Mozilla Launches Internet Mail and Communications Initiative

nth10sd · Post by **nth10sd** » September 18th, 2007, 12:19 am

First news trickles out 17 September 2007 8pm PDT, (18 Sep 3am GMT)

Latest off the press is that Thunderbird has undergone a vast overhaul of its internal structure, getting "Dr. David Ascher, currently CTO and VP Engineering of ActiveState", to establish a new company focused on mail.

Mitchell Baker adds that "The goals for the new company are:

* Take care of Thunderbird users
* Move Thunderbird forward to provide better, deeper email solutions
* Create a better user experience for a range of Internet communications
* Spark the types of community involvement and innovation that we've seen around web "browsing" and Firefox. "

<a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2007-09-17-faq.html">FAQ</a>

<a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2007-09-17.html">Official Mozilla Press Release</a>
<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-17-2007/0004664427&EDATE=">Wired news</a>

Blogs:
<a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/09/mozillas_new_focus_on_thunderb.html">Mitchell Baker</a>, <a href="http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2007/09/18/mozillas-new-focus-on-thunderbird-and-internet-communications/">Mozilla Blog</a> (Cross-posted)
<a href="http://ascher.ca/blog/2007/09/17/joining-mozilla/">David Ascher</a>
<a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2007/09/mozilla_makes_m.html">Asa Dotzler</a>
<a href="http://www.arcanology.com/2007/09/17/mailco-for-mofo/">Al Billings</a>

Tech sites:
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/07/09/18/1350236.shtml">Slashdot</a>
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070918-echoes-of-firefox-thunderbird-spun-off-by-mozilla-foundation.html">Ars Technica</a>
<a href="http://www.news.com/Mozilla+tries+Firefox+recipe+with+Thunderbird/2100-1012_3-6208483.html">News.com</a>
<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137297-c,mozilla/article.html">PCWorld</a>
<a href="http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/mozilla-thunder.html">Wired</a>
<a href="http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-165016.html">ZDNet</a>
<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9037158&pageNumber=1">Computerworld</a>
<a href="http://mobilitysite.com/2007/09/mozilla-launches-internet-mail/">Mobility Site</a>
<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mozilla_launches_new_email_and_communications_organization.php">Read/Write Web</a>
<a href="http://gigaom.com/2007/09/17/mozilla-to-spin-out-thunderbird-as-a-company/">GigaOM</a>
<a href="http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=10815&scatid=6&contid=3">IT News Online</a>
<a href="http://www.techshout.com/internet/2007/18/mozilla-announces-new-mail-and-communication-centric-inititiave/">Tech Shout</a>
<a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Thunderbird-gets-Mozilla-US-3m-to-do-a-Firefox-/0,130061733,339282176,00.htm">ZDNet AU</a>
<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/17/mozilla-creating-a-f.html">boingboing</a>
<a href="http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/96145">heise online</a>
<a href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2198931/mozilla-developer-mail-thunderbird">vnunet</a>
<a href="http://www.trustedreviews.com/software/news/2007/09/18/Mozilla-Launches-Internet-Mail-Communications-Arm/p1">TrustedReviews</a>
<a href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/125202/mozilla-lets-thunderbird-fly.html">PC Pro</a>
<a href="http://www.platinax.co.uk/news/18-09-2007/mozilla-invests-3-in-thunderbird-e-mail-client/">Platinax</a>

Search <a href="http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=thunderbird&btnG=Search+News">Google News</a>

Mirrored @ <a href="http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/rumblingedge/archives/2007/09/thunderbird_gets_new_corporation.html">The Rumbling Edge</a>.

Post by **tanstaafl** » September 18th, 2007, 3:18 am

"the new corporation's scope is consequently deliberately very broad: "Internet communications" rather than just e-mail." according to news.com .

It sounds like one hand giveth and the other takes away. They talk about adding more full time developers but also talk about doing a lot more than email. While a very broad scope might be critical long term, I care far less about "how does / should email work with IM, RSS, VoIP, SMS" than I do about serious bugs getting fixed and a focus on making Thunderbird more user friendly.

"It's unknown whether Mozilla's current in-house Thunderbird developers will continue with the new company. Baker hinted that they may not. In her blog, she explained that the $3 million in seed money for MailCo will "be spent mostly on building a small team of people who are passionate about e-mail and Internet communications." according to ComputerWorld.

That would be disturbing. Scott MacGregor and David Bienvenu voted for a community-only project and Mozilla chose to create a new subsidiary instead, so that speculation is not surprising. Neither Scott's blog or the Mozilla doesn't focus on Thunderbird anymore thread in the Thunderbird Builds forum has been updated yet.

nth10sd · Post by **nth10sd** » September 18th, 2007, 4:10 am

Yes tanstaafl I was quite surprised to read about the situation regarding Scott and David...

