Proposal to start a new implementation of Thunderbird based on web technologies

[Ben Bucksch]

Paul D. Fernhout wrote on 06.04.2017 05:51:
> But, one of the toughest things in a battle is to get soldiers to
> abandon their dug-in foxholes to retreat in the face of advancing enemy
> fire. The soldiers indeed are safer in the foxholes with all the random
> shells flying around -- until the battle line advances to their foxhole
> and they are overrun. And the closer the battle line comes, the more
> dangerous it is for soldiers to leave their foxholes.

Paul, this is an excellent analogy for the situation Thunderbird finds 
itself in.

So far, we've been keeping up with Gecko with volunteer work only. Now 
we have Jörg K hired to keep up to date with Gecko, and nonetheless the 
situation is already so dire that he can't manage. He is facing new 
breakage every day, and not enough time to fix it all properly.

And the hardest blow is still to come, after Gecko 57, when Firefox XUL 
extensions are killed. The Firefox teams are already scratching to make 
breaking changes. The worst is yet to come.

So, I think that analogy is very much true. And unfortunately, the 
reaction of the Thunderbird community is the same as in that analogy, 
trying to hold on to status quo.

Right now, the biggest risk for Thunderbird is to not move fast enough. 
Getting going is not longer sufficient. We need to run now, race.