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Mozilla Software The Internet

Mozilla's Sunbird Reviewed 208

Posted by CowboyNeal 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."
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Mozilla's Sunbird Reviewed More

Mozilla's Sunbird Reviewed

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  • It's 0.2, not 2.0. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:07AM (#10157146)
    Just thought you might like to know, editors. And authors.

  • Correction -- Version 0.2 (Score:5, Informative)

    by sessamoid ( 165542 ) * on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:07AM (#10157148)
    It's not "2.0". It's "0.2". Way before 1.0.

  • FP (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sm8000 ( 780163 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:07AM (#10157151)
    "as of the moment Sunbird does not integrate with Thunderbird or Firefox." Sometimes this isn't always a bad thing, you know?

    • Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:12AM (#10157168) Homepage
      ..for a Calendar program, it is. However, what you need is a high-level exchange format. Which is slightly differnt than the "deep system call" integration of Outlook/IE/Windows.

      Kjella

      • Re:Actually... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Blakflag ( 95052 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @03:11PM (#10158485) Homepage
        I agree. I'm no expert, but I AM lazy so I spend a lot of timethinking about why programs have such trouble talking to each other.

        How about this system: each program can save data nuggets for other programs in data "gifts" little chunks of data encoded in XML or other easy format. Then the other programs can look in their "gift inbox", and choose which stuff to integrate.

        This has two advantages:

        1. programs dont have to have access to other programs data files. The control is always in the hands of the destination app, because gifts can be rejected at any time.

        2. programs dont have to understand other programs data stuctures, or adapt to changes in database format.

        3. For security, there could be shared keys in each program, that the gifts get touched with. So a program can choose to accept or reject gifts based on source.

        4. It can extend to multi system environments with shared inboxes.

        I know thats 4 not 2 but I got carried away.

        Any comments?

        an example:
        a URL "gift" could be sent to Firefoxes Bookmarks menu. A contact "gift" could be sent to Thunderbird's Address book.

    • Re:FP (Score:5, Informative)

      by DarkSarin ( 651985 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:22AM (#10157219) Homepage Journal
      That may be true, but I remember not too long ago having trouble getting T-bird to open links in firefox if I clicked on them, and firefox wouldn't open mailto links.

      That said, there is also a calendar plugin for both of these programs that can be made to use the sunbird calendar (all use the same file format, and you simply point them to the same file). A bit more work, yes, but ultimately useful.

      I suspect that now is the time to speak up, and they will be able to fix the problems before a 1.0 release occurs.
      • offtopic slightly, but how did you fix that, my friend is having same problem cant figure it out..

        • Re:FP (Score:3, Informative)

          by Bungopolis ( 763083 )
          In a Linux system you'll need to edit your prefs.js directly at ~/.thunderbird/default.###/prefs.js

          Simply add the line:

          user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/bin/firefox");

          or the path to your desired browser.

    • Re:FP (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      I agree. I'm trying it now because I wanted a stand alone calendar app. I may not necessarily have Firefox or Thunderbird open at the time, so this is a nice way to cut down bloat. That being said, 0.2 has some serious resource allocation problems, making it run very, very slowly at times. I'm looking forward to future, more complete versions.

  • Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Penguinoflight ( 517245 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:09AM (#10157160) Journal
    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.

    • Re:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by soyuz_2 ( 810631 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:13AM (#10157176)
      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?
      • 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?

        I would expect the engineers to do this. I would expect the designers to do this. I would expect the marketing department to do this.

        I would not expect the guy who runs the safety testing facility to do it.
      • Yes but software is a religion here, so everyone is holding this up as a 'we won' as opposed to what it really is, just someone choosing to use something.
    • I waiting for the time when mozilla decide to integrate firefox, thunderbird and sun bird into one application.

      Oh wait...

    • Re:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mantera ( 685223 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:24AM (#10157226)
      "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:Mozilla tries the unintegrated method. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by callipygian-showsyst ( 631222 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @12:29PM (#10157758) Homepage
        Microsoft had always had a practice of seeing what's out there,

        Exactly right!

        In fact, that was one serious problem I noticed with Apple when I worked there. Nobody believed they had any competition, and nobody ran competitors products. Folks there really beleived, for example, that if you tried to plug a digital camera into a Windows XP machine you'd have to spend hours downloading drivers and dealing with BSOD.

