Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

betterbird.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 241 posts

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#51

Post by grey_earthling »

n3storm wrote: post #41
thro388 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being banned from Mozilla is actually sort of endorsement for me :) I was worried this project is just repacked Thunderbird, with malware. This makes it more legit. Also some people do not like politics in Mozilla Corp. Firefox is supposed to be privacy focused, yet it uses Google for search, CEO salaries, scraping promising tech etc... I use Brave browser, created by a guy who was also banned from Mozilla, it works…

I cannot find any search result that slightly or strongly support your claim that "Brave browser creator was banned from Mozilla". Any links?

They mean Brendan Eich.

He was appointed Mozilla's CEO. There was then some public discussion about his political donations (Brendan donated money to a campaign trying to prevent gay people from marrying because of their gender) and whether they were relevant to this position. After a couple of weeks he stepped down as Mozilla's CEO.

His Wikipedia article has more details — if you just can't get enough real-time “people shouting at each other” and you want to add some historical “people shouting at each other” to bulk it out a bit.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#52

Post by scoutt »

I am a Thunderbird user since forever, but... I don't know. I want to like Betterbird, but the fact that the author gives so many details about his crusade against Mozilla, puts me off.

It looks like revenge-driven development. I don't want to take sides. I just want to read my emails.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#53

Post by jerbearito »

senko wrote: post #40
BeefWellington wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess was over something like this communication: https://web.archive.org/web/20220817182407/https://www.bette... Guy seems like a bit of a dick but I suppose after quite a few years trying to effect change in an org most people get that way.

If this is the worst, this speaks a lot more about the Thunderbird project leaders than about this person. I read this as a thoughtful, passionate, plea for project (governance) improvements. You can certainly disagree with him (I don't enough much about the project to judge either way, although his arguments ring true to my general software development instincts), but he was not attacking anyone or being a jerk.

No, not the worst, and not even relevant. This stuff happened in 2020, but that person linked to a message from a few months ago.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#55

Post by pndy »

kayson wrote: post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

> honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause

I don't see arrogance in the name, it's just bit cheesy and unappealing. But I guess it's hard to come with something both catchy and at the same telling it's Thunderbird beneath but with enhancements.

Postbox which is also based on Thunderbird and comes with additional features, started as freeware in beta. After the stable release a 30-day trial was introduced and those who originally pick the beta could get full version with a discount. At this moment it's a paid software that asks for email (sic) for which you'll receive the download link.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#56

Post by rjzzleep »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #36
throwaway81523 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did something like that happen with ffmpeg a few years back? A huge amount of the dev work was being done by one at-the-time abrasive guy. They booted him, he forked, the ffmpeg mainline went moribund while the fork line kept getting better. Apparently he is back with mainline now. I hope things are mended but I didn't pay attention. As for Thunderbird: I use it, but it seems like its dev decisions are often wedged i…

> Did something like that happen with ffmpeg a few years back? A huge amount of the dev work was being done by one at-the-time abrasive guy. They booted him, he forked, the ffmpeg mainline went moribund while the fork line kept getting better. No, that’s not what happened with ffmpeg. Multiple developers forked ffmpeg in a somewhat abrasive way because they disagreed with the rest of the team. They wanted to focus on…

I mean it kinda depends on who you consider the abrasive guy. In my experience just like with linux a lot of the ffmpeg/mplayer folks were abrasive. Sometimes it bothers me sometimes is doesn't.

Michael Niedermayer was the maintainer and a guy who did crazy amounts of work on ffmpeg. But he was also what seemed to be the BDFL. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it seems like there was sort of a coup that took over development. Then the Michael Niedermayer side took back control and the group that took over ffmpeg abdicated power over ffmpeg and its brand and moved to a fork.

It's actually interesting how hard it is to get a simple timeline of events. But some information is in the following thread:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120511022506/http://lists.mpla...

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#57

Post by rjzzleep »

runlevel1 wrote: post #16
kayson wrote: post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

Brilliant jerks almost always have a net negative impact on a project when you factor in their adverse effects on their teammates. The existence of a competing fork might be healthy, though. Having competition can make your priorities a lot clearer.

You mean like Linus or countless others did with Linux eh and a bunch of other world class open source projects?

This is the lie people like you keep purporting in those VC money firehoses that have no grounds in the real world.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#58

Post by bayindirh »

scoutt wrote: post #52

I am a Thunderbird user since forever, but... I don't know. I want to like Betterbird, but the fact that the author gives so many details about his crusade against Mozilla, puts me off. It looks like revenge-driven development. I don't want to take sides. I just want to read my emails.

This is my take, too.

Went to the site, and it's very apparent that it's a "Revenge Inside (TM)" project. Left in 30 seconds. Will probably forget the existence of the project sometime today.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#59

Post by prox »

pndy wrote: post #55
kayson wrote: post #5

I really love Thunderbird; I've been using it for at least a decade now. There are definitely places where it still needs improvement, after years and years. While Betterbird seems exciting in theory, the attitude of the project leader (who it seems is a banned former contributor to Mozilla Thunderbird), and honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause. The issues laid out in this[0] email thread are…

> honestly even the arrogance in the name itself gives me pause I don't see arrogance in the name, it's just bit cheesy and unappealing. But I guess it's hard to come with something both catchy and at the same telling it's Thunderbird beneath but with enhancements. Postbox which is also based on Thunderbird and comes with additional features, started as freeware in beta. After the stable release a 30-day trial was in…

When Thunderbird closed shop, I went with Postbox, still do. I just need a client that works, and it has served me well.

Re: Betterbird: a fine-tuned version of Mozilla Thunderbird

#60

Post by [deleted] »

n3storm wrote: post #41
thro388 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being banned from Mozilla is actually sort of endorsement for me :) I was worried this project is just repacked Thunderbird, with malware. This makes it more legit. Also some people do not like politics in Mozilla Corp. Firefox is supposed to be privacy focused, yet it uses Google for search, CEO salaries, scraping promising tech etc... I use Brave browser, created by a guy who was also banned from Mozilla, it works…

I cannot find any search result that slightly or strongly support your claim that "Brave browser creator was banned from Mozilla". Any links?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN