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I am using Blender since my Master thesis in 2017. It is impressive how much has happened. Also giving some money to them because they don't get that much donat
by zuInnp 3mo ago
I am using Blender since my Master thesis in 2017. It is impressive how much has happened. Also giving some money to them because they don't get that much donations (if you compare it to Thunderbird for example).
- p-e-w 3mo agoWait, Thunderbird is getting more donations than Blender? I was under the impression that Thunderbird is on life support, while Blender is everywhere.
- wccrawford 3mo agoA quick AI Google search and some fact-checking later, and yeah. At least as of 2 years ago, Thunderbird was getting 3x the contributions that Blender was. It just goes to show you how badly managed Thunderbird is, since Blender is doing so much more with the money. I'm more and more disappointed with Mozilla all the time.
- thaumasiotes 3mo agoThunderbird did manage to buy out K-9.
- jamesfinlayson 3mo agoOh did it? I remember using K-9 on my Android phone years ago and being pretty happy with it.
- thaumasiotes 3mo agoYes, K-9 has been shut down and Thunderbird for Android is what used to be K-9.
- virtualritz 3mo agoIt couldn't possibly be that Blender simply has much more volunteer contributions? Since hacking on a 3D DCC in your spare time may be more than three times as enticing to people than doing the same on an email client? I'd wager Occam's razor favors this explanation.
- jack_pp 3mo agoOr Thunderbird is much older and has a lot more users
- TheGoddessInari 3mo agoBlender is actually much, much older than Thunderbird.
- jack_pp 3mo agowow, did not expect blender to be 32 years old, thanks for correcting me. but still, they were open sourced about 1 year apart. I still think having a bigger user base is a good reason for the difference
- redwall_hp 3mo agoThat's relevant to why it historically had bizarre UX issues, like ctrl+s being the shortcut to erase the scene and start a new one: it predated most of those conventions, and has its own UI tooling. It's also always been designed to use three mouse buttons, coming from the Unix world, which used to be problematic when not everyone had a mouse with a clicky scroll wheel. It's come an absurdly long way since I first dabbled with it in the early 2000s, and has gone from a niche FOSS tool to something widely used in its field. Nowadays, Blender is an example of masterful UX for a professional tool. Immediately responsive, information dense UI with keyboard shortcuts for absolutely everything. Actions are composable, like with vim: something like "ex5" will extrude five units on the x axis.
- 3mo ago
- zipy124 2mo agoIsn't this because thunderbird contributions are not ring-fenced but go to mozilla?
- Jaxan 3mo agoMarket size is different: everyone needs a mail client, but not everyone needs 3d modelling.
- kbolino 3mo agoThe audience may be larger, but I don't feel like it's anywhere near "everyone". Personally, I don't know anyone who still uses a dedicated email client except in specific institutional settings. I haven't touched one outside of a corporate office myself in 20 years. Webmail has been good enough for longer than many people have been using computers.
- zuInnp 3mo agoAt one of last Blender conferences, the founder (and at that time CEO) gave some insights about funding and compared it to Thunderbird. https://youtu.be/VZ5022VaMmA?si=m1hD9wEQ16s8Zu3b&t=1297 https://youtu.be/VZ5022VaMmA?si=m1hD9wEQ16s8Zu3b&t=1297 ; Fore More recent numbers: In 2024[1] (last info I found), Blender had 3.1m € in donations (600k more than the year before) and Thunderbird had around 9m € [2]. I kind of get it, Blender is way more niche than Thunderbird, but imagine what they could do with even more money. [1] https://download.blender.org/foundation/Blender-Foundation-Annual-Report-2024.pdf https://download.blender.org/foundation/Blender-Foundation-A... on page 76 [2] https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-25/ https://blog.thunderbird.net/2025/10/state-of-the-bird-2024-... I did the money conversion based on today's exchange rates
- ekianjo 3mo agowow thunderbird gets so much and achieves so little? amazing in a terrible way
- Waterluvian 3mo agoI’ve got to imagine there’s examples of orgs stopping donation intake when they get into the “money is nice but we cannot in good faith utilize all this without scaling into something we don’t want to be.”
- whywhywhywhy 3mo agoMozilla invests more time in being a foundation than software so makes sense their donations are higher.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Waterluvian 3mo ago> but imagine what they could do with even more money. Quite potentially some really great stuff, but I’m skeptical that this is actually a great way to kill a good thing. Ideally money isn’t an issue and everyone is paid well, and somehow the organization managers know how to feel out and draw a line on scale/ambitions.
- viccis 3mo agoI started pre-1.8, in the C-key era. Haven't used it in many years so looking at it every now and then is genuinely shocking to me how much it's progressed. I remember a family member who worked at a triple A game dev studio giving me a tour and when I talked to the 3D modeler guys there and told them I used Blender they stifled a chuckle. To be fair, it was a very rudimentary tool back with UI flows invented by and for aliens. And now it's used all over the place in both amateur and professional settings.
- KPGv2 3mo agoYes, I remember fumblefutzign around in 2000 or 2001, and I can't believe its current state. I'm a writer, not an artist, so I doubt I'll ever get back into it, but I'm so happy to see where it's at.
- mghackerlady 3mo agoIf you have the time, taking some time to learn the basics, even just for fun, adds a neat skill to your toolbox. You never know when you might have a use for it. Even if you don't, sometimes learning a new creative tool gets the idea juices flowing
- KPGv2 2mo agoThanks for the encouragement. I'm knee-deep in writing three novel-length fanfictions when I'm not being a stay-at-home parent to three young children. One day, though, I'm sure I'll get around to it.