Thunderbird’s Future Home

#1

Post by buovjaga » Tue, May 09, 2017, 11:13 AM UTC

Thunderbird’s Future Home
blog.mozilla.org

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#2

Post by finnjohnsen2 » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:09 PM UTC

I don't use Thunderbird, but I like that it exists and I hope they survive. Perhaps because it's my life boat if I need to abandon spying web hosted clients (gmail etc).

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#3

Post by stinkytaco » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:14 PM UTC

I see this:

>But there are still pain points – build/release, localization, and divergent plans with respect to add-ons, to name a few. These are pain points for both Thunderbird and Firefox, and we obviously want them resolved. However, the Council feels these pain points would not be addressed by moving to TDF or SFC.

and then this

> We have come to the conclusion that a move to a non-Mozilla organization will be a major distraction to addressing technical issues and building a strong Thunderbird team. Also, while we hope to be independent from Gecko in the long term, it is in Thunderbird’s interest to remain as close to Mozilla as possible to in the hope that it gives use better access to people who can help us plan for and sort through Gecko-driven incompatibilities.

So I'm not sure I fully understand their direction. Are they simply less focused on solving those issues right now?

I use Thunderbird but don't really have a horse in the race, I get what I need out of it and I support them, I'm just curious.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#4

Post by mariusmg » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:16 PM UTC

So for the moment, at least, Thunderbird stays with Mozilla. That's good.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#5

Post by Vinnl » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

tl;dr Thunderbird will remain independent, but legally and fiscally be part of Mozilla (rather than e.g. The Document Foundation (of LibreOffice) or the SFC).

Also of note: apparently Thunderbird is receiving enough donations, and has been for a while, to give faith that it will be able to manage just fine independently. Good news IMHO.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#6

Post by frik » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:25 PM UTC

A Bright Future

The Thunderbird Council is optimistic about the future. With the organizational question settled, we can focus on the technical challenges ahead. Thunderbird will remain a Gecko-based application at least in the midterm, but many of the technologies Thunderbird relies upon in that platform will one day no longer be supported. The long term plan is to migrate our code to web technologies

Mozilla dumps XUL tech from gecko left and right, removed proper "classic" mod support from Firefox... how is this a bright future. Thunderbird as a big XUL app is stuck with an soon to be not supported old gecko. And how is the plan to slowly rewrite it viable? Replication of the dated UI with HTML5 will be an even bigger clusterfxxk.

We need a proper open source offline client. And it should have a modern UI with at least conversation view like Gmail. Wasn't there a HTML5 based email client in FirefoxOS. Start with that code and set up a new Mozilla foundation funded offline email client, and keep security support for Thunderbird until the new email app is ready.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#7

Post by echodevnull » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:38 PM UTC

Here's a proposal on how the move to a new Thunderbird based on web technologies could be handled: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/tb-planning/SPs8gzO5...

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#8

Post by tangue » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:43 PM UTC

frik wrote: post #6

A Bright Future The Thunderbird Council is optimistic about the future. With the organizational question settled, we can focus on the technical challenges ahead. Thunderbird will remain a Gecko-based application at least in the midterm, but many of the technologies Thunderbird relies upon in that platform will one day no longer be supported. The long term plan is to migrate our code to web technologies Mozilla dumps…

The HTML5/JS option is probably the only way out for Thunderbird but it won't seduce current backers. So it's a bit hard for them to say "Thunderbird has been abandoned on an motorway service station".

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#9

Post by ChefDenominator » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

frik wrote: post #6

A Bright Future The Thunderbird Council is optimistic about the future. With the organizational question settled, we can focus on the technical challenges ahead. Thunderbird will remain a Gecko-based application at least in the midterm, but many of the technologies Thunderbird relies upon in that platform will one day no longer be supported. The long term plan is to migrate our code to web technologies Mozilla dumps…

IDK, I like that Thunderbird sorts without conversation. It is the primary feature I look for in a MUA.

The only feature I find annoying is the search feature, which seems to be a universally accepted weakness of Thunderbird.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#10

Post by Chirael » Tue, May 09, 2017, 1:52 PM UTC

Day to day I use my email provider's regular web interface but I use Thunderbird every few months when I need to do a massive email cleanup - there is no other tool I'd rather use and it's indispensable to me for that purpose.

Also the article states, "In many ways, there is more need for independent and secure email than ever" and I agree 100%. Thank you to everyone who works on this project!