Mozilla to abandon Thunderbird development?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57467973-93/mozilla-calling-it-quits-on-thunderbird-report-says/

 

Mozilla to halt further development of open-source email client Thunderbird

Mozilla to halt further development of open-source email client Thunderbird

Article

 

Reports are wrong. Mozilla is not abandoning Thunderbird development. Go to the source I always say:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Proposal:_New_Release_and_Governance_Model

 

Could not agree more Chris, you'd think News aggregator sites would do a fact check check first. Since I'm a bit of a Moz n00b, I don't have all the sources available as others may.
Moz software is generally a whole new regime for me and I was reporting as I read it. The site I quoted is not the only source that has cited this over the last day or so. Regardless, we forge on.

 

http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/07/06/thunderbird-stability-and-community-innovation/

 

Compared to Firefox, the attention to fixing bugs has been poor in both Thunderbird and Lightning for a long time.
On-going stability is one thing, but when they are reducing head count[1] I can't see the situation improving and is going to make the alternatives more compelling, such as Gmail from the browser and Outlook for the business.

[1] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTEzNDc

 

Some interesting observations and statements made here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2499053

 

Thank heavens for that, updating it like a browser was ridiculous, it's an email client!

 

Agreed, this is going to go around for a bit until someone from Moz makes a full statement. Some nasty posts spotted elsewhere that I choose not to get involved in. I'll keep my focus on this thread and will add as the story develops.

 

They've caused quite a stir!

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/07/why-i-prefer-desktop-email-clients-over-web-based-services/

 

It seems that Mozilla are concentrating in developing their own mobile OS and producing their own smartphones.

 

Mozilla stops development on Thunderbird - security implications?

Mozilla has stopped development on Thunderbird, it's award winning email client, saying there is no need to innovate the client further. Mozilla will now switch to a maintenance mode to maintain the e-mail client with updates but no new features and I suspect no new major versions.

Read about it here. http://www.zdnet.com/mozilla-scraps...ail-client-not-a-priority-anymore-7000000469/

The rub here for Wilders fans is this blurb at the bottom which says,

So it looks like there will be no new security updates for free users of Thunderbird - ?

Here are the links for that Governance Model and the Extended Support respectively.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Proposal:_New_Release_and_Governance_Model

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/organizations/

Thunderbird has over 20 million users. Out of those, the free users will get the stability updates but no security updates it seems. Unless I'm reading this wrong and the guy from ZDNet has it wrong that seems like a really dumb move for Mozilla. I understand they want to keep making money on their Enterprise users and this is the way to keep them but I think the majority of those 20 million users are free users.

What do you guys think about this?

 

Re: Mozilla stops development on Thunderbird - security implications?

Honestly a new version 9 -> 10 -> 11 -> 12 -> 13 -> 14 every month was a bit too exaggerated

 

Re: Mozilla stops development on Thunderbird - security implications?

I understand that and agree. That was annoying. I made the switch years ago to Thunderbird from Eudora because 1) Eudora was no longer offering a free version and stopped development and 2) Thunderbird had Mozbackup for an awesome e-mail backup solution. Now I see you can get an Open Source Eudora version based on Thunderbird technology. Don't know if Mozbackup works with it.

Other solution is keep using Thunderbird and run it inside of Sandboxie so any security issues will be moot. Just scan the mail within the sandbox before you export to hard drive.

There is also the Seamonkey browser which has an e-mail client built in based on Thunderbird technology. I use it sometimes and it's great to have a browser, email and other apps in one package.

 

Re: Mozilla stops development on Thunderbird - security implications?

I am a bit confused about this myself, but my understanding is that the ESR version is just a "feature frozen" edition that won't get new features or bug fixes from the community. But, both will get security and stability updates every 6 weeks.

BTW, if you want the ESR release, it doesn't look like there's anything stopping you from using it. They don't charge for it, if that's what you were thinking.

Here's a quote from a roadmap page that may explain it better:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?...y2012AndBeyond&diff=449300&oldid=prev

 

Re: Mozilla stops development on Thunderbird - security implications?

I think that author of the article should go back to his musical career.

Thunderbird development has not stopped. Security fixes will still be released, they will still be free.

 

From the Governance Model link above;

Both will get security updates, ESR won't get new features. No need to worry.