Firefox Preview Release and Thunderbird 0.8 Released - Mozilla Foundation Adds New Features to Firefox and Thunderbird as New Apps Near 1.0 Launch
The Mozilla Foundation today released a Preview Release of its Mozilla Firefox web browser and version 0.8 of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. Mozilla Firefox Preview Release is an innovative, secure, lightning fast web browser that is drawing rave reviews. Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 is the Mozilla Foundation's next generation email client. These releases bring Firefox and Thunderbird one step closer to their much anticipated 1.0 releases, scheduled for later this fall.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (PRWEB) September 14, 2004 -- The Mozilla Foundation today
released a Preview Release of its new Mozilla Firefox web browser and version
0.8 of the Mozilla Thunderbird email client. Mozilla Firefox Preview Release is
an innovative, secure, lightning fast web browser that is drawing rave reviews.
Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 is the Mozilla Foundation's next generation email
client. These releases bring Firefox and Thunderbird one step closer to their
much anticipated 1.0 releases, scheduled for later this fall.
Along with
the new releases, the Mozilla Foundation today announced the launch of the
Spreadfirefox.com web site, which will be the hub for the Firefox marketing
effort, starting with a push to achieve one million downloads of the Firefox
Preview Release over the next 10 days. The Foundation also announced the first
awards in its new Security Bug Bounty Program, which has already resulted in a
number of security improvements to Mozilla software.
"We are delighted
to announce these milestones for Firefox and Thunderbird," commented Mitchell
Baker, President of the Mozilla Foundation. "These new releases, along with the
launch of the Spreadfirefox.com web site and the success of our Security Bug
Bounty Program, demonstrate the power of open source to harness the creative
energies of volunteer contributors from around the world."
New features
in the Firefox Preview Release include:
- Improved pop-up blocker: new pop-up
blocker blocks even more pop-ups while making it easy to view pop-ups when
necessary.
- Security improvements: the new release provides additional
protection to users against spoofing attacks, the practice of tricking users
into believing they are on a trusted site when they are not. When a user visits
a secure site, Firefox now highlights the web site address and clearly displays
the name of the web site. Firefox also includes a number of other security
improvements and fixes, several of which were identified as part of the Mozilla
Foundation's new Security Bug Bounty Program.
- Live Bookmarks, which help
users discover a new dimension to the web by allowing them to create bookmarks
that display dynamically updated content such as news headlines. Live Bookmarks
let users view RSS feeds, a technology that web content providers use to easily
create and disseminate news headlines and summaries. RSS feeds are offered by
thousands of sites, including Yahoo News, BBC.co.uk, CNET News.com and most
weblogs.
- Plugin finder service: Firefox now includes a plugin finder
service that makes it a breeze to install plugins, starting with the Macromedia
Flash Player for Windows. Additional plugins will be added in the coming weeks.
- Improved searching within web pages: Firefox now highlights search terms
when the user is looking for keywords within a page.
New Features in
Thunderbird 0.8 include:
- Global inbox: POP3 users can now combine all of
their POP3 accounts into a single global inbox.
- Comprehensive data
migration: Switching to Thunderbird has never been easier since Thunderbird can
now migrate all of a user's email data, including settings, mail folders and
address book data from common mail applications such as the Mozilla 1.x Suite,
Outlook Express, Outlook and Eudora.
- RSS integration: Thunderbird now
features a built-in RSS reader which allows you to easily subscribe to and read
news and weblogs that support RSS.
- Improved Quick Search: this new version
of Thunderbird makes it even easier to manage your email. Quick Search now
supports many different types of search criteria including the ability to search
message body text. Thunderbird can also highlight the quick search terms in the
message body.
- Numerous security and performance improvements and bug fixes.
The Mozilla Foundation also released an update to the Mozilla 1.7 suite,
which includes the security enhancements available in the latest versions of
Firefox and Thunderbird.
The Mozilla Foundation is riding a wave of user
and industry support. Mozilla Firefox 0.9 was downloaded almost 5 million times
over the last two months. In August, Firefox received the Best In Show award at
LinuxWorld. In its September issue, Wired Magazine declared Firefox officially
"Wired" (and labeled Internet Explorer as "Expired"), while, last week, both the
Wall Street Journal and USA Today encouraged security-conscious users to try out
Firefox.
GETTING FIREFOX PREVIEW RELEASE AND THUNDERBIRD 0.8
Firefox
Preview Release, Thunderbird 0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.3 can be downloaded for free
at www.mozilla.org. Users can
also purchase a CD edition from the Mozilla Foundation's web
site.
Mozilla applications run on a wide range of operating systems,
including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and are translated into dozens
of languages. The source code and documentation for all Mozilla applications is
freely available under the open source Mozilla Public License.
SUPPORTING
MOZILLA
Individuals and companies from around the world support the Mozilla
Foundation through voluntary contributions of time, money and resources. To
discover how you or your company can help spread the word about Mozilla Firefox,
please visit http://www.spreadfirefox.com .
ABOUT THE MOZILLA
FOUNDATION
Established in July 2003 with start-up support from America
Online's Netscape division, the Mozilla Foundation exists to provide
organizational, legal, and financial support for the Mozilla open source
software project. The Foundation is based in Mountain View, California and has
affiliate Foundations in Europe and Japan. The Mozilla Foundation is a 501 (C)
non-profit organization. Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird and their respective
logos are trademarks of the Mozilla Foundation.
PRESS CONTACTS
- Colin
Crook, 415-321-1887
- e-mail protected from spam bots
For the latest
Mozilla-related news and commentary, support and discussion, please visit
MozillaZine, http://www.mozillazine.org , the largest independent Mozilla
news and support site on the web.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb158169.htm