Categories: Web

Thunderbird email client gets shelved, sort of

Eh, different Thunderbirds

Mozilla will no longer be releasing feature updates to its open-source email client Thunderbird, but instead will focus on products that provide a “source of innovation and of leadership in today’s internet life” – like Firefox smartphone OS.

The organisation won’t be abandoning Thunderbird completely, however. More than 20 million people happily use it every day. Mozilla do plan to release security and stability updates that support Thunderbird’s current state.

Mozilla appear to cite a poor contributor base as part of the reason for trimming back their efforts on Thunderbird,

“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.”

Also, the rise of cloud-based email services like Gmail and Hotmail accessible anywhere and on any device means that Mozilla may want to change focus,

“We have seen the rising popularity of Web-based forms of communications representing email alternatives to a desktop solution. Given this, focusing on stability for Thunderbird and driving innovation through other offerings seems a natural choice.”

The Thunderbird development team has moved back under the larger Mozilla product umbrella, so hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this soon.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

View Comments

Recent Posts

As US job openings hit a three-year low, Goldbridge.ai is helping candidates get ahead of the competition  

Going for an interview or writing a winning resume have always been tasks that require…

6 hours ago

DARPA wants ‘smart bandages’ to sense, treat & prevent infections

DARPA is putting together a research program to develop bioelectronic "smart bandages" loaded with sensors…

1 day ago

A new era of efficiency for North American power introduced as KYRO and LS Power Grid partner-up 

According to Ember, the US generates 41% of its electricity from clean sources, higher than…

2 days ago

Dark Web Monitoring and Data Integrity

By Tammy Harper, Senior Threat Intelligence Researcher at Flare When people think about dark web…

4 days ago

Solving electric vehicle charging challenges with off-grid innovation

The electric vehicle (EV) industry is growing with automakers and many governments pushing for further…

4 days ago

Silicon Valley’s Silent Ideological War

There's a war happening in Silicon Valley. Not the kind with missiles and tanks, but one…

4 days ago