Mozilla gives Thunderbird a reprieve

Firefox maker Mozilla has said it will keep hold of Thunderbird, after previously indicating it wanted to give it to another developer.

The news will please Thunderbird’s many loyal users, estimated by Mozilla to be around 25 million, who had feared for the future of the email client.

Mozilla announced in December 2015 that it was spending too much time on Thunderbird, at the expense of its top priority Firefox. It wanted to find a home for Thunderbird that would “help the community thrive”.

A consultant, Simon Phipps, was hired to identify the best open-source organisation for Thunderbird, with The Document Foundation (which runs Libreoffice) one of his recommendations.

But unhappy at the prospect of new owners, an influx of new developers added several features to Thunderbird, in the hope of keeping it alive. These were the first non-security updates since 2012. The latest version of the client (52) was released in April (see Best Free Software, Issue 501).

Mozilla, perhaps swayed by this outbreak of enthusiasm, has now agreed to remain the “legal, fiscal and cultural home” of Thunderbird. But the software will exist as a separate entity outside the Mozilla Foundation, run instead by the Thunderbird Council – another option suggested by Phipps.

This means Mozilla won’t need to spend money on Thunderbird in the long term. Instead, the Council will seek funding from donations and corporate sponsors.

Thunderbird users shouldn’t be affected by this change. Importantly, they should be warned in advance about Thunderbird leaving Mozilla because both parties must give the other six months notice if this is to happen.

In a blog post ( www.snipca.com/24333) Thunderbird’s Philipp Kewisch said he was “optimistic” about the client’s future, and appealed for donations to keep it “modern and secure for years to come”.