The Information Technologies and Services Division, which provides the Lab with centralized email, calendar and business applications, is evaluating the Mozilla browser as an alternative for the currently recommended Netscape 4.75 email client and Web browser. The effort is called BEEP, for Browser and Email Evaluation Project.

“Our goals are to find a stable, cross-platform solution that does not come bundled with commercial ‘extras’ which are not appropriate for the Lab – this is a problem with some of the commercial browsers available,” said Charlie Verboom, head of Desktop Support. “Since Mozilla forms the code base for the Netscape brand and does not include unwanted add-ons, it seemed reasonable to take a serious look at Mozilla first.”

With approximately 30 "alpha testers," BEEP has started to collect a set of issues that need to be resolved involving conversion, functionality differences, and written procedures and FAQs. The project is using Macintosh OS 9 and X, Linux version 7.x and Windows 98 and XP for the initial test platforms.

The next step is to develop draft documents that identify conversion issues such as address books, message filters, bookmarks, and mail folders. The project also wants to enlist another 30 Mozilla users who would be willing to contribute to the knowledge base, and complete some of the tests that have been outlined thus far.

Watch Computing and Communications Services News for more information about BEEP.