        It's SMART to know what the competition is doing. I'd be disappointed in Microsoft if they didn't keep abreast of the competitors.

        • Maybe not XP, but the "switch" campaign was aimed at 9x users. And yes, in 9x, my USB camera driver BSOD'd Windows. After much research I discovered that my cd burner software and my camera are incompatible. As a workaround, I wrote a batch file that switches out the offending file depending on which device I want to use - and even that requires a restart and I can't use both devices at the same time.
    • Or maybe Mozilla has decided to learn from the mistakes of Mozilla. Or the mistakes of Netscape Communicator. Once NS3 died out and until Firefox came along the Netscape browser series was just about the archetypical example of detrimental "integration"...
    • they would probably be converging into one application.

      Everthing actually comes from the mozilla suite which is ONE APPLICATION.

      Sunbird is stand alone implementation of Mozilla Calendar (ext), similar to browser (Firefox), or email (Thunderbird)

      • Yes, but these projects are ripping all the components out and doing them again, more cleanly, more efficiently, without all the horrible bloat that the suite had. Supposedly they will replace the suite at some point.
    • I don't think so much it's a move away from integration, but just keeping the actual programs separate. Mozilla Suite was one huge application that had all these little bits and pieces of programs. They were integrated because they shared the same internal structures. However, this led to bloat when you had to waste memory for a program you weren't using. I think mozilla's new strategy is to make the programs totally independent, but work together in a more abstract sense. This is more difficult, but i
    • I really like the concept of slim and fast stand alone apps, but some integration is going to be required. For instance, contacts. You can use the same list of contacts for calendar and email. Where should the contacts be stored? What if you install one app, use it for a while and build up a contacts list, then install the other app? What if I access my calendar remotely, can I easily add a meeting with certain contacts? When I get back to my home computer, will my email app pick up those contacts?

      This is
      • Seems like it would be simple enough for mozilla to have a common folder for usage with all the programs. I think they have install directories and preferences (data too) stored in separate folders, but there's 3 programs for them to use. That means 6 folders. If they kept the preferences folders unified, that should amount to a huge benefit. Of course, IANAP, so I could be wrong. Or maybe I'm stating the obvious...

  • that's 0.2 not 2.0 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rokzy ( 687636 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:09AM (#10157161)
    I tried it, it was okay but crashed a bit. plus I couldn't get it to say that an event lasted from a certain time on one day until a certain time several days later.

    if they make it so I can sync with my P900 that'd be a big plus.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Okay, if this is the wish-list thread, then I need to be able to set the default calendar to something other than My Calendar. Also it would be nice if it sat in the bottom right of the toolbar on my windows system instead of a whole tab. It's perfectly usable though and pretty amazing for a beta version. I'll stick with it as it grows.
    • Directly from the Sunbird website:
      "At the moment Sunbird is in an experimental stage. Although it is quite stable, we recommend it for testing purposes only."

  • For those who don't want to RTFA (Score:4, Informative)

    by Monx ( 742514 ) <MonxSlash AT exp ... bilities DOT com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:11AM (#10157163) Journal
    It's a calendar application. That doesn't yet integrate with FireFox or Thunderbird. It's also at version 0.2, not 2.0.

    Isn't the text at the top of this page supposed to be a summary?
    • Yes, they are *supposed* to be an accurate summarization of the story so people don't have to read the damned articles..

      But.. time and time again, the summaries are either inaccurate or important facts are left out.. Seems to be getting worse
    • Considering how inaccurate most /. summaries are anyways, I actually think this isn't bad. It forces people to RTFA instead of making dumbass comments based on some editor's crappy interpretation.

  • What's that name? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What ever happened to Sunfox??
    • It's waiting for the letter from Pontiac saying, "Dudes, wtf is with naming all your software after our cars?"

      They'll probably rename it to Sunfire before moving on to Sunfox and I can't wait for the Mozilla standalone download manager: GTO.

      Goatbird and Firegoat are really going to suck though.

      KFG

  • Problems with remote calendars (Score:3, Interesting)

    by manastungare ( 596862 ) <manas@tungare3.1415926.name minus pi> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:12AM (#10157171) Homepage
    I've had trouble getting Sunbird to work with any Calendar but the default. Also, when downloading and publishing remote calendars, all I get is a blinking icon (of two rotating arrows), with no further progress. Is Sunbird *really* ready for the public yet? :)
    • Is Sunbird *really* ready for the public yet? :)
      No, which is why it is still at version 0.2. It is not being promoted to regular end-users, and few people outside of Slashdot and MozillaZine readers probably know it exists. It is good to have the application available for testing and bug-reporting purposes, but it is certainly not supposed to be used by the general public at this point.
    • I've had it working for quite some time now.

  • Site's slow (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:12AM (#10157172)
    Software: Review of Mozilla's Sunbird Stand-Alone Calendar Application
    Posted Sep 03, 2004 - 06:58 AM
    Printer friendly page Print this story Send this story to a friend Email this to a friend

    by Gareth Russell

    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. Gareth reviews their first public release, version 0.2.

    (screenshots)

    Sunbird is the new cross-platform calendar application from the Mozilla foundation. It is based around the existing Mozilla Calendar component and is the latest in a string of standalone applications from the foundation, which are gradually replacing the current Mozilla suite of applications. The aim of the project is to create a standalone calendar for someone who uses either Mozilla Thunderbird or Firefox as their email client or browser. Sunbird hopes to offer a reduced footprint and performance enhancement over the original Calendar component. Sunbird is still in the early stages of development and is certainly experimental software with version 0.2 having been released recently. Nonetheless Sunbird is a promising application for those of you already using Thunderbird or Firefox.

    A word of warning though, as of the moment Sunbird does not integrate with Thunderbird or Firefox. It is purely a standalone project, although this is one of the tasks to be solved in the near future.

    The most striking difference between Sunbird and its Calendar counterpart is the theme and visual identity. Sunbird has its own logo, which is somewhat similar to Thunderbird's along with a slick visual style that removes a lot of the harshness found in the default Calendar component's theme. If you're running Windows XP then this theme integrates well with the rest of your system. At the moment there is still no option to change the theme if you do not like it, although this should be expected in future builds.

    The user interface is essentially the same as the Calendar components, this entails the use of a three or four framed system. A main frame provides an overview of the day, week, several weeks or month, whilst several sub frames provide information about events scheduled and tasks still to be completed. It is a flexible system that allows you to collapse windows to get the style you want but by default it feels rather unwieldy when it is compared to the more simplistic calendar components found in Outlook or Evolution due to the large number of windows on display.

    There are some improvements that could be made to the user interface to make it more accessible to new users. Some of the more useful features are only available from the title menus these should be more easily accessible through the toolbar. For example a "New Task" button for the toolbar would be a welcome addition, instead of having to enter the "File Menu" to access it. Currently upon first glance, a user is left wondering whether or not such a function is available and only the task frame alerts you to its presence. The included keyboard shortcuts are of great use and once remembered they can dramatically speed up use of the program. As of yet there is no ability to change the shortcuts or to set up your own, but this is something to be expected from future releases.

    Coloured tagging for events would also improve the interface of the application. Currently you cannot assign colours to event categories as you would in say Microsoft Outlook. These allow you to get a better overview of your calendar, as it is easier to relate colours to specific types of events rather than reading all of the available text. Coloured tagging could make the application appear less cluttered because you'd be able to get an easier overview of what is happening in the different windows.

    The ability to create and maintain different calendars for different purposes is a nice touch although it does exist in other applications, but it is easier to move between the differe

  • two things... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mantera ( 685223 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:17AM (#10157193)

    1) Open it up for extensions, the way firebird is. 2) until it can sync with mobile devices (palm, pocketpc.. etc), i won't be implementing it.

    • Re:two things... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Myen ( 734499 )
      I have no idea about 2), but I've looked at 1) slightly (wanted to write an extension for it).

      It will probably happen when all the extension code is ported from the branch to the trunk - currently, Sunbird needs to be built off the trunk of the mozilla.org CVS tree, but most of the extension manager stuff is in a CVS branch (from which Firefox 1.0 and Thunderbird something-or-other is supposed to build from).

