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Hello all,<br>
<br>
this is what I posted to Michell Baker and JB. I'm reposting just
for public reference.<br>
<br>
I am glad to recognize the critical importance that Thunderbird has.<br>
<br>
"<span class="">Thunderbird is one of the very few truly free and
open source multi-platform email application available today and
we want to defend these values.</span>"<br>
This is true. In fact, this is totally in like with the Mozilla
mission, to defend the open Internet. Internet, as you well know, is
more than just the Web. Thunderbird is our client which is covering
most of the non-Web Internet protocols: email, chat, calendaring.<br>
<br>
Email is one of the primary and most useful uses of the Internet for
many people, both professionals working online and grandmas.
Protecting it is vitally important. If Thunderbird were removed as a
competitive choice, most businesses are left with no alternative to
Outlook. This, in turn, locks them to Windows. There are several
huge organizations that use the Linux desktop, and from what I know,
they all chose Thunderbird and they would be left high and dry, if
it was no longer a competitive choice. What's worse, Linux would
have no chance to gain more foothold on the desktop, the last area
where Linux is *not* yet dominating (it's already dominating
servers, cellphones, supercomputers, home routers, and even
TomToms).<br>
<br>
Web clients are not an option for some users, be it speed or
privacy. Also, I expect webmail clients to degrade in terms of
adding more and more advertizing and promotions. The automatic
account setup wizard I created was directly targetted at helping
users, who couldn't set up Thunderbird before and thus were forced
to use webmail, to get set up quickly and painlessly.<br>
<br>
What we're still lacking in professional setups is a calendar.
Lighting is almost there. We just need to ship it and then polish
it.<br>
<br>
However, if you are honest, you cannot expect Thunderbird to take
off, if you hide it on the mozilla.org website. I could barely find
the Thunderbird page even though I was actively looking for it, much
less can you expect usage numbers to raise this way. If this is the
reason for this latest org change, please be honest and admit that
you never gave Thunderbird a fair chance by really marketing it with
strong force, as you marketed Firefox in the beginning and now.
Despite this, Thunderbird usage remains to be fairly high, being one
of the biggest open-source projects in terms of usage, so obviously
people like it. Please give it a fair chance.<br>
<br>
We must not allow Outlook and web clients to be the only realistic
choices. <br>
<br>
From what I understand of your message, you intend to pull all full
time contributors from Thunderbird, and stop making 6-week releases.
However, Thunderbird cannot live with some core people:<br>
<ul>
<li>David Bienvenu for the protocol implementations</li>
<li>Mark Banner for the organization and being the "good weasel"
(driver, build system, oiling the system, picking up tasks
needed to be done but nobody caring for it)</li>
<li>Kewisch for Calendar<br>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Thunderbird and Lightning needs these people. Bienvenu has been
on Thunderbird since Netscape 3.x in 1996, I think. Please let him
see the 20 year anniversary :).</p>
<p>Mozilla Corporation really has sufficient money. While it may not
be your focus, Thunderbird by itself is incredibly important for
the world as a whole and for the open innovation on the Internet
(Mozilla mission). Keeping 5-10 people on Thunderbird does a lot
of good for the Internet. It costs you, let's say 2-3 millions per
year, that's 1% of Mozilla's income, but they really make a
difference for the world.<br>
</p>
So, I ask for 2 things, please:<br>
<ul>
<li>Do not pull the core staff.</li>
<li>Market Thunderbird. Put it on the frontpage, make news about
it, push news articles. Give it a fair chance.<br>
</li>
</ul>
<br>
Alternatively, I think that a complete re-implementation is also a
viable option, if and only if:<br>
<ul>
<li>It remains a desktop-only client with no server needed, so
that I can install it and just point it at an IMAP, POP3,
calendar, XMPP server<br>
</li>
<li>The basic philosophy of privacy, independence (no web pings)
and efficiency in mail processing stays</li>
</ul>
<p><br>
But we really really need a competitive, efficient desktop email
client.<br>
</p>
<p>Thank you,<br>
</p>
<p>Ben<br>
</p>
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