4 ms·

I thought thunderbird was in pure maintenance mode and practically abandoned. Has something changed? Is this a maintenance release or is thunderbird starting to

I thought thunderbird was in pure maintenance mode and practically abandoned. Has something changed? Is this a maintenance release or is thunderbird starting to be a viable client again?

hendersoon 9y ago
https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/ https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-fu... Basically, they're still under the Mozilla umbrella for legal and fiscal reasons, but all development and operations are completely separate from Mozilla and Firefox. Thunderbird has always been and continues to be a viable email client-- it just hasn't seen any meaningful development for a heck of a long time. It still _works_. Anyway, hopefully this means development will pick up. It's kinda amazing that it doesn't have multirow views yet.
- ttoinou 9y ago
  multirow views What do you mean ?
  - hendersoon 9y ago
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 "Reported: 15 years ago" That bug epitomizes how Thunderbird development has stalled for a very, very, very long time.
    - netmare 9y ago
      Has it stalled, though? Perhaps they don't see it as a worthwhile feature to focus on. I'm OK with that, even though I'd love to see it implemented. Firefox, OTOH, finally resolved a much more trivial issue 17 years after it was first reported (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737) and I'd hardly call that project stalled.
      - hendersoon 9y ago
        Obviously they decided not to focus on that particular feature, yes. Given its importance, seen as a table stakes UI feature by most other email clients, that clearly indicates development is stalled.
        yorwba 9y ago
        You obviously believe that it's important, but maybe the Thunderbird maintainers don't? I have never had any problem with it, and I'm probably not alone.
        jmiserez 9y ago
        You’re not alone. I read the comments in the bug linked above. It’s funny that some of the rants mention “I’m switching to X” where X isn’t even around anymore today. TB still works after all this time.
    - bigbugbag 9y ago
      Unrelated to thunderbird, more like how mozilla development works or does not. A new of bugs have been sitting for over 10 years, though they're usually silently closed after a while until someone notices and reopens them. It could even be something said about other projects who also have bugs sitting for years.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - netmare 9y ago
    It's about being able to display multiple rows of info in each item of the emails/threads panel. Something that I found quite useful in Opera Mail, e.g.: https://d2.alternativeto.net/dist/s/60b72ca2-7a26-e011-b47f-0200d897d049_4_full.png?format=jpg&width=1600&height=1600&mode=min&upscale=false https://d2.alternativeto.net/dist/s/60b72ca2-7a26-e011-b47f-... In Thunderbird, when using a 3-vertical panel layout, the columns get squished (especially long subject lines). It's not a big thing, but I would gladly trade half the vertical space for the ability to fit a couple more fields, like tags and size.
Sniffnoy 9y ago
Why would Thunderbird need to change beyond maintenance in order to be "viable" in the first place? Email hasn't changed. It's still solving the same problem. It should be as good as ever.
- Silhouette 9y ago
  Indeed. While I'm interested to see where this goes, current Thunderbird already does its job pretty well if you want an offline mail client. Security updates and bug fixes are always welcome of course, but I don't see why it's not a viable mail client.
- jrnichols 9y ago
  > Email hasn't changed Tell Google that. :/ Most of my email woes doing support over the years have been Gmail related. Google changes something, suddenly happy email clients cease working as users expect.
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Oh so much this. Google is, on a number of topics, dancing very close to the EEE behavior that MS has gotten lambasted for in the past. You could probably plaster the colorful G over top of Vader's helmet in the old scene between him and Lando.
    - Sniffnoy 9y ago
      Hell, they basically outright are EEE with regard to how they've treated XMPP. I basically just had to stop using Gchat (or whatever it's called now) because its behavior was just so incompatible with Pidgin.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  Still the option for basic security such as protecting the access to your mail with a password. 15 years that this feature has been removed with no explanation and that it's not been put back despite feature requests. This make thunderbird unfit for deployment in places.

I thought thunderbird was in pure maintenance mode and practically abandoned. Has something changed? Is this a maintenance release or is thunderbird starting to be a viable client again?

hendersoon 9y ago

https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/ https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-fu... Basically, they're still under the Mozilla umbrella for legal and fiscal reasons, but all development and operations are completely separate from Mozilla and Firefox. Thunderbird has always been and continues to be a viable email client-- it just hasn't seen any meaningful development for a heck of a long time. It still _works_. Anyway, hopefully this means development will pick up. It's kinda amazing that it doesn't have multirow views yet.

ttoinou 9y ago
multirow views What do you mean ?
- hendersoon 9y ago
  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 "Reported: 15 years ago" That bug epitomizes how Thunderbird development has stalled for a very, very, very long time.
  - netmare 9y ago
    Has it stalled, though? Perhaps they don't see it as a worthwhile feature to focus on. I'm OK with that, even though I'd love to see it implemented. Firefox, OTOH, finally resolved a much more trivial issue 17 years after it was first reported (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737) and I'd hardly call that project stalled.
    - hendersoon 9y ago
      Obviously they decided not to focus on that particular feature, yes. Given its importance, seen as a table stakes UI feature by most other email clients, that clearly indicates development is stalled.
      - yorwba 9y ago
        You obviously believe that it's important, but maybe the Thunderbird maintainers don't? I have never had any problem with it, and I'm probably not alone.
        jmiserez 9y ago
        You’re not alone. I read the comments in the bug linked above. It’s funny that some of the rants mention “I’m switching to X” where X isn’t even around anymore today. TB still works after all this time.
  - bigbugbag 9y ago
    Unrelated to thunderbird, more like how mozilla development works or does not. A new of bugs have been sitting for over 10 years, though they're usually silently closed after a while until someone notices and reopens them. It could even be something said about other projects who also have bugs sitting for years.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- netmare 9y ago
  It's about being able to display multiple rows of info in each item of the emails/threads panel. Something that I found quite useful in Opera Mail, e.g.: https://d2.alternativeto.net/dist/s/60b72ca2-7a26-e011-b47f-0200d897d049_4_full.png?format=jpg&width=1600&height=1600&mode=min&upscale=false https://d2.alternativeto.net/dist/s/60b72ca2-7a26-e011-b47f-... In Thunderbird, when using a 3-vertical panel layout, the columns get squished (especially long subject lines). It's not a big thing, but I would gladly trade half the vertical space for the ability to fit a couple more fields, like tags and size.

Sniffnoy 9y ago

Why would Thunderbird need to change beyond maintenance in order to be "viable" in the first place? Email hasn't changed. It's still solving the same problem. It should be as good as ever.

Silhouette 9y ago
Indeed. While I'm interested to see where this goes, current Thunderbird already does its job pretty well if you want an offline mail client. Security updates and bug fixes are always welcome of course, but I don't see why it's not a viable mail client.
jrnichols 9y ago
> Email hasn't changed Tell Google that. :/ Most of my email woes doing support over the years have been Gmail related. Google changes something, suddenly happy email clients cease working as users expect.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Oh so much this. Google is, on a number of topics, dancing very close to the EEE behavior that MS has gotten lambasted for in the past. You could probably plaster the colorful G over top of Vader's helmet in the old scene between him and Lando.
  - Sniffnoy 9y ago
    Hell, they basically outright are EEE with regard to how they've treated XMPP. I basically just had to stop using Gchat (or whatever it's called now) because its behavior was just so incompatible with Pidgin.
bigbugbag 9y ago
Still the option for basic security such as protecting the access to your mail with a password. 15 years that this feature has been removed with no explanation and that it's not been put back despite feature requests. This make thunderbird unfit for deployment in places.