News.com:

The new project, code-named Lightning, aims to integrate Mozilla’s calendar application, Sunbird, with its recently released Thunderbird e-mail application. That integration is aimed right at the heart of Microsoft’s widely used Outlook software.

“I think Outlook leaves a lot of room for a fast competitor,” said a Mozilla volunteer involved in the project, who asked not to be named. “There’s a lot of user dissatisfaction out there, and it will be interesting to see what the market looks like once there’s a strong open-source alternative.”

I completely agree. Don’t get me wrong, I love Outlook as much as the next guy, especially with its tight integration with my Pocket PC. But even I recognize that Outlook is an extremely bloated application which offers far more functionality than I will ever use. It will be very interesting to see how Lightning will compare.

Of course, Microsoft has issued a typical “Why should we care!?” response:

Microsoft dismissed Mozilla’s pretensions to its Outlook throne, noting that the vast majority of enterprise Outlook users rely on Outlook’s integration with Microsoft’s Exchange e-mail server.

“Thunderbird does not offer an equivalent comparison to Microsoft Office Outlook,” Microsoft said in a statement. “Customers expect much more than simple calendaring and the ability to send and receive e-mails. The integration of Exchange and Outlook far outweighs any feature that Thunderbird may deliver, and we don’t see it as being applicable for serious business use.”

He does have a point. Anyone who’s used Outlook in the enterprise connected to an Exchange Server knows that it’s a pretty kick-ass combination. It’ll be tough for Mozilla.org to match that without some serious reverse-engineering work to hook Lightning into Exchange. But if anyone can do it, Mozilla.org can.

Open Source, gotta love it.