Thunderbird To Find New Home as Foundation Focuses on Firefox

541 · 28th July 2007, 06:52 AM

Quote:

"On her weblog, Mozilla Corporation CEO Mitchell Baker has announced that Mozilla Thunderbird is to move to a "new, separate organizational setting" as the Mozilla Foundation continues to focus ever more closely on Firefox. While the Mozilla Foundation supports a number of projects, its taxable subsidiary the Mozilla Corp. is responsible for only Firefox and Thunderbird. However, it has become increasingly clear that Firefox is the priority. The resources allocated to Firefox dwarf those allocated to Thunderbird and recent projects such as the initiative to improve Mozilla support exclude Thunderbird."

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitch...l_futures.html

theog · 28th July 2007, 11:12 AM

No surprise... firefox is the money tree... and they need to focus in order to attain more browser share from IE. The web is changing so fast, they need all the resources they can to keep up with the pace. No telling what IE 8 (or IE 7.5?) will bring.

Plus, Outlook 2007 simply rocks.

Then again, you also have the new buzz: "online software." I think FF's role is clear, while TB role is not so clear.

I wish them luck with FF. I hope they have heard the one about the one-product company.

William9 · 28th July 2007, 01:07 PM

Thunderbird is a great email client that I depend upon. What's going to happen to it?

theog · 28th July 2007, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William9

Thunderbird is a great email client that I depend upon. What's going to happen to it?

If you read the stories on the site, it goes from TB blowing into the dust, to google taking it and using it to hook into gmail... Put it back into the OO and let google take it... that might be a good thing... Given what google is doing, that does not sound far-fetched. Dreamy and unrealistic, maybe.

WHO knows for sure… I think only key people at Moz have some knowledge of what MIGHT happen to TB (and they are not saying much). Everyone else is putting out a WAG.

I think Outlook 2007 was the nail that sealed the deal.

rmns2bseen · 1st August 2007, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theog

No surprise... firefox is the money tree... and they need to focus in order to attain more browser share from IE. The web is changing so fast, they need all the resources they can to keep up with the pace. No telling what IE 8 (or IE 7.5?) will bring.

Oh, you mean Microsoft might actually release an upgrade within, say, 5 years??

Then again maybe the competition from FOSS projects lit a fire under their tails.

I think it could be good for TB in the long run. It seems that it will be developed in a similar way to SeaMonkey. Maybe it will become even more of a "real" open-source project. This might also be the "Googlization" of MoFo/Co whatever they call themselves now. At any rate Mozilla appears to be really going "corporate", and they may end up alienating a lot of their fan base who are really enthusiastic open-source proponents.

28th July 2007, 11:12 AM	#2
theog = Permanently banned = Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: 1 Microsoft Way Posts: 2,121	No surprise... firefox is the money tree... and they need to focus in order to attain more browser share from IE. The web is changing so fast, they need all the resources they can to keep up with the pace. No telling what IE 8 (or IE 7.5?) will bring. Plus, Outlook 2007 simply rocks. Then again, you also have the new buzz: "online software." I think FF's role is clear, while TB role is not so clear. I wish them luck with FF. I hope they have heard the one about the one-product company.

28th July 2007, 01:07 PM	#3
William9 Master of the @ Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: San Francisco Posts: 1,062	Thunderbird is a great email client that I depend upon. What's going to happen to it?