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Mozilla wants to drop Thunderbird


Batu69

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For years, Mozilla developed and maintained not only the Firefox web browser but also the Thunderbird email client.

Both products were received well when they were first released and both managed to attract millions of users who use the products on a daily basis.

Mozilla some time ago announced that it would remove staff from the Thunderbird project and hand over core development tasks to the community instead.

That was back in 2012, and for the most part since then, Thunderbird releases were nothing more than an assortment of bug and security fixes.

Today it appears as if Mozilla wants to cut the tie completely. Mozilla chairwoman Mitchell Baker revealed recently that Mozilla would like to drop Thunderbird completely.

Mozilla engineers pay a tax to support Thunderbird according to Baker while Thunderbird developers spend time making sure changes in the underlying architecture that both programs use work fine in Thunderbird.

thunderbird-australis-theme.png

Baker mentioned that the "overwhelming majority" of Mozilla's leadership believes that Mozilla should focus only on activities that "can have an industry-wide impact", and that she thinks that Thunderbird does not fall into that category.

That does not mean that Thunderbird as a product will cease to exist. While Baker has no answer yet on how a transition would look like, and when it will happen, she seems certain that it will happen.

Mozilla plans to provide the Thunderbird team with financial and legal help, as well as other resources required to separate the project from Mozilla.

Mark Surman of the Mozilla Foundation and I are both interested in
helping find a way for Thunderbird to separate from Mozilla
infrastructure. We also want to make sure that Thunderbird has the right
kind of legal and financial home, one that will help the community
thrive.

Basically, what Mozilla wants is to hand over Thunderbird to free up resources, and to use those resources for Firefox and other projects that it believes have a wider impact on the Internet and technology.

Thunderbird is not mentioned in Mozilla's 2014 audited financials report. It is unclear how much Mozilla spends on Thunderbird because of it.

While this could very well be the beginning of the end of Thunderbird, it could very well be a chance as well depending on the separation, community interest and other factors.

It is unclear if the Thunderbird project can generate enough money to keep the project going. According to Mark Surman, Mozilla seems to be in talks with organizations who may be interested in supporting development and infrastructure, and is considering adding user donation options on top of that.

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Yep.

Stupid is as stupid does.

FF & TB have been great for a long time.

Now their sun must set, apparently.

I still use TB every day & don't care if it gets updated, really.

If/when it quits working I'll just use Foxmail or the like & archive TB for reference purposes.

Thanks.

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Makes absolutely no difference to me — I'm running The Bat! Professional (the most sophisticated e-mail client on the planet.) ^_^

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used it a few times but now with windows 10 and easy to install email apps, there's no need to download these older programs.

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used it a few times but now with windows 10 and easy to install email apps, there's no need to download these older programs.

Not everyone uses windows 10 :P

i don’t use Thunderbird ether but I’ve not used virus ridden Outlook since the early 2000s .

But it is more writing on the wall Mozilla is going broke . Thunderbird works if you use Linux or windows . Its about freedom of choice . :(

Here are more open-source Alternatives for Linux users

http://blog.vuze.com/2015/04/06/3-linux-email-clients-as-thunderbird-alternatives/

So its not the end the world for Linux users ether . :)

Geary sounds good .

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If you want replace it you can easy it not like a browser full of add-ons you cant replace . What bothers me is if Firefox marketshare keeps dropping is it next?

This is not really breaking news no ways there's been talk about them stop making it for awhile . I don’t think development is ending ether its just going too be made by volunteers . I read they already gave it away it don’t really belong to Mozilla any more this was posted back in May.

Mozilla have indeed handed Thunderbird over to a community of volunteer developers. Speaking as an occasional beta tester, I have to say right now it's being worked on more than at any time I can recall in the past few years.

As Mark Twain said, "The report of my death was an exaggeration".

It's free, open source software. There is no helpdesk or telephone number; who would pay for these to be manned?

If you prefer, there is a newsgroup which supports thunderbird queries. This can be accessed via a news reader and via a regular email client.

[email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-thunderbird http://ilias.ca/moznewsgroups-tb

And the mozillazine forum: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=366405

Cleaned mZ url.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1060913

There's plenty of opensoucre distros the new developers can host it on like was said in post #4 Sounds like they gave it it away months ago or even years ago? and now they want to stop hosting it as well so they made a public announcement. They want it to fork off from them altogether . It seems to just be using the Mozilla name now is all.

The thing is Thunderbird works fine they way it is it don’t need nothing but maintenance releases really why should it have to compete with all the changes Firefox is going trough ? I wish Firefox would go back to doing maintenance releases mostly that’s why so many dislike Firefox because it followed in Google footsteps with rapid release and features . They fell as if its going try to be like Chrome they may as well use Chrome.

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I doubt its the end of mozilla or firefox I have never used thunderbird I have used pegasus mail if I use a e-mail client and I like it.

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Makes absolutely no difference to me — I'm running The Bat! Professional (the most sophisticated e-mail client on the planet.) ^_^

image.jpgsophisticated? You dont look good with a stash, love the hat and monocle though! hehe just a real quick attempt at humor.

Folks who find The Bat! Professional overwhelming will choose to use the word complicated instead of sophisticated (a reaction not confined to The Bat! Professional.)

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