Mozilla's Sunbird Reviewed

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Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 4, 2004 @02:05AM from the right-on-schedule dept.

comforteagle writes "Mozilla Sunbird is the latest stand-alone application from the Mozilla foundation that follows in the footsteps of now revered browser Firefox and email client Thunderbird. OSDir reviews their first public release, version 0.2. Screenshots included."

9 of 208 comments (clear)

Correction -- Version 0.2 by sessamoid · 2004-09-04 02:07 · Score: 5, Informative

It's not "2.0". It's "0.2". Way before 1.0.

--
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. by Penguinoflight · 2004-09-04 02:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

It seems that if Mozilla were at this stage in its development, say 5 years ago, they would probably be converging into one application. Perhaps Mozilla has decided to learn from the mistakes of Windows/IE integration. With the recent wired article where a Microsoft security head admitting his use of Firefox, I would say this move to less integration is definatly a smart one.

--
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
1. Re:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. by soyuz_2 · 2004-09-04 02:13 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  where a Microsoft security head admitting his use of Firefox
  
  Anyone making software would be nuts not to try the competitors product. I mean, surely Audi engineers try BMW's to see what they have to compete against, right?
2. Re:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. by mantera · 2004-09-04 02:24 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  "With the recent wired article where a Microsoft security head admitting his use of Firefox"... I read his interview and it did not indicate that he was using it in any more capacity than testing it. He definitely did not say he was using it for browsing or relying on it. In fact, he said it too had security issues. So, although I'm typing this on firefox right now, let's not get excessively enthausiastic. Microsoft had always had a practice of seeing what's out there, competitors and already implemented solutions, that him having firefox on his computer means very little. He probably has every other browser out there too.
Re:Wait.... by FuzzzyLogik · 2004-09-04 02:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

good grief man... look at the version number on that.. 0.2 there's plenty of time for them to innovate, let them get the basics done first then watch as the new useful features roll out... sit back and chill.. if you have such a problem why not go help the development... it's really not THAT hard to write some javascript and such for all that.. i guess if you don't program it might be kind of hard but it's fairly easy to pickup if you tried... the thing i'm trying to say though is to provide your input, if it's not what you want, then why not go suggest features or what have you? bitching isn't going to help, you need to provide constructive criticism and possible advancements...

--
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
OH, and BTW... by ScottGant · 2004-09-04 02:50 · Score: 5, Informative

It's a calendar application

--

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Sunbird's OK but kinda buggy by explorer · 2004-09-04 03:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

Sunbird's OK, I use it. But it's kinda buggy and limited. WebDAV is clunky and doesn't really work well. If you have dreams of publishing your departments calendars on a web server and scheduling group meetings (avoiding conflicts) like with Outlook/Exchange, forget it. It's really only useful for putting your own calendar up on a web server so you can schedule stuff from home, work, the road, etc.

And like I said, it's buggy. For example, I sucked in my old Outlook calendar in ical format using a converter, and it kinda puked on recurring appointments with exceptions. In fact, it appears that if you have a weekly meeting but you try to delete more than 5 or so of the individual recurrences, it starts forgetting about some of them! Pretty annoying. As a result, the old Outlook habit of setting up a weekly dept meeting, and then hitting delete on individual meetings that are cancelled doesn't work with Sunbird.

Still looking for a decent group calendaring app for UNIX users.
Re:Actually... by kfg · 2004-09-04 03:59 · Score: 5, Informative

Who knows what you mean by "deep system call"

He means calls to the system API, or even the kernel itself, to handle application level functions.

While embedding application level code at a low level can certainly reduce the amount of duplicate code in memory and provide a certain core "integration" of products written against that code it also means that a crash or security flaw of an application can be a crash or security flaw of the system itself which can only be corrected by rewriting system level code.

He suggests that data exchange between applications instead be accomplished by the simple expedient of applications using a common data exchange format. It's a radical concept, I know, but it just might work. Someone might want to start down this road by devising a simple binary code for the alphabet and numbers and stuff.

KFG
Critical features missing by akratic · 2004-09-04 06:14 · Score: 5, Funny

Will it let me set an appointment for December 3rd by typing "M-e C-f M-e C-f C-f C-f i d Important Meeting C-x C-s"? Will it tell me when sunset will be in Dublin, Georgia exactly forty-seven weeks from today when I type ". C-u 47 C-n S -82.9 RET +32.33 RET"? Will it schedule a monthly appointment on the fifth day of every month of the Hebrew lunar calendar when I type "g h RET Tishri RET 5 RET i h m It's the fifth day of the month! C-x C-s"?

I'll be sticking with the Emacs calendar, thanks.