Proposal to start a new implementation of Thunderbird based on web technologies

Maybe with web standards (maybe, I'm not sure), but not the rest.

Just the fact that the address bar font is the same size as the rest of the UI gives me the impression that they didn't think it through. Downloading files has the same problem, it's relegated in a small button, while it's one of the main features.

The whole interface is one of the most unintuitive things I've ever used, considering how simple a browser can be in terms of functionality the user must access. I'll also never forget they they thought tabs on top didn't make sense (it's actually still an option you can change).

Chrome had search integrated in the address bar from version 1, every time I opened Firefox year after year and I saw that little separate input for searching I felt like using grandma's browser.

In terms of how pretty the UI is, Firefox 53—which just got released—looks better, but it took them years to get to where Chrome was back at version 1.

Syncing of bookmarks, settings, addons, passwords, tabs across devices etc. on Firefox is a lot less efficient.

From a technological point of view, it took them years to implement sandboxing, and they're still not done. If a tab misbehaves in Firefox it can take down the whole thing. Chrome had it right away.

I briefly tried switching to Firefox again a few months ago. Initially I tried fixing it via changing the interface via XUL, but the problems were too deep. I got very frustrated and went back to Chrome.

I don't have time right now to explain myself better, it's the minimalism and some features like snoozing emails, quickly marking them as done/low-priority and similar things, which is definitely not something that is connected to Google technology.

> It sounds like you want a client that is tightly coupled with Gmail's features

I actually don't like Gmail that much.

> you're not going to get that with a non-Google client.

Google Inbox used be called Sparrow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparrow_(email_client)), which was a regular app that Google acquired. I used it since the beginning. It was a new paradigm back in 2011, which is now the standard in modern clients.

Thunderbird needs to rethink their approach. They need less buttons and more focus on important features over other ones you barely use. In Thunderbird, everything is given the same importance in the UI. There's a toolbar with 100 buttons of the same size: "Write, Chat, Reply, Reply all, Archive, Address book, Get email, Tag, Quick filter". Why is "Chat" the same size as "Write", and right next to it like it's the most common feature in an email client? Why is "Address book" even there, given the same importance as "Write"? Who browses his address book randomly? Why can't they just show suggestions when I'm in the compose window and I type the first few letters of the person's name or email?

I could go on forever.

People have done this, not just for desktop applications but also for Android apps, using Servo to display a web UI on mobile.

And there's some work in progress to put a WebView-compatible API on top of Servo, making it trivial to substitute it in an arbitrary application.

I'm just gonna say I oppose this proposal because I'm really tired of seeing developers shy away from utilizing or learning C/C++ only to admit much later in a project's life cycle that those languages and their associated libraries are the best for the job. I'm all ears on utilizing JS for front end to even a desktop application but if the entire thing gets written to be ran on Servo or whatever browser engine they choose then I oppose it categorically. JS might be fine for some things but as a general programming language on a substandard runtime is just asking for trouble. Learn to write in C/C++ for native applications or go home.

It seems you prefer the more "modern" style of relying on Google's online services and Chrome's frequent updates. That's fine, but it's not an objective standard.

For example, some of us consider a UI that doesn't keep moving around every few weeks to be a feature, not a bug. I have absolutely no problem with a practical tool like Thunderbird still using the same layout it had 5 years ago, if that layout works well.

Likewise, some of us consider the separate search box of Firefox to be a plus point. I don't want or need everything I type in a URL bar being sent to Google's mothership, and my screen has ample space for both bars.

Meanwhile, I'm getting awfully bored of dealing with customer support issues that come down to someone using Google for their mail and not receiving legitimate messages because of whatever Google have broken, deemed spam, or unilaterally declared not to be acceptable this week. I shudder to think how much time and effort are being wasted like this around the world if everyone else's experience is as negative as ours has been lately.