      I assume the Firefox people will port the EM stuff back into the trunk once Firefox 1.0 is done (s

  • Innovation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Frankie70 ( 803801 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:17AM (#10157197)
    Screenshots [osdir.com]

    Looks identical to Outlook's Calendar, even menu option names etc.

    OSS seems to be totally following the MS way, including very little innovation.

    • Re:Innovation (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jrexilius ( 520067 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:21AM (#10157480) Homepage
      I agree, however, certain applications have reached a sort of commoditized maturity and dont really benefit from further additions.

      Not to say that calendars couldn't improve. Sunbird could do things like allow for RSS feeds from public calendar sites such as a theoretical ticketmaster or local band, theater, sports team, etc.

      You do a pub/sub thing and when you look at your calendar you can filter through events or ideas and see events that you may be interested in and when they are. Why browse 5-10 different web sites when are trying to schedule a cookout or meeting with clients?

      In fact I have been thinking about adding publish/subscribe type features to some of my company's products.

      • It does. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Vess V. ( 310830 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @01:37PM (#10158089) Homepage
        Tools > Subscribe to remote calendar...

        • Re:It does. (Score:3, Insightful)

          by jrexilius ( 520067 )
          sorta, it relies on webdav and iCal and is an open standard but I was thinking of a method that might be easier for existing web sites to add. adding an RSS feed or a SOAP service is often easier for existing app servers/developers/packages, then adding webdav and iCal. not that they are really that different in difficulty but I could see a lot of, perhaps, mental barriers to the webdav/ical method.

    • Re:Innovation (Score:2, Interesting)

      by LnxAddct ( 679316 )
      There aren't many ways to show a calendar. I've been using electronic calendars long before Outlook was ever out and they've always had similarities. The real test is the functionality behind them, which for Outlook and Sunbird is completely different, and both have their advantages/disadvantages. I personally don't think they look too similar, but regardless look at any groupware type application from the early 90's on and they all look not too different. How else would you propose to lay it out?
      Regards,
      St

  • 'Sunbird?' (Score:5, Funny)

    by Chordonblue ( 585047 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:30AM (#10157254) Journal
    I dunno. I think it'll need at least three or four name changes before 1.0 gets released... :P

    • Comments from the future! (Score:4, Funny)

      by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @02:29PM (#10158323)
      Dude, Moonchicken .4 is out!

      Hey, did you hear Marsdove .5 is out?

      Whoa, Son of MoonChicken .6 is out already?

      I really don't like the default theme in Helioavian .7.

      Crap, Venuspigeon .8 keeps crapping all over my system.

      What do you mean your organization isn't Denny's SuperChicken .8b compatible? What about FordFalcon .7RC2?

      Finally SunFireBirdThing 1.0 is released!
  • 1) Release early Beta, numbered .2
    2) Wait for overeager slashdot submitter to make typo, bumping version a factor of 1.8
    3)???
    4)Profit!

  • there are plugin versions also (Score:3, Informative)

    by Artifex ( 18308 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:42AM (#10157294) Journal
    The plugin versions work in Firefox and and Thunderbird. Yet they're totally separate from any install of Sunbird you may also have. So you pretty much need to choose one or the other, or risk forgetting some appointments because you have the wrong instance loaded. They can import across, but they don't just share one calendar file, which makes no sense to me.

    Also, the biggest problem I have: there is no way to make the alarm trigger a selectable sound? There's a checkbox to "play a sound," but that's it, and if it actually does make a sound, I can't hear it across the room. Sadly, even the alarm clock in Windows XP's Plus pack beats this with a wet noodle. (Except, of course, when the alarm clock just fails to trigger at the time, which is whenever you need it most)
    • I'll say it again... look at the version number guys... 0.2 that's FAR FAR FAR away from 1.0 release. like all typical mozilla products it isn't totally usable until it gets around the .5 to .7 releases.. then from there it becomes much more useful from there on out... give it time, provide constructive criticism and give feedback... bitching on here about it (i know you weren't really but others are) isn't going to help, i bet most of the developers aren't going to read the slashdot comments to look for im
      • Well, I wasn't trying to complain so much as warn others will be racing to download it.

        No, I don't program, so I won't be coding anything :)
        I'd donate to Mozilla again, but I just quit my job and went majorly in debt for school. So... what can I do? :)

  • Damn that was quick! (Score:4, Funny)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:47AM (#10157313) Homepage Journal
    I just got .2 last night.. Already up to 2.0!

