Choice is good. Unfortunately, we are losing one of the better email offerings available on the fairer platform. Thunderbird and Firefox were both on Mozilla’s accelerated release schedule, which meant whole number “updates” every six to eight weeks (give or take a month).

“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,” writes Mitchell Baker, Chair, Mozilla Foundation. “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.”

All of that bullshit aside, if Thunderbird was bringing in more money than it cost to develop, it’s highly unlikely that Thunderbird would be getting shutdown. Yes, Mozilla is a foundation, but they would have been dead years ago if dollars weren’t the driving force behind their decisions.

Mozilla is promising one more big update on November 20 that will bring the free version of Thunderbird up to speed with the paid iteration. Thereafter, security updates will be delivered every six weeks for a year.

That said, I fully expected folks to step up and continue Thunderbird development. Further, it wouldn’t surprise me if a rational and economical organization built a business around it.

Whatever the case, Thunderbird will continue, but will never be the same…

What’s your take?

via TechCrunch

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