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OT: Thunderbird org should create/sponsor its own email server software. That's the way to spur email development by causing development on both sides of the

OT: Thunderbird org should create/sponsor its own email server software. That's the way to spur email development by causing development on both sides of the chain. Sometimes in unison. And they should also initiate an email service to put their development in action. Imagine the innovation that could happen then. - Email encryption standards for key acquisitions - folders/labels stored as imap keywords - large file sending protocol using third party services - msg retrieval when email severs experience outages - development in mail list servers.

mxuribe 7y ago
Or at least, choose an existing decent one email server software stack, and then focus efforts to make on-boarding/setup of that stack as easy as possible. I think you're onto something because the Thunderbid (and of course the mozilla) brand is respected enough to take seriously. AND, users would flock to it because it is highly respected as an org. Yeah, kudos for this idea!
jcranmer 7y ago
I disagree. There is next to no code sharing between the server and client side of email--implementing the server side of the protocol is vastly different than the client side, and even the server-server versus server-client sides of SMTP and NNTP are practically different protocols. Furthermore, Thunderbird already struggles to get enough developers to avoid compounding on its technical debt; such a large undertaking is simply not possible with the current manpower. I'll also point out: > - Email encryption standards for key acquisitions This is basically a standardization problem. I've been involved in at least one failed attempt at standardization here. > - folders/labels stored as imap keywords The difficulty here is knowing when you can opt-in to this functionality, which is again basically a standardization process. > - large file sending protocol using third party services Thunderbird already supports this, and has for... 7 years or so? > - msg retrieval when email severs experience outages If I understand this right, this is basically having your MUA duplicate emails locally... which is what most MUAs do these days (at least on desktop). > - development in mail list servers. What development are you talking about? Mailman is pretty actively developed, they even had a GSoC project a few years back to add encrypted mailing list support.

mxuribe 7y ago

Or at least, choose an existing decent one email server software stack, and then focus efforts to make on-boarding/setup of that stack as easy as possible. I think you're onto something because the Thunderbid (and of course the mozilla) brand is respected enough to take seriously. AND, users would flock to it because it is highly respected as an org. Yeah, kudos for this idea!

jcranmer 7y ago

I disagree. There is next to no code sharing between the server and client side of email--implementing the server side of the protocol is vastly different than the client side, and even the server-server versus server-client sides of SMTP and NNTP are practically different protocols. Furthermore, Thunderbird already struggles to get enough developers to avoid compounding on its technical debt; such a large undertaking is simply not possible with the current manpower. I'll also point out: > - Email encryption standards for key acquisitions This is basically a standardization problem. I've been involved in at least one failed attempt at standardization here. > - folders/labels stored as imap keywords The difficulty here is knowing when you can opt-in to this functionality, which is again basically a standardization process. > - large file sending protocol using third party services Thunderbird already supports this, and has for... 7 years or so? > - msg retrieval when email severs experience outages If I understand this right, this is basically having your MUA duplicate emails locally... which is what most MUAs do these days (at least on desktop). > - development in mail list servers. What development are you talking about? Mailman is pretty actively developed, they even had a GSoC project a few years back to add encrypted mailing list support.