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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 19/11/2016 05:29, Jim wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAF6z7pv5Wiue_i8wTRbpzcN48tC43PkTWxKUFy6B6wD2tAyUtg@mail.gmail.com">As
a related problem, Thunderbird just doesn't have enough
developers. Many of the folks who've worked on Thunderbird in the
past just don't have time to help out much anymore (e.g. me), so
it can be hard to make significant forward progress. Compounding
this is the fact that *reviewers* often don't have much time,
meaning patches sit idly and bitrot without landing. I don't know
how to fix this (and probably wouldn't have time to do so even if
I did know), but I think it's something Thunderbird will need to
address going forward. <b>With a few paid developers to drive the
project, I think a lot of these issues would be more tractable.</b></blockquote>
<p>That's exactly right. Currently the we have about 10 volunteer
developers who try to keep the ship afloat, dealing with bustage
originating from Mozilla core on a daily basis. Apart from that,
they try to fix some long-standing bugs, plug security holes and
at times even implement a small improvement here and there.</p>
<p>There isn't enough manpower to address burning issues like
seach/filter and Gloda issues, finally porting the send pipeline
to JS, a job which Joshua Cranmer started with JS Mime, getting
rid of Mork and also an address book rewrite, just to name a few.</p>
<p>The Thunderbird Council has been discussing to hire three staff
members: Someone dedicated to "continuous integration" of a
flood-wave of Mozilla core changes, an infrastructure/build
engineer overseeing an infrastructure transition away from Mozilla
and a CEO-style person to deal with leading the project to a new
financial home and relating to donors. Watch this space for more
information. These three staff members would only guarantee the
bare running of the project without relying on the draining effort
of some of the volunteers. Filling these positions would <b>not</b>
mean any major new features. Especially the at times dire review
situation wouldn't change.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Jörg Knobloch - <a href="mailto:jorgk@jorgk.com">jorgk@jorgk.com</a>
- <a href="http://www.jorgk.com">www.jorgk.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.jorgk.com/misc/Mozilla-work.pdf">Thunderbird
Developer</a>
(<a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/Thunderbird#Thunderbird">Thunderbird</a>,
<a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/Thunderbird#Compose">Compose</a>
and Mailnews <a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/MailNews_Core#Editor">Editor</a>
and
<a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/MailNews_Core#MIME_Parser">MIME</a>
peer) -
Member of the <a
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules/Thunderbird#Thunderbird_Council">Thunderbird
Council</a></div>
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