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I use Firefox and Thunderbird all day, every day, and Thunderbird definitely feels like it's funded by users whereas Firefox feels like it is funded by an actua

• walterbell 6y ago
  In 2020, desktop email clients are also a smaller market by several orders of magnitude.
  • notyourwork 6y ago
    For end users probably, for enterprise I doubt it.
    • freehunter 6y ago
      But enterprise is going to default something with an enterprise license and support agreement (like Outlook). You might have some users who prefer Thunderbird but they’re going to be a much smaller audience.
      • giancarlostoro 6y ago
        Not always, we pay for a plugin for Thunderbird (ExQuilzilla) though. We're primarily working on Linux systems so it makes no sense to even have Outlook or Windows in our office. We don't make up a large demographic of our company (which is in the F500 range), but I wouldn't be surprised if there's other places that do the same. It's a shame Firefox doesn't sell a developer ready IDE, I'd subscribe to that myself if it means better MDN and that the dev tools team is better funded, and Firefox in addition to other donations from elsewhere, throw in a VPN subscription to sweeten it for most people. I'm ready to pay for anything that funds Firefox directly. I've even seen some in QA who do have Windows just installing Thunderbird.
        • cglong 6y ago
          You could always use Outlook Web App (even installing it as a PWA if desired); it's actually really polished. Disclaimer: Microsoft employee unaffiliated with Outlook/Exchange :)
      • notyourwork 6y ago
        We use exchange, Apple Mail and Thunderbird can both be used. There are limitations but there are options beyond the status quo in enterprise. Its a protocol.
        • zerkten 6y ago
          People don't just do email in business settings. The proposition with Exchange was that you had email and calendaring together. This combination likely predates Exchange, but it was the juggernaut that took over big companies. Now you have GSuite and others copying that approach. In terms of clients, Outlook is probably a bigger Gmail client than Thunderbird within the enterprise due to the fact that business people in many places are only familiar with it. Yes, the protocols are supported in other clients, but going with something else is a in practice a peculiarity. I don't think that is healthy, but it's what's happening out there and impacting the potential of any other client. In the early days, Phoenix knew what it was about and had a team driving a really focused product experience for what would become Firefox. This was a very important part of why Firefox had the impact it had. Thunderbird always felt like a "me too" product focusing on email. In 2002, the set of criteria for global success (an integrated email and calendar experience) was already well defined. The product never got any razor sharp focus and an opportunity was squandered. It's hard to see how Thunderbird can ever achieve what it might have done.
    • stjohnswarts 6y ago
      Do you know of a single enterprise of any size (say > 30 employees) is using thunderbird as their default internal email client?
      • jasonjayr 6y ago
        Our org of 50ish is.
      • et_alt 6y ago
        We are (100ish employees, SW development, Finland).
      • loraa 6y ago
        Oracle. Its so sad.
    • Macha 6y ago
      OWA and G Suite gmail are pretty widespread.
  • trynewideas 6y ago
    All the more reason to fund and support browser development, since it includes their mobile products?