Mozilla yesterday announced the release of Thunderbird 2, the latest version of its open source email client.

The primary focus seems to have been on improving the interface and workflow, with perhaps the most interesting feature being the ability to tag emails for quicker and more accurate message searching.

More details and download links can be found on the Mozilla website.

Adobe’s “What is in the box” package arrived today. Unsurprisingly, it was… a box!

After fighting with the excessive (but undeniably appealing) packaging to get to the CD-Rom, I popped it into my 24″ iMac, then attempted to launch the software. My first attempt was greeted with:

C’mon Adobe, it really can’t be that hard to send me a CD-Rom that actually works, surely, especially when it’s only a simple video?

Anyway, after a few more attempts the software did successfully run, and yes, it was pleasing enough, albeit nowhere near as pleasing as a trial of the new version of Creative Suite would have been. Adobe, please, send biscuits or cakes next time, maybe an Indian headdress or a photograph of a baboon: something a bit more exciting that won’t disappoint.

Pop your shades on and check out the screengrabs of the video below:

The online collaboration and project planning tool Goplan by Webreakstuff has been released. A direct competitor to Basecamp and the open-source activeCollab, the application is likely to attract considerable interest due to its impressive feature-set and attractive (compared to Basecamp) price point. Whether they can attract existing users away from Basecamp is another matter…

Adobe’s CEO Bruce Chizen has revealed that a free, hosted version of Photoshop is scheduled to appear within the next six months, as part of a bigger company strategy to introduce online apps that compliment its off-the-shelf products.

Adobe’s Mike Chambers has released more information on his blog about the forthcoming alpha release of Apollo.

Now, call me sceptical, but I’m finding it very hard to be enthused about Apollo. A downloadable runtime that allows programmers to leverage existing skills to develop RIAs sounds jolly exciting on paper, but, in reality, I expect this product to be another white elephant like Generator or Flex*.

* What??!! You don’t agree that Flex is a dud? Just look at Adobe’s Site of the Day entries for Flex. The Monfort College of Business Virtual Tour is particularly bad, embodying everything that is irritating about the web. If Flex doesn’t go the way of Generator within two years I’ll eat my hat: a bold statement, given that my headgear of choice happens to be a 4ft wide sombrero made of lead.

UPDATE

Seems I’m not the only one with reservations.

The Camino Project has released the latest beta of the Camino browser for OSX. First impressions seem good - it’s noticeably faster that Firefox. The new features are nothing to write home about, but overall, it’s a significant step in the right direction.

An online petition calling for Digital Rights Management to be banned in the UK has been dismissed by the government. The official response, posted on the e-Petitions website on Monday, states that:

Many content providers have been embedding access and management tools to protect their rights and, for example, prevent illegal copying. We believe that they should be able to continue to protect their content in this way.

However, the government does concede that:

It is clear though that the needs and rights of consumers must also be carefully safeguarded. It is reasonable for consumers to be informed what is actually being offered for sale, for example, and how and where the purchaser will be able to use the product, and any restrictions applied.

You can read more on the story at CNET.

With Vista finally on the shelves, Microsoft is now turning it’s attention to its successor. Codenamed Vienna, the new operating system is likely to appear in 2009 judging by comments made by Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of development with Microsoft’s Windows Core Operating System Division:

“You can think roughly two, two-and-a-half years is a reasonable time frame that our partners can depend on and can work with,” he said. “That’s a good timeframe for refresh.”

In an astonishing display of technobabble, Fathi continues:

“We’re going to look at a fundamental piece of enabling technology. Maybe its hypervisors, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “Maybe it’s a new user interface paradigm for consumers.”

In practise, I guess we’ll see nothing more than a redesigned Start menu - perhaps a triangle next time?

Tony Chor’s IEBlog reports that Microsoft have recently celebrated their 100 millionth IE7 installation. According to web stats company WebSideStory, a quarter of all visitors to US websites are now using Microsoft’s latest browser just under three months after its release.

IE7 has been bundled with Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows Vista, a fact that goes part way to explaining these staggering figures. However, the aggressive pushing of the browser via a ‘critical’ Windows Update is sure to be the prevailing factor.

Although Firefox is becoming more and more popular, the fact that Windows ships with Internet Explorer, coupled with the typically restrictive user privileges granted to the majority of corporate PC users, means IE is sure to maintain its market dominance for some years to come.