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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 31/07/2012 12:12, Ben Bucksch wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:5017BDA9.5010206@beonex.com" type="cite">So,
one week later, there has been no concrete answer to my post,
which I find very disheartening, when long-time contributors with
critically important questions are just being ignored. <br>
</blockquote>
Please be aware that I was on holiday last week (as was mentioned in
several places), and JB was travelling, this has obviously made it
difficult for us to respond in a timely fashion.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:5017BDA9.5010206@beonex.com" type="cite"> I
did find this statement on a blog, though, which I want to post
here for completeness: <br>
<br>
"b: Yes of course. We have a solid plan to support Thunderbird
until the second half of 2013 and are discussing how we support it
beyond that date." <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://blog.mozilla.org/beyond-the-code/2012/07/09/about-the-future-of-thunderbird/">https://blog.mozilla.org/beyond-the-code/2012/07/09/about-the-future-of-thunderbird/</a>
<br>
<br>
So, in essence, this is the concrete reply I was looking for:
Mozilla promises only 1 year of security support and releases, and
after that the future is uncertain. <br>
</blockquote>
As mentioned in Mitchell's original <a
href="https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/07/06/thunderbird-stability-and-community-innovation/">blog
post</a> about the changes, the plan is based around the ESR
mechanism. If you re-visit the <a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Enterprise/Firefox/ExtendedSupport:Proposal#Proposal">original
ESR proposal</a> it states: "
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charset=ISO-8859-1">
The initial proposal would be to support a minimum of two ESR
releases.". That would be ESR 10 and ESR 17, as our plan is based on
ESR, that means we've definitely got a plan up until the end of ESR
17.<br>
<br>
Before I go any further, there are absolutely no indications that
the ESR will be abandoned after ESR 17. The only brief discussion
we've had so far indicates that there's no reason to abandon it, and
we have based the plan on the assumption that the ESR will be
renewed beyond 17. This is similar to the existing link between the
ESR programmes - if Firefox carries on with the ESR, then TB will.<br>
<br>
Obviously there is provision in the ESR plan to review, and when it
happens, then we'll have to review the effect on Thunderbird (if
any) at the same time. We'll aim to review the ESR continuation plan
6 months before Gecko 24 is released, so that we have plenty of
advance notice of what is happening.<br>
<br>
Assuming ESR continues beyond 17, then the plan we have is
sustainable beyond that, as it continues with the subsequent ESRs.
I'll be posting more details about the proposed plan in the next day
or so.<br>
<br>
Mark.<br>
<br>
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