16 October 2006

Introducing Icedove

This came in today:

~/$ apt-cache show icedove
Package: icedove
Priority: optional
Section: mail
Installed-Size: 30936
Maintainer: Alexander Sack
Architecture: i386
Version: 1.5.0.7-3
Replaces: mozilla-thunderbird, thunderbird, mozilla-thunderbird-offline
Provides: mail-reader, imap-client, news-reader
Depends: ...snip...
Suggests: ...snip...
Conflicts: mozilla-thunderbird (<= 1.5-2), thunderbird (>= 1.5.0.7-2), mozilla-thunderbird-offline ...
...
Description: free/unbranded thunderbird mail client Icedove is a
unbranded Thunderbird mail client suitable for free distribution.
The goal of Thunderbird is to produce a cross platform stand alone
mail application using the XUL user interface language.
Icedove/Thunderbird leaves a somewhat smaller memory footprint than
the Mozilla/Seamonkey suite.

Let the flame wars begin :p


Update: somebird would have suited better for a rename ;)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

And ? What part of "Thunderbird™ has the same trademark license as Firefox®" did you not understand ?

Just so that you don't post the same when Iceweasel, Iceape, and the Sunbird™ replacement come in, yes, Firefox®, Seamonkey™ and Sunbird™ are planned to be renamed.

As if we had any choice.
http://bugs.debian.org/354622

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a reasonable approach, given the options in the debian bug (either use the official source code without unapproved changes, or change the name).

KDS said...

Anon #1 - Why do you think I shouldn't post the other *zilla name changes which seem inevitable (for now at least)? I'm fully aware of the controversy which was just smoke earlier, caught some fire and was considered resolved with Debian and MoFo (rep by Gerv at that time) to use the name sans the artwork.

Then comes MoCo who want to settle things once for all. I fully appreciate MoCo's willingness to enforce their policy but the phrase "If your choice is to cease usage of the trademark rather than bend the DFSG a little" gave an indication that MoCo's mconnor did not understand the Social Contract or DFSG fully. I think it as hard to "bend DFSG a little" as it is to "adjust MoCo policy" if not more!

I am a Debian user and the Social Contract give me a peace of mind in addition to its wonderful package management. On the other hand, I admire the way MoCo has come out and developed the Gecko technology. I have recommended Firefox and Thunderbird to several friends and colleagues and will continue to do so. Changing the name (Eric is used to that :p) for firefox in Etch seemes to be the only option(for now) considering the that the issue has been re-re-raised just before Etch release. (6.5 months between two emails from MoCo!!)

For the userbase-division concerns due to the renaming, I have a feeling that it will not have that big an effect as has been projected by words in the last few days. But I have always wondered why are there no rpms or debs on the official Mozilla mirrors. It would definitely give users full choice on what kind of Firefox they want to use.

Browser I use? Firefox+Opera (tend to crash/high CPU usage after about 24hr usage), Konqueror - ajax sites give problems sometimes, and Safari - nice but not a big fan if it either. Result: a lot of browsers :)

PS: too long a comment. Needs a blog post of its own. Too lazy to do that right now!

PPS: For the records, it was Debian who first contacted MoFo to clear out the issues regarding licences and artwork.