, able to send out alarms, but not taking up lots of room on the taskbar. At the moment, the minimize to tray extension is only for Windows, and it's not a perfect fix, but it may help out some people who just want any solution for this issue.