Group aims to capitalize on Firefox success

Following up on the success of the Firefox open source Web browser, released by the Mozilla Foundation last fall, open source software developers are readying some new products aimed at a consumer market still dominated by proprietary software.

Mozilla, which recently introduced an e-mail program called Thunderbird, is working to combine it with the foundation's Sunbird calendar application in a project, code-named Lightning, that could compete with Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Outlook program. Lightning's developers are planning their first general-user release for mid-2005.

At the same time, the Open Source Applications Foundation, headed by Lotus Development Corp. founder Mitchell Kapor, is moving forward on a next-generation e-mail/calendar program, code-named Chandler, designed to enhance computing collaboration by expressing more meaningful relationships between different categories of data. Chandler is targeting its 1.0 version for late this year or early next year.

''Firefox was a big breakthrough," Kapor, who also sits on the Mozilla board, said in an interview. ''It crossed the great divide by taking open source into new territory. The goal for 2005 is to get usable software into people's hands, to create more open source channels."

While the Linux open source operating system has gained momentum in corporate data centers, and is grabbing a toehold on desktop computers in businesses, open source software has proved a tougher sell to technology-wary consumers accustomed to buying computers with pre-packaged software. Firefox, available as a free download on computers powered by Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system and Apple's OS X, as well as Linux, caught on partly because of disenchantment with security holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. In the two months since its release, more than 12 million people have downloaded the Firefox browser, which has claimed 4.1 percent of US browser usage, according to the research firm WebSideStory.

Whether open source proponents can leverage the Firefox phenomenon in the e-mail and calendar niche remains to be seen. But officials at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., say they aren't worried.

''Competition and market choice are good for customers, and Microsoft welcomes it," said Microsoft group project manager Dan Leach, noting that Microsoft already vies with a bevy of competitors, from IBM Corp.'s Lotus Notes to Sun Microsystems Inc.'s OpenOffice, in the office productivity, mail, and calendar space. ''Customers continue to choose Microsoft Office because we focus, not on competitors, but on customers and delivering tools they need to be more productive in a seamless, consistent, interoperable environment."

Firefox's popularity, coupled with other developments such as Wal-Mart's rollout of a $500 laptop computer loaded with a Linux-based operating system provided by Linspire Inc., have lifted hopes among those peddling Linux to the masses. While the Linux source code is freely available to the public to use and modify, like all open source software, companies such as Novell Inc., Red Hat Inc., and Xandros Inc., sell Linux ''distributions" that package the operating system with other open source software and provide installation support.

Novell's product, SUSE Linux 9.2, is used primarily by hobbyists in the consumer market. (It's also distributed in the small business market.) In its most recent quarter, when Waltham-based Novell rang up revenue of $301 million, its Linux revenue accounted for $12 million -- and just $2 million of that was sales to individuals.

''We look at this product as something to generate enthusiasm for Linux with home users," said Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry. ''We also put in the latest and greatest packages of bleeding-edge open source technology before we put them in our enterprise products."

Lowry sees offices as being the logical first market for widespread adoption of desktop Linux. Novell itself already has shifted 3,500 of its 6,000 employees to Linux, and is moving the rest. ''We definitely see growth in the consumer space, but it's not a this-year thing," he said. ''As people start to get introduced to desktop Linux in a corporate environment, they'll start to use it at home as well. There are cost advantages that, over time, will be appealing to home users."

The proprietary Windows operating system and related software account for between $50 and $150 of the cost of an $800 personal computer, estimated Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of systems software research for Framingham's International Data Corp. The research firm has projected annual revenue for companies in the Linux ecosystem, including sellers of hardware, software, and services, will more than double to $35 billion by 2008, from $15 billion in 2003.

''A number of things are causing people to give open source a look," Kusnetzky said. ''One is the security problems that are almost a daily concern in Windows. . . . There's also the cachet. Some people think it's cool to tell their friends, 'I'm using Linux.' "

But there are impediments to ordinary PC users embracing Linux. Kusnetzky said thousands of software applications available on Windows don't run on Linux, including popular personal finance programs like Microsoft's Money or Intuit Inc.'s Quicken.

Mozilla's offerings, ''cross-platform" products available on both proprietary and Linux operating systems, are seen by some as bridges to the open source world for consumers reluctant to abandon Windows and the myriad software applications it supports. Officials at the nonprofit Mozilla were unavailable to discuss their Lightning project. But on their website, they outlined plans to integrate Sunbird with Thunderbird so consumers can coordinate messages with scheduling.

Kapor said the Chandler project, which has taken longer than anticipated, is intended to be a more ambitious platform, combining e-mail, task management, data storage, and other free-floating features into a more intuitive system. A prerelease version, called 0.5, is scheduled for February. And Kapor clearly sees it a building block for an open source alternative to Microsoft.

''Let's just say you have an irresistible force and an immovable object," he said. ''The irresistible force is open source, and the immovable object is the Windows operating environment. I would expect there would be increasing collisions over the next decade."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.