Stories by: Joris Evers

Weeks after the launch of its Firefox 1.0 Web browser, the Mozilla Foundation on Tuesday released version 1.0 of its Thunderbird e-mail client.

America Online (AOL) on Tuesday released a preview version of a new Netscape Web browser that is based on the open-source Firefox Web browser, but also supports Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser engine.

Firefox 1.0 appears to have sparked new activity in the Web browser market.

The chances of a user being sued for intellectual property (IP) infringement related to software usage are slim, industry observers say. But that may change, as some companies hoard patents for the express purpose of using them to extract money from sellers and users of software.

Countering the latest salvo of Microsoft's Get the Facts campaign against open-source software, Novell has launched a Web site devoted to "unbending the truth" about Linux in the enterprise.

Although Microsoft still dominates the Web browser space, its Internet Explorer continues to lose market share to open-source rival Mozilla.

Continuing its flirtation with open source, Microsoft on Monday posted the code of a little-known collaboration application to open-source development site SourceForge.net.

Microsoft has appointed a new leader for its Worldwide Public Sector group, which plays a key role in its efforts to counter competition from open source software in government and education markets.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer each received total compensation of US$901,667 in Microsoft's 2004 fiscal year, up 4.4 percent from US$863,447 one year ago.

Skype Technologies introduced version 1.0 of its Internet telephony application for Pocket PCs last Thursday, but the first non-beta release of the software does not work well on all Pocket PCs, users report.

After being written off by industry observers last year, America Online's browser unit showed signs of life Tuesday as it released an update to its Netscape Web browser.