{"id":20248,"date":"2020-08-18T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/thunderbird-e-mail-client-survives-mozilla-layoffs.html"},"modified":"2020-08-18T22:21:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T22:21:00","slug":"thunderbird-e-mail-client-survives-mozilla-layoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/thunderbird-e-mail-client-survives-mozilla-layoffs.html","title":{"rendered":"Thunderbird e-mail client survives Mozilla layoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, Mozilla laid off almost a quarter of its staff<\/a>. That meant bad news for its flagship Firefox web browser<\/a>. And some people wondered if this also meant that Thunderbird<\/a>, Mozilla<\/a>‘s\u00a0e-mail client with 25 million users<\/a>, was on its way out. It’s not. Thunderbird is safe.<\/p>\n

Ali Taghavi, Mozilla’s director of corporate communications, said: “Thunderbird is not impacted by the layoffs.” As of January this year, Thunderbird began operating from a new wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, MZLA Technologies Corporation<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this latest incarnation, as a standalone business,\u00a0Thunderbird can “collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations”<\/a> in its own right. Nevertheless, moving forward, Thunderbird will remain an open-source program. It is also staying focused on open standards, user privacy, and productive communication. While a corporation now,\u00a0 the Thunderbird Council<\/a> continues to steward the project.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s perfectly understandable why people might assume that Thunderbird might have been tossed into the trash can. The e-mail client certainly has its fans outside of Mozilla, but, within Mozilla, its history has been rocky.<\/p>\n

It began in 2003 as a spin-off from the all-in-one Mozilla Application Suite. By 2007, however, Mozilla booted the project out to live or die on its own<\/a>. Mozilla was then, as now, focusing primarily on Firefox. A standalone e-mail client didn’t fit into its plans. Eventually, Thunderbird reintegrated into Mozilla.<\/p>\n

Its fans kept Thunderbird alive — albeit on life support. But, in 2012, Mozilla announced that thanks to a lack of funding it was stopping development on new Thunderbird features<\/a>. Mozilla would receive security patches, but that would be it.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s chairwoman and CEO, had no love for the project. In December 2015, she declared\u00a0 Mozilla platform engineers were paying “tax to support Thunderbird.”<\/a>\u00a0 She suggested that Thunderbird be spun out for once and for all.<\/p>\n

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That was easier said than done. In 2016, Mozilla looked at also possible homes for the unwanted e-mail client.<\/a> This included the Software Freedom Conservancy<\/a>, which helps manage the Git, BusyBox, Samba, and Wine open-source projects. Or, the Document Foundation<\/a>, LibreOffice<\/a>‘s manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nothing came of those suggestions, but Thunderbird’s loyal users rallied to the beleaguered program with financial donations. By May 2017, Mozilla re-committed to the project<\/a> and active development started again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Thunderbird, under MZLA, is charting its own course. The latest version, Thunderbird 78<\/a>, comes with many minor improvements. Its biggest feature is its Lightning calendar, and tasks add-on has finally been completely integrated into the program. Within the next few months, in the forthcoming Thunderbird 78.2, the program will finally get the long-anticipated power to encrypt end-to-end email messages via OpenPGP<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite all of Mozilla’s efforts to get rid of Thunderbird, the program is living on. And although most users now use web-based e-mail services, such as Gmail and Microsoft 365, millions still like standalone e-mail clients. According to Statista, 18% of all e-mail users are still using desktop e-mail clients<\/a>. Finally, if you think that e-mail is dying thanks to competition from programs like Teams, Slack, and Zoom, think again. Statista and The Radicati Group<\/a> are both finding that both the number of e-mail users and its sheer volume continue to grow ever larger.<\/p>\n

Thunderbird’s audience is only to keep growing. The real question is: Will the now semi-independent Thunderbird manage to start prospering as well?<\/p>\n

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