Comments on: Mozilla Ditching Thunderbird?

By: Y el último deber es… « Mundo Binario

Y el último deber es… « Mundo Binario — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:46:24 +0000

[...] de su cliente de correo, Thunderbird. La historia es más o menos así: hace rato que la gente de Mozilla anunció que no le continuarían prestando la atención al cliente de correo y que focalizarían sus fuerzas [...]

By: netster007x

netster007x — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:27:49 +0000

What was the last ‘true innovation’ from Firefox?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:10:45 +0000

They should definitely replace SeaMonkey with something more up-to-date. I can’t believe that it still has the old Netscape look.

By: MetaMan

MetaMan — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:16:33 +0000

I’d have to say that this seems like it may very well be a good thing. If Mozilla chooses #1, creating a sister foundation similar to Mozilla in many ways, it would allow Mozilla to focus its energies on web-related technologies. Firefox would receive even more attention and from a more concentrated backer, while Thunderbird would be developed in an environment focused upon it, allowing more resources and creativity to be spent on it. Mozilla’s approach to the web is not necessarily appropriate for email clients, so an email-centered organization would be good for Thunderbird.

As for the other two options, #2 seems like it might put a little more energy behind the project, but that things would go down pretty much the same path. As for #3, that would all but kill the project. SeaMonkey and Camino are well behind in terms of technology, their development is so slow. Their updates, rare as they are, usually only consist of security patches and bug fixes, with new features few and far between. I don’t think Thunderbird really needs Mozilla, but yet it does require a similar type of organization.

In any case, Thunderbird will die out along with the other home-user-centric desktop email clients unless they have some type of revolution. The way they currently are, desktop email clients have very little practical use for most of the computer-using world. Unless they rethink the theory behind this type of product, transforming it into something radically different and innovative, then desktop email will go the way of fax machines and audio cassette players.

To those who think Thunderbird and Firefox should be combined, I have this to say: that would be very impractical. Most of Firefox’s user base does not have nor wants Thunderbird. I do think that they should replace SeaMonkey with an updated suite similar to a combined Firefox-Thunderbird, but this should definitely not be Mozilla’s flagship product; if Thunderbird’s development is given to a third party, then this would have to be a community project.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:38:47 +0000

I think everyone is right who said that email on the web is the way of the future, but I think desktop clients still have their place. I think the problem is that the syncing between the desktop clients and web services aren’t good enough right now. I mean think about it, wouldn’t you be more willing to use a desktop application if it had full synchronization capabilities with its web counterpart? By that I mean if you read a message in the desktop app it is marked as read on the web service as well. I know that is something I would love to see, and I think it is possible with Thunderbird.

@Ed West – I don’t think that they would merge Thunderbird with Firefox because it pretty much becomes SeaMonkey then. I agree with you though that I don’t think Thunderbird stole much of the focus away from, but it was apparent that Thunderbird didn’t receive much attention since it takes so long for the updates to get processed.

@Tinhed – I don’t think that Mozilla should integrate Firefox and Thunderbird quite yet. There are enough memory problems in Firefox alone, and throwing Thunderbird into it probably would help.

By: Tinhed

Tinhed — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:46:22 +0000

Maybe They should do a seamonkey and integrate mozilla and Thunderbird. I dont see anything wrong with it except the slightly increased download size.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 11:31:33 +0000

Too much worrying about Mozilla dumping Tbird – I use only Tbird where an email client is needed. Methinks someone took an interview too far- as I can imagine Thunderbird has only good places to go from here. Heck ,it ain’t lotus people

Relax- Mozilla a will continue to do us proud. If Thunderbird got spun off, that probably wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I agree with other posters though in the fact that standalons email programs are almost a thing of the past (with gmail and such)

Rob

By: Ttech

Ttech — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:52:38 +0000

I don’t understand this one. Thunderbird is great! An amazingly powerful app. That works on Windows and Linux. Sounds to me like the person in charge may not be helping out Mozilla at all. Or at the least, good software.

By: Mohan

Mohan — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:11:57 +0000

Well this could be a good thing, I just hope Mozilla would go with option #2. I have always felt that Thunderbird hasn’t gotten half the attention that Firefox gets. As I used Thunderbird for my school email account and it works very well and I like it very much as it is a light weight program. Going with option #3 well I really don’t know if that will be good for Thunderbird as in my opinion it hasn’t been very good for Seamonkey and Camino (as they are too slow with features and stuff). I would hate to loose Thunderbird, I mean what else is out there that is a light weight email program (that is cross platform)? Guess we are going to have to wait and see what happens.

By: OldManDeath

OldManDeath — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:08:02 +0000

I think too that Web based mail, like Gmail, which is what I use has supplanted “traditional mail clients for regular home users. Corporations still require traditional mail clients, and this is not where Thunderbird is targeted for.

I honestly think that Thunderbird will end up fading into the dust. Traditional mail programs just can not give you the ability to use them from any computer anywhere like web based mail can.