Can Mozilla pull another Firefox with e-mail?

“Mozilla’s track record with its hugely popular Firefox Web
browser suggests that it may have more than a sporting chance,
despite a mostly unproductive history with e-mail. Thunderbird,
Mozilla’s e-mail client, has been around since 2003, with almost no
market share to show for its nearly seven years of development.

“Could it be that Thunderbird has been a victim of Firefox’s
success? If so, has anything changed to suggest that Thunderbird is
ready to innovate and lead, as Firefox has done?

“The answer is a qualified but optimistic “yes.” Mozilla just
released Thunderbird 3, and early reports suggest that it’s a
keeper. CNET, for example, lauds Thunderbird’s search capabilities
(“Microsoft Outlook doesn’t offer anything that comes close to the
level of granular control that Mozilla has given Thunderbird
users”), among other things, and declares that it “rates as a
top-notch e-mail client, and it’s definitely the best freeware one
around.”

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