Mozilla shoots down Thunderbird

[nsane.forums]

Mozilla has announced that it will cut down on its development of its Thunderbird email client, saying that the team will continue to offer security and stability updates.

If you use the Thunderbird email client, you may not be getting a lot of new features from now on. Mozilla has confirmed that it will be cutting back on Thunderbird software development.

In a post on his blog, Mitchell Baker, the Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, stated:

Much of Mozilla’s leadership — including that of the Thunderbird team — has come to the conclusion that on-going stability is the most important thing, and that continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority for Mozilla’s product efforts ... As a result, the Thunderbird team has developed a plan that provides both stability for Thunderbird’s current state and allows the Thunderbird community to innovate if it chooses.

Baker added that most of Thunderbird's users seem 'happy' with its current features. He said that with the rise of web-based email solutions, " ... focusing on stability for Thunderbird and driving innovation through other offerings seems a natural choice."

Mozilla has already posted up a plan on its Wiki page that is designed to give Thunderbird users a way to contribute new features to the email client if they wish.

The first version of the platform released to the public in 2003; Mozilla said today that there are now 20 million users of the client worldwide.

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

I'm a little bit confused about what's happening but this paragraph seems to ease the confusion:

In order to manage these two perspectives, we are proposing to adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance as well as community driven innovations for the product. We are opening this plan for discussion to individuals and organizations interested in maintaining and advancing Thunderbird in the future. We are looking for your feedback, comments and suggestions to refine and adapt the plan in the best possible way.

Indirectly, they are calling it quits for Thunderbird? :mellow: Like Oracle did it with OpenOffice?

[DKT27]

Mozilla shoots down Thunderbird, hatches new release model

'This bird's not dead, it's just pining for the fjords'

Mozilla has announced a new plan for the ongoing development of its Thunderbird email client that it says will provide for a stable product and continued opportunity for innovation

That's all well and good, but the contents of a leaked internal Mozilla memo suggest that the full picture may be less rosy than it seems.

The announcement, which was made in a blog post by Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker on Friday afternoon, suggests a major restructuring of the release and governance model of the Thunderbird project:

Once again we've been asking the question: is Thunderbird a likely source of innovation and of leadership in today's Internet life? Or is Thunderbird already pretty much what its users want and mostly needs some on-going maintenance?

Much of Mozilla's leadership – including that of the Thunderbird team – has come to the conclusion that on-going stability is the most important thing, and that continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority for Mozilla's product efforts.

It's not hard to see what she's getting at. "Continued innovation in Thunderbird" means the process of adding new features and UI improvements. That's out. "Ongoing stability", on the other hand, means bug fixes and security patches, which are all that current Thunderbird users should expect from now on. And given the slow pace of Thunderbird development today, it's safe to say that Mozilla is set to scale back its efforts on the project from "some" to "virtually none".

So does that mean Thunderbird is dead? No, it's just resting. Mozilla has posted additional details of its plan on a wiki page. Read on:

In order to manage these two perspectives, we are proposing to adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance as well as community driven innovations for the product.

See? It's got beautiful plumage. Thunderbird will still innovate, but from now on, any innovation will be strictly "community driven". In other words, Thunderbird is set to become yet another open source desktop application that's tossed over the wall by the company that built it, in hopes that some eager volunteers will pick it up and polish it into world-class software.

That almost never works. In fact, Baker admits in her blog post that generating enthusiasm for Thunderbird among developers has been near impossible:

We've tried for years to build Thunderbird as a highly innovative offering, where it plays a role in moving modern internet messaging to a more open, innovative space, and where there is a growing, more active contributor base. To date, we haven't achieved this.

What's more, the contents of what appears to be an internal Mozilla memo, marked "confidential" and leaked to El Reg by an anonymous source in advance of Mozilla's announcement, suggest there's more to this plan than a simple rearranging of the deck chairs.

We can't be certain the memo is genuine, but it includes wording substantially similar to Baker's blog post and the Mozilla wiki page. Where it talks about the move toward "community-driven innovation", though, the memo adds this tidbit:

This will mean an eventual shift in how we staff Thunderbird at Mozilla Corporation – we are still working out details, but some people will likely end up on other Mozilla projects.

