Eudora goes open source

SAN DIEGO: QUALCOMM Incorporated, developer and innovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, and the Mozilla Foundation announced that future versions of Eudora will be based upon the same technology platform as the open source Mozilla Thunderbird email program. Future versions of Eudora will be free and open source, while retaining Eudora's uniquely rich feature set and productivity enhancements.

QUALCOMM and Mozilla will each participate in, and continue to foster development communities based around the open source Mozilla project, with a view to enhancing the capabilities and ease of use of both Eudora and Thunderbird. QUALCOMM also announced that it has released the final commercial versions of the current Eudora products for Windows and Mac operating systems.

“I'm excited for Eudora to be returning to the open source community,” said Steve Dorner, vice president of technology for QUALCOMM's Eudora Group. “Using the Mozilla Thunderbird technology platform as a basis for future versions of Eudora will provide some key infrastructure that the existing versions lacked, such as a cross-platform code base and a world-class display engine. Making it open source will bring more developers to bear on Eudora than ever before” he added.

“We're pleased to welcome Eudora and its millions of users to the world of open source,” said Frank Hecker, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. “This effort should further enrich the Thunderbird technology platform and provide users of both products with an even richer email experience.”

The open source version of Eudora is targeted to release during the first half of 2007 and once the open source version of Eudora is released, QUALCOMM will cease to sell Eudora commercially.

Information about the open source version of Eudora and details for existing customers of the classic version of Eudora can be found at company website.