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