Mozilla wants to drop Thunderbird

[Puppy]

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/12/01/mozill ... ompletely/ (long discussion http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=2976617 )

The only good and customizable email client that works reliably with IMAP/IDLE

[Dekks]

Kinda predictable, Mitchell Baker et al seem to have lost the plot in their ivory tower. Theyre screwing Firefox up so maybe TB being free is a good idea.

[MrMaguire]

What a joke the computer industry is becoming.

[Summilux]

Mozilla has indeed become a sad joke, especially since the dubious removal of its CEO.

But the present decision doesn't sound absurd to me: client-based e-mail managers fell out of favour as the mainstream public moved to server-based e-mail software such as Gmail. Which means that if Mozilla's goal is to make an impact over the general public, keeping Thunderbird will be useless.

Given that Mozilla has limited resources, that its main product is the ailing Firefox browser which still has the chance to provide people with a good user experience like it used to, and that the open-source community has already branched out another version of Thunderbird (in the form of Fossamail)... it makes a lot of sense to focus on Firefox or another potentially disruptive project and leave the e-mail managing part to the community.

Mozilla urgently needs to pivot and it's not like Thunderbird will be really shut down; there are no real losses involved here.