Phoenix and Minotaur renamed

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 15 Apr 2003 at 11:57

The Phoenix Web browser and Minotaur email client have been renamed, due to undisclosed legal issues.

Phoenix becomes Minotaur, while Minotaur becomes Thunderbird.

Both applications are spin-offs from the Mozilla project, which is better known for its eponymous browser/email/chat software that forms the basis of the Netscape browser.

Phoenix/Firebird is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, designed to be cross-platform. Version 0.5 for Windows, Linux or OS/2 can be downloaded from www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/.

Minotaur/Thunderbird is likewise a redesign of the Mozilla mail component, modelled on the Phoenix re-write of Mozilla. The aim is to produce a cross-platform, standalone mail application. An early build for Windows is available from www.mozilla.org/mailnews/minotaur.

Unfortunately, a new name clash has already arisen - there is an Open Source database project also dubbed Firebird.