Mozilla has released the first beta of Eudora email client and a free addon called Penelope for Thunderbird after it was made open source by Qualcomm and given to the Mozilla foundation for further development. Eudora is compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X 10.2.x or later.

Whereas “Eudora” is a branded version of Thunderbird with some extra features added by the Eudora developers, “Penelope” is an extension/add-on that can be used with either Eudora or Thunderbird. The Eudora installer includes the corresponding version of Penelope along with it so there is no need to install Penelope if you are installing Eudora. While most features are available in Penelop for Thunderbird, there are some that require the standalone Eudora client.

New features of Eudora and Penelop include:

-Search as you type: As you type the selection in the mailbox will change based on matching text in the Who and Subject fields. After finding a match you can use the period key to find subsequent matches in the mailbox

-Ability to display the list of mailboxes in a separate window from the mailboxes themselves

-Toolbar icons/ Keyboard shortcuts / Menu structure / mailbox column headers

-Importing mailboxes and messages from the original Eudora has been substantially improved

-Support for viewing only messages that are not deleted in IMAP mailboxes

-Filters can be imported from original Eudora to the new Eudora, original Eudora-like IMAP auto-expunge behavior and “Refresh Folder List” item to the context menu for IMAP folders

Download Eudora/Penelop Beta for Windows | Mac