    Sounds like someone was bored last night and couldn't sleep :)

  • Apple and Mozilla are both missing the point... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by amper ( 33785 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:54AM (#10157346) Journal
    What we really need is a replacement for the amazing CS&T/Netscape/Steltor/Oracle "CorporateTime" (nee Calendar Server).

    Woo hoo. WebDAV. Could I be any *less* excited? WebDAV calendars are not going to replace a *real* calendaring/scheduling system any time soon...

    Unfortunately, even open-source project I've seen that has attempted to tackle this problem has very quickly fallen apart.

    Please, somebody, take a look at Corporate Time or the older Netscape Calendar Server. *That's* what we need. An LDAP-integrated, replicable, multi-user calendaring/scheduling system with a web client that was pretty much the equal of the full client application and integrated quite nicely with the email client.

    Netscape SuiteSpot is what made Netscape Communicator Pro make sense. If anyone out there in a development team would like it, I would be more than happy to provide a copy of my my old SuiteSpot CD for reference/testing purposes...

    • Re:Apple and Mozilla are both missing the point... (Score:4, Informative)

      by amper ( 33785 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:03AM (#10157395) Journal
      BTW, Netscape also wrote some fairly insightful white papers and such on what the requirement were for a successful C&S solution. Much of it is still available at:

      http://wp.netscape.com/calendar/v3.5/

    • Is the party running the server going to be reliable and capable of handling load? It'll take a Google or a Yahoo adopting truly open calendaring to make this happen. As a stricly client-side app I agree this is useless.

      Server-side bookmarking, calendaring, IMAP...where is my open standards serving company?

    • Exchange Server? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      In other words, it sounds like you're saying that Mozilla needs an equivalent of Exchange Server?

      • Re:Exchange Server? (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        "Netscape SuiteSpot" was an equivalent of Exchange Server (although it sold poorly).

        Anyway ... the only reason that Netscape 4 came in a "suite" was to move server licences. Mozilla cloned the client suite, but forgot the Corp Groupware rationale behind it.
    • I believe that's the point of Open-Xchange [open-xchange.org]. However, I haven't been able to assertain whether or not the system allows for the type of group scheduling that CorporateTime does. It would seem that the WebDAV protocol would be a bottleneck, but perhaps there's enough backend smarts to make the integration/permissions management of multiple calendars rather seamless.

      The mental hurdle that I have with WebDAV systems is how to implement the ability for someone else to add an unconfirmed meeting to your calend
    • CorporateTime is awesome. We still use it where I work, although I'm a little worried that it's in Oracle's hands now. In a year we'll have a version of CorporateTime that is impossible to install without logging a TAR, installing fifty bazillion patches, and tweaking twenty kernel parameters.

  • Serving is the key (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ars-Fartsica ( 166957 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @10:59AM (#10157377)
    Its nice to see more standards compliant calendar browsers out there, but whats key is that server side solutions (Yahoo Calendar) adopt open standards so we can share calendar data, which to me is the entire point. To me this type of application is mostly about advertising when I am and am not available...so sharing with other calendaring clients is crucial.

  • Palm Pilot. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by maeka ( 518272 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:02AM (#10157389) Journal
    Wake me up when it can sync with my Palm.

  • Don't forget the extensions for Firefox/Tbird (Score:3, Interesting)

    by A_Non_Moose ( 413034 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:07AM (#10157419) Homepage Journal
    Don't know if the full functionality is there, haven't tested it yet, but the Firefox extension seems to work quite well.

    The Thunderbird extension is a different story, because the extension system does not seem to be in place. I followed the directions to go to tools -> options -> extensions button, and there is no extensions button. :(

    A failing of Thunderbird 0.7.3, it seems, maybe it is in the nightlies, dunno.

    All I can say is: If Sunbird follows the kick-ass nature of Firefox/Tbird, this seperate "suite" is going to be perfect, IMO.

    Heck, Firefox fixed (read: got rid of) the find toolbar, and Thunderbird would be perfect if they added a "Sync" button to avoid the File -> offline -> download/sync -> press enter if setup, but remember it only is available if you've clicked on your PRIMARY ACCOUNT/Folders.