Just how many people make "some" is hard to judge. As recently as 2007, Mozilla employed just two full-time developers on the Thunderbird client – that is, until they quit. It's hard to see how a company could commit fewer developer resources to a project than that. (No. Wait. There's a way.)

Mozilla's plan says, "Mozilla will continue to provide paid staff, logistics and infrastructure for the release drivers team to produce updates and new releases with the same level of quality than today [sic]." That's not saying much.

Mozilla has always struggled to keep Thunderbird vital. In 2007, it spun off its email and IM developers into a new, independent subsidiary, Mozilla Messaging. That didn't seem to work out so well, however, and the parent foundation reabsorbed Mozilla Messaging in 2011.

Part of the problem is that standalone desktop email clients such as Thunderbird have largely fallen out of favor. Thunderbird may claim more than 20 million users, but Gmail alone boasts 425 million active users worldwide, and Gmail isn't the only web-based email service. In light of those numbers, developing Thunderbird probably hasn't been much fun for a while – and now, Mozilla has seemingly decided it isn't worth spending resources on.

Instead, Mozilla will concentrate its efforts on browser-based projects and offerings for the mobile market, such as the newly christened Firefox OS for low-end mobile handsets.

Mozilla's wiki invites questions and comments, and it says the plan will be refined throughout the summer, with the goal of hammering out "the final details" in September 2012. Current Thunderbird users have that long, at least, to shop for a webmail service.

:view: View: Original Article

[mosaji]

Never used thunderbird...have always been an outlook user

[ck_kent]

So basically they'll stop adding new features in the last stable release but will continue to provide support and patches for its stability and if anyone would like to add new features they'll have to do it themselves since it's open source anyway?

I like Thunderbird especially because of its portability.

[DKT27]

@ck_kent: Probably yes. But there's a possibility that it will give away the development of Thunderbird to some other company, or some standalone project.

Thunderbird is good, one of the best. However, it's not all bad news as this means Mozilla will probably concentrate more on Firefox (and Firefox OS, not so concerned about the OS though).

[ck_kent]

Yes, that's probably a good move for Mozilla so they could concentrate more on Firefox and now also their Firefox OS on mobile. Just like they said, most Thunderbird users are already contented with what Thunderbird gives them. So I guess, what's more to add?

Hmmm... maybe the guys from The Document Foundation would like to grab it and incorporate it with LibreOffice? Now, that would truly compete with MS Office now. :)

[calguyhunk]

.....Mozilla will probably concentrate more on Firefox (and Firefox OS, not so concerned about the OS though).

I Am :)

I would love to have a genuine open source alternative to Android 'cuz with every passing year Google is moving further and further away from their previously stated "Don't be evil" motto :nono:

Mozilla has steadfastly shown over the last decade that it can actually stick to it's stated goals/principles. It'll be difficult for them to fight against the already established iOS, Android and Windows Eco-systems, but hopefully with a little bit of support from the open source community, they'll be a force to reckon with someday sooner than later ;)

Although you do wonder if it's a little late in the day for FF to be mounting a challenge to the already established trio and if four will be a crowd :dunno:

[Olexijl]

I'm using Thunderbird. It is really the best client for E-Mail at all. My friends have Outlook, some Outlook Express, these are so overloaded with functions. Thunderbird is not like this.

I like Thunderbird not to be connected with IE-engine.

[demoneye]

is it look like the first stage of mozilla falling down theory ? :huh:

[Avitar]

why continue to put new things in something that is already complete as it stands?

In the world of computers, my friends, don't fix it if it's not broken.

[DKT27]

@ck_kent: Good point indeed. The project should move on. Lets wait for September. :)

@calguyhunk: I've never taken Firefox OS too seriously. First I was confused that it will be online only OS, but I guess I'm just confused with the "web app" html5 structure. Another reason is that I feel all the three major OSs will crush Firefox OS on arrival. People are so much into Google and Chrome, iOS, Windows, etc. that they will see Firefox OS only negatively.

@demoneye: It's called work management. They can concentrate more on Firefox now.

Thunderbird never needed Firefox like speedy updates anyway.

[dcs18]

I'm using Thunderbird. It is really the best client for E-Mail at all.

That's not true - not even as close as a 5 meter pole (let me know if you want to know to know which is the best email client . . . . . . . . . by far.) ;0