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Mozilla Thunderbolt

thunderbolt.io

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Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#81

Post by drzaiusx11 »

For anyone reading this that has worked on the launch of this new product (or the many others of their ilk throughout the years) under the various Mozilla orgs, I mean no disrespect, however I feel it's important to not mince words these days..

I implore ANYONE at Mozilla org to please, please stop working on projects distracting from the complex and necessary work of browser and web standards stewardship. That alone should be the very reason for your continued existence if you have any. Focus on anything outside that purview will lead to the furthering of the, already painful and readily apparent, stagnation of your browser and our standards bodies as entities distinct from corporations.

Ditching any direct financial ties to Google or any other browser vendor is both important and necessary at this point, as this clearly represents a conflict of interest in your overall mission.

The web as a platform should belong to us all, not just the few corporate leaders of the day. I've watched in real time, saddened by the persistent errosion of our commons that is the web. I see it becoming nothing more than a corporate playground should trends continue, if it's not already too late. There may have been a time when your mission took precident over product launches of seemingly unrelated domains, but that is not what Ii observing today.

I think I speak for many in the community in these regards (please correct me if not the case.)

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#82

Post by eipi10_hn »

spudlyo wrote: post #15

Chrome on Linux is ~1.47 times faster than Firefox on the Jetstream 3 benchmark as recently reported by Phoronix[0]. That's how we want you to spend the money Mozilla, keeping up with your well-funded rival Google, and making it so we don't end up with a browser monoculture. These sorts of distractions just piss me off, and are not part of your core mission. [0]: https://www.phoronix.com/review/firefox-chrome-2026

Why is this related to Firefox?

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#84

Post by CamouflagedKiwi »

anildash wrote: post #38

Addressing the usual few complaints folks always bring up: * This is from the separate independent team that works on Thunderbird, not Firefox, so there isn't any resource contention happening there * Thunderbird is revenue positive, and this potentially gives that team another revenue stream to be even more self-sustaining through charging companies * Businesses definitely want to control the AI they're using (espec…

> Businesses definitely want to control the AI they're using (especially with RAGs of their own data) instead of just throwing it at their LLM vendor and hoping for the best

Yes, agreed on that. I'm not sure I'm clear how this really helps that; I suppose it's a frontend that they don't have, but there are a bunch of those already.

It doesn't seem to help them control the _actual_ AI, i.e. the model, which still has to come from somewhere.

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#85

Post by badgersnake »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #56
tux3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Thunderbird is revenue positive Hmm, I thought the for-profit Thunderbird pro hadn't launched yet? I know Thunderbird is for profit, but what are they profitting from without the paid service, and how much of that profit is going into this unrelated Thunderbolt AI platform, exactly?

Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline. I think a piece of software running on donations is not running off "charity". It's just a business model to not charge every user. Similar to how Twitch streamers operate, or my local theater group. You can read how they spent money in 2024 [1]. [1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-...

Wait what, they took donations to pay a team to build a mail client and had them build an AI thing instead? Or have I got that wrong.

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#86

Post by bakugo »

eipi10_hn wrote: post #69
LandoCalrissian wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thunderbird was literally asking for donations just a few days ago?

And?

And they're taking money donated towards Thunderbird development and spending it on random unrelated AI slop ideas that nobody asked for. You really don't see anything wrong with that?

Surely you can agree that when you open Thunderbird and are met with requests for donations, if you chose to donate, you'd expect that money to be invested in Thunderbird development, and not 10M Claude tokens to vibe code Mozilla's latest groundbreaking AI B2B SaaS idea?

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#87

Post by eipi10_hn »

shevy-java wrote: post #8

Yikes. Could Mozilla hand over firefox to a new team please? It is clear they are wasting time and energy on things nobody wanted - who wants Mozilla-AI please? I mean, seriously? For people who don't think Mozilla wants to make firefox competitive again; and for those who also don't think ladybird will become a viable alternative one day (that's for the future, I have no crystal ball, I am just pointing at one possi…

Why is this related to Firefox?

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#88

Post by ryanleesipes »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #56
tux3 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Thunderbird is revenue positive Hmm, I thought the for-profit Thunderbird pro hadn't launched yet? I know Thunderbird is for profit, but what are they profitting from without the paid service, and how much of that profit is going into this unrelated Thunderbolt AI platform, exactly?

Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline. I think a piece of software running on donations is not running off "charity". It's just a business model to not charge every user. Similar to how Twitch streamers operate, or my local theater group. You can read how they spent money in 2024 [1]. [1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-...

No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#89

Post by drzaiusx11 »

anildash wrote: post #38

Addressing the usual few complaints folks always bring up: * This is from the separate independent team that works on Thunderbird, not Firefox, so there isn't any resource contention happening there * Thunderbird is revenue positive, and this potentially gives that team another revenue stream to be even more self-sustaining through charging companies * Businesses definitely want to control the AI they're using (espec…

I see no reason this product should exist even under the Thunderbird umbrella, especially if ANY resources under ANY Mozilla org were employed in this. This product is a distraction from their core mission in either case.

Re: Mozilla Thunderbolt

#90

Post by ryanleesipes »

badgersnake wrote: post #85
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thunderbird currently runs entirely on donations, even though they have paid products in the pipeline. I think a piece of software running on donations is not running off "charity". It's just a business model to not charge every user. Similar to how Twitch streamers operate, or my local theater group. You can read how they spent money in 2024 [1]. [1] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-...

Wait what, they took donations to pay a team to build a mail client and had them build an AI thing instead? Or have I got that wrong.

No, this was built with money from an grant from Mozilla.
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