    Arugh!
    Yet more clicking and re-accessing the menu.

    C'mon guys (and gals) I LIKE buttons that make life easier.

    Heck, I like blinky lights and shiney objects, too!

    OOOoooo!

    Where was I?

  • NOT stand-alone. (Score:2, Informative)

    by DogDude ( 805747 )
    I'm not sure what these developers are talking about. It CAN install as an extension to either Firefox or Thunderbird, OR you can install it stand-alone. I'd link to the page, but update.mozilla.org seems to be down right now. I absolutely installed it yesterday as an extension to both Thunderbird and Firefox, and stand-alone. Unfortunately, you can install it these 3 ways, and each one is a separate database. ie: Accessing the calendar from Firefox will not show you the same data as when you access it

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:22AM (#10157486)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Sunbird's OK but kinda buggy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by explorer ( 42481 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @11:23AM (#10157490)
    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.

  • Come on! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Orion Blastar ( 457579 ) <orionblastar AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday September 04, 2004 @12:15PM (#10157702) Homepage Journal
    #1 It is 0.2, very early in development, don't expect much until it gets closer to 1.0, pluuueesseee!

    #2 Of course it looks like Outlook Calendar, until MS Sues and then it will look like something else.

    #3 No Synch, yet, see #1.

    #4 It is a basic calendar app, no frills, see #1.

    #5 Some day, the Mozilla development teams, will find a way to Integrate Thunderbird, Firefox, and Sunbird into something more productive. Just not today.

  • In your summary... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by callipygian-showsyst ( 631222 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @12:22PM (#10157728) Homepage
    you could have said what it was! I clicked on the link saying to myself "Please! Let it be a calendar app!" and, fortunately, it was.
  • "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."

    How friggin hard would it have been to slip the word "calendaring" in between "stand-alone" and "application"? So many sites on soruceforge don't even tell you what the hell the software does... sometimes you can figure it out by reading through the changelog
  • I have to say I really dig Sunbird, except maybe for the name.

    No, the app isnt ready for prime time just yet, but I've played with it and I really dig it for what it is.

    Like most of the mozilla family, Sunbird just sits there waiting to be told what to do. It's FAR from robust at this point, but for a single user that has trouble remembering family birthdays, its not a bad little application. It'll come up to speed eventually, and the fact that with a little toying around I managed to store the calendar
  • On top of the webDAV server support Sunbird saves its files to Apple's open iCal standard which allows for a degree of interoperability between the two applications and platforms.

    That's new, because a few months ago, Mozilla wouldn't even show the TITLE or TIME AND DATE of a calendar entry created with iCal and published to a webDAV server, or vise-versa. It was pretty pathetic that compatibility was broken on such a basic level between two apps which claimed to be using the same standard. If things hav

  • Critical features missing (Score:5, Funny)

    by akratic ( 770961 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @02:14PM (#10158270)

    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.

  • Unless this thing will be able to hotsync to a Palm Pilot or a Pocket PC, I see little use in actually using this calendar. I hope that is planned, and I could find a single reference to that sort of thing in the article (by word-search). It's a little length, so - if anyone's already read all through or has some more background info, please tell us wether this is a planned addition or already within it's options.

  • It's not Apple's iCal standard (Score:4, Informative)

    by masterfres ( 18741 ) on Saturday September 04, 2004 @04:06PM (#10158688)
    The article confuses iCal, Apple's calendaring iApp, with iCal, short for iCalendar, the widely used vcal derived calendering format standard. Apple did not create iCal the standard. iCal the standard predated iCal, Apple's application, by quite some time. Apple's iCal the calendering app was one of the first major applications to adopt iCalendar/iCal/vcal the standard (although Ximian/Novell's Evolution beat them to it.) I'm still trying to decide if coopting the name iCal was a purposeful attempt to associate the standard with their application or just an unfortunate, but beneficial, mistake. Confusions like this make me hope that they name some future apps "iNoVeryFastComputer" or "iNoMindStretchingTheTruth" or simply "iSuck".
  • Are there any plans to make a standalone Composer alongside the browser/email/calendar apps? I used Composer to make my first (admittedly not impressive) webpages, and I think self-expression on the Web would benefit from a free, widely-available, easy to use HTML authoring app.

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