Just a month after the release of the latest version 13 of Thunderbird, however, a on Friday apparently forced Mozilla to admit that it's putting the brakes on internal Thunderbird development.
"Once again we've been asking the question: is Thunderbird a likely source of innovation and of leadership in today's Internet life? Or is Thunderbird already pretty much what its users want and mostly needs some on-going maintenance?" wrote Mitchell Baker, chair of the Mozilla Foundation, in a on Friday.
Mozilla's conclusion, it turns out, is that "ongoing stability is the most important thing, and that continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority for Mozilla's product efforts," Baker added.
Accordingly, it has developed a plan that "provides both stability for Thunderbird's current state and allows the Thunderbird community to innovate if it chooses," she explained.
Two Thunderbird Tracks
Specifically, Mozilla will continue to provide security maintenance updates through an (ESR) process similar to targeting large organizations that use the software.
There is already a Thunderbird ESR version, and the next release of that software is due in November. "It will inherit the then-current Thunderbird feature-set," Mozilla explains in an on the MozillaWiki. "This release will be updated every six weeks, for the duration of the ESR cycle to ensure the best possible security and stability for organizations."
The non-ESR version of Thunderbird, meanwhile, will be released with the same feature set as Thunderbird ESR and will be updated every six weeks for security and stability. Unlike Thunderbird ESR, however, this version could evolve over time feature-wise if members of the community choose to work on it.
Baker's sentiments were largely echoed in a follow-up on Sunday by Thunderbird Managing Director Jb Piacentino, who noted that Mozilla is increasingly shifting its focus towards Web and mobile projects such as .
A Final Plan in September
Indeed, as Web-based email services skyrocket in popularity, it's not entirely surprising to see Mozilla make this move.
Still, as a longtime user of Thunderbird, I can't help but feel a little sad. I hope that some passionate fans out there will pick up the project and keep it vibrant, but Baker doesn't sound entirely confident that that will happen.
Who knows? Maybe we'll even see maker Canonical step in, as at least one observer has .
In any case, Mozilla is interested in any feedback, particularly from potential developers interested in picking the project up. It aims to share a final plan of action in early September, Piacentino says. I'll let you know if I hear any significant news before that.