5 ms·

Congrats for moving to E11s! Who are the current team behind Thunderbird? Are they former/current Mozillians, sparing their free time?

dagenix 5y ago
It seems that its being managed by a subsidiary of Mozilla, MZLA Technologies Corporation: https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-moves-to-monetize-thunderbird-transfers-project-to-new-subsidiary/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-moves-to-monetize-thun.... Apparently they are hiring: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/careers/#apply https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/careers/#apply
- hosteur 5y ago
  Anyone knows how they plan to monetize Thunderbird? I am skeptical about using a "monetized" mail client.
  - callahad 5y ago
    Sustain had a good podcast with Ryan Sipes (Community and Biz Dev Manager for Thunderbird) back in Februrary: https://podcast.sustainoss.org/67 https://podcast.sustainoss.org/67
    - hosteur 5y ago
      Will add that to my queue for later Do you have a TL;DL?
      - callahad 5y ago
        I did back in February, but I'm unlikely to be able to completely accurately recount that now. One thing I do remember is Ryan explaining how just being willing to directly ask people for money has been surprisingly effective. It's also worth putting Thunderbird's relationship to Mozilla in proper perspective: for all intents and purposes, Thunderbird is a completely independent project. Since 2017 (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-hom...), the Mozilla Foundation has primarily acted as Thunderbird's fiscal home, providing support for donations / bookkeeping / taxes / legal matters much in the same way that the Software Freedom Conservancy hosts Git, Homebrew, Inkscape and others, or how Software in the Public Interest hosts PostgreSQL, systemd, Xorg, FFmpeg, 0 A.D, and more. If I understand last year's MZLA Technologies announcement correctly (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/), it sounds similar to the split between the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation, where the former is a legal non-profit and the latter entity is for-profit and able to enter into commercial, revenue-generating agreements, but still wholly owned by the non-profit Foundation. ...But you should really listen to the podcast, I could be getting all of this wildly wrong.
        ryanleesipes 5y ago
        That's pretty much it. Can confirm, as I am Ryan Sipes. We (Thunderbird) are still 99.9% donation supported, so every bit helps.
        hammyhavoc 5y ago
        Thank you for your continued hard work. Stay well!
  - nexuist 5y ago
    Like this: > Why we need donations Thunderbird is no longer funded by Mozilla. Fortunately there is an active community keeping it running and developing it further. But to survive long term, the project needs funding. Thunderbird’s funding goes toward the significant infrastructure and staff that must be maintained to deliver the application to our tens of millions of users. For Thunderbird to survive and continue to evolve, we need your support and ask for your donation today. All the money donated will go directly to funding Thunderbird development and infrastructure. They aren't receiving any funding so there is no expectation of profit. I assume the project will be around so long as enough donations keep coming in to make upkeep worthwhile.

dagenix 5y ago

It seems that its being managed by a subsidiary of Mozilla, MZLA Technologies Corporation: https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-moves-to-monetize-thunderbird-transfers-project-to-new-subsidiary/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-moves-to-monetize-thun.... Apparently they are hiring: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/careers/#apply https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/careers/#apply

hosteur 5y ago
Anyone knows how they plan to monetize Thunderbird? I am skeptical about using a "monetized" mail client.
- callahad 5y ago
  Sustain had a good podcast with Ryan Sipes (Community and Biz Dev Manager for Thunderbird) back in Februrary: https://podcast.sustainoss.org/67 https://podcast.sustainoss.org/67
  - hosteur 5y ago
    Will add that to my queue for later Do you have a TL;DL?
    - callahad 5y ago
      I did back in February, but I'm unlikely to be able to completely accurately recount that now. One thing I do remember is Ryan explaining how just being willing to directly ask people for money has been surprisingly effective. It's also worth putting Thunderbird's relationship to Mozilla in proper perspective: for all intents and purposes, Thunderbird is a completely independent project. Since 2017 (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-hom...), the Mozilla Foundation has primarily acted as Thunderbird's fiscal home, providing support for donations / bookkeeping / taxes / legal matters much in the same way that the Software Freedom Conservancy hosts Git, Homebrew, Inkscape and others, or how Software in the Public Interest hosts PostgreSQL, systemd, Xorg, FFmpeg, 0 A.D, and more. If I understand last year's MZLA Technologies announcement correctly (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/), it sounds similar to the split between the Mozilla Foundation and the Mozilla Corporation, where the former is a legal non-profit and the latter entity is for-profit and able to enter into commercial, revenue-generating agreements, but still wholly owned by the non-profit Foundation. ...But you should really listen to the podcast, I could be getting all of this wildly wrong.
      - ryanleesipes 5y ago
        That's pretty much it. Can confirm, as I am Ryan Sipes. We (Thunderbird) are still 99.9% donation supported, so every bit helps.
        hammyhavoc 5y ago
        Thank you for your continued hard work. Stay well!
- nexuist 5y ago
  Like this: > Why we need donations Thunderbird is no longer funded by Mozilla. Fortunately there is an active community keeping it running and developing it further. But to survive long term, the project needs funding. Thunderbird’s funding goes toward the significant infrastructure and staff that must be maintained to deliver the application to our tens of millions of users. For Thunderbird to survive and continue to evolve, we need your support and ask for your donation today. All the money donated will go directly to funding Thunderbird development and infrastructure. They aren't receiving any funding so there is no expectation of profit. I assume the project will be around so long as enough donations keep coming in to make upkeep worthwhile.