R.I.P., Thunderbird

[SteveRiley]

Mozilla halts future development of Thunderbird.

http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/...ty-innovation/

[whatthefunk]

It sounds like theyre still going to maintain it though. Wise decision really. Firefox has been losing users to Chrome lately and with the Firefox OS being developed, Mozilla probably need to trim a bit of fat.

[HalationEffect]

Mozilla employee & full-time Thunderbird developer says "Thunderbird is not dead":

http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2012/07/06...r-thunderbird/

Users will still be getting an email client that answers to nobody but them. Users will still benefit from stability, performance and security updates from Mozilla. And their mail will continue to land in their inbox, just as it always has.

So please, relax. It’s all good. Let’s not make a mountain out of a mole hill.

[K-Project]

Thought for a minute they were killing it there. I hope it continues, it's still my preferred email program.

[GreyGeek]

I switched back to KMail several months ago as part of my progress toward eliminating apps that depend on the GTK+ API, and using only the Qt API or static binaries.)

Not there, but getting close. I used to use KMail several years ago but left it for Thunderbird because it was integrated with FireFox. But, KMail is getting very good so I don't miss Thunderbird.

[dequire]

I switched back to KMail several months ago as part of my progress toward eliminating apps that depend on the GTK+ API, and using only the Qt API or static binaries.)

Not there, but getting close. I used to use KMail several years ago but left it for Thunderbird because it was integrated with FireFox. But, KMail is getting very good so I don't miss Thunderbird.

Same here, GG. But many users still have problems with KMail and Kontact in general it seems. I read here that Debian TESTING doesn't even include KMail2, but apparently uses KMail 1.13...

Here was my take on it (along with a little pole we can all vote on). Results should be interesting
Mozilla Axes Thunderbird - Opens A Great Opportunity For KDE PIM

[woodsmoke]

Although I use Kontact, Thunderbird does things very simply and consistently, and interacts with the Android through Google seamlessly.

woodsmoke

[tek_heretik]

Mozilla employee & full-time Thunderbird developer says "Thunderbird is not dead":

http://mikeconley.ca/blog/2012/07/06...r-thunderbird/

YAY! I love T-bird, would be lost without it, don't want to learn something new.

[vw72]

A big plus that thunderbird has, no matter how good kmail2 becomes is that for those of us who must use different systems, such as linux and windows, we can use the same mail program on both and can even put the thunderbird profile on a windows partition for dual booting and accessing it from both OSs.

At work, on windows, I can use TB. On my laptop, running Kubuntu, I can use TB. At home, where I must dual boot linux and wndows, I can use TB on both and access the same data store from both.

[SteveRiley]

I've been through enough of those kinds of press releases and carefully worded announcements. Far it be from me to promulgate doomsday scenarios, but language like "We’re simply not going to pour resources into trying to 'innovate' on Thunderbird" means development is over, and it's in maintenance mode now. Eventually, even that will likely cease. Sad... it's dead, Jim.

[vw72]

From here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird...vernance_Model
It sounds Mozilla, as an organization, wants to focus on web applications and not the desktop. As such, they are releasing their grip on Thunderbird to be more independant. Mozilla will still provide infrastructure support. This sounds very much like what Canonical did with Kubuntu.

[tek_heretik]

A big plus that thunderbird has, no matter how good kmail2 becomes is that for those of us who must use different systems, such as linux and windows, we can use the same mail program on both and can even put the thunderbird profile on a windows partition for dual booting and accessing it from both OSs.

At work, on windows, I can use TB. On my laptop, running Kubuntu, I can use TB. At home, where I must dual boot linux and wndows, I can use TB on both and access the same data store from both.

Exactly, that is part of the reason I love it, punch in all yer server stuff to new T-bird in Linux (to create a new default user folder), copy T-bird user folder contents from Win-DOHs T-bird to Linux T-bird and Bob's yer uncle.

I back up my T-bird user folder regularly.

[SteveRiley]

I'll admit my impression was swayed by the language in the announcement -- it sounded like way too many press/analyst releases I've had to endure over the years. I sincerely hope my impression ends up being wrong, and that the new governance model works. Although I don't use it any more, Thunderbird remains a wonderful piece of software.

[HalationEffect]

I'll admit my impression was swayed by the language in the announcement -- it sounded like way too many press/analyst releases I've had to endure over the years. I sincerely hope my impression ends up being wrong, and that the new governance model works. Although I don't use it any more, Thunderbird remains a wonderful piece of software.

I'm going to choose to be optimistic on this, even though that's quite out of character for me

The way I see it is that Thunderbird is a pretty mature piece of software. I'm honestly not sure what innovative features could be added to it; it already does everything I want it to do, and if I conceive of something I'd like to do with it that it doesn't do, there is probably an addon that will do the job. TBH, the notion of Thunderbird only receiving stability, performance & security updates from this point forward sounds just fine to me.

[dequire]

Like I wrote in my article, I think it's a great opportunity for KMail...assuming they get their collective act together and FIX BUGS! Esp segfaults. There's no excuse IMHO as to why, on 4.9 Beta 2, I should have segfaults opening an html email in KMail...

*sigh*