As for the internet communications bit, it might just mean that they want Thunderbird to be more than just an email client. It may even incorporate IM features to become more like Pidgin and VOIP like Skype.

Old HardinComp · Post by **Old HardinComp** » September 18th, 2007, 7:46 am

I saw the first reports of this just before calling it a night last night (actually very early this am) and I'm going to take this news as something good for our beloved Tb. I hope David B. and Scott make the move as they seem to be two people with the best knowledge of what's going on with it so far. Although my biggest hopes are to get the Lightning project going to the point where I can finally be able to use it on Linux, as the last time I tried to install it I got complaints about not having the right build.

Although I must add that I'm not that excited about adding IM features to Tb. I already have Pidgin for that, and I'd rather not see Tb get bloated just to become Pidgin-like. I'd much rather have it be a replacement for Evolution on my Linux box, and get it talking with my PDA.

Here's hoping. Congrats MailCo and David A.! May MailCo and the Tb community make beautiful music together for many years to come.

Amsterdammer · Post by **Amsterdammer** » September 19th, 2007, 12:37 am

Internet change every day, every month, every year.
When I daydream about the days after Thunderbird 3 (three), I can imagine that desktop mail like TB or OE are dead ducks.
Provocatively spoken: mail be dying, communication is procreated and in anticipation of birth, in both cases Mozilla is the family doctor.
Will say: perhaps we get an application including mail, calendar, messenger, IRC or other things, which tanstaafl mentioned.

Hard times for Scott and David B.

Mozilla FAQ wrote:How will the current Thunderbird developers be involved?
We expect the current developers (Scott MacGregor and David Bienvenu) to continue to be the module owners for Thunderbird and Mozilla mail codebases.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozi ... 7-faq.html

I hope both will continue, not only for Mozilla, but for us.
Please :!:

================================

Remember: Air Mozilla online today 2007-09-19 2PM Pacific (that is 9 PM GMT)
With Mitchell Baker and David Ascher
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/arch ... liv_4.html
come in flocks to irc://irc.mozilla.org/airmozilla at this time

Can some mod sticky this thread?

nth10sd · Post by **nth10sd** » September 19th, 2007, 4:42 am

yup i'll second that stickying bit...

9PM GMT makes it early in the morning GMT+8 5AM... wow....

I hope I can wake....

Amsterdammer · Post by **Amsterdammer** » September 19th, 2007, 6:17 am

Perhaps this Greenwich link help people
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-z ... ific-time/

couldabeen · Post by **couldabeen** » September 19th, 2007, 4:56 pm

I have yahoo(browser capable), gmail(browser capable), Netscape(browser capable), My ISP(browser capable), and a few other 'webmail' accounts(browser capable). I have another app I use for news, and one for IM(when I am in the mood), and my own calender program that I will not give up.
I don't need an 'AllInOne' email client! That is one reason why I don't use any of the MS products.

It appears that I will be using the browser for all of my email requirements one of these days, weeks, months, whatever.

Post by **Daifne** » September 19th, 2007, 5:01 pm

OK, OK. I'll sticky this for a while. I'm already linking to it and locking some other posts. One topic here and one in Builds is enough. ;-)

nth10sd · Post by **nth10sd** » September 19th, 2007, 5:06 pm

couldabeen: you *could* do everything from Thunderbird. maybe not the IM thing yet. And if you feel that it is secure enough, you can save your passwords inside. No need to log in multiple times. And you could have an offline backup of your email. And no advertisements.

But it's your choice, really.

Post by **Daifne** » September 19th, 2007, 5:22 pm

I'm with couldabeen. I like keeping the programs separate. My hope is that the new company will work on new types of projects, but leave Thunderbird as a standalone email client. Sure, have extensions, like Lightning for those who want them. Just leave it up to the user.

couldabeen · Post by **couldabeen** » September 19th, 2007, 5:52 pm

nth10sd wrote:But it's your choice, really.

Yep, and one I will happily make when TB becomes something other than the fast email client I now use, and a one that is a small footprint to download.

nth10sd wrote:And you could have an offline backup of your email. And no advertisements.

I "could" also do that with OE and Opera if I want. But, I currently save my email 'offline' anyway, so that will not be a concern. TB is used for my ISP only right now, so it won't be a big change for me to take it to a browser, since it is already setup.

I rarely see ads in the webmails I use, so that is not a problem either.

Post by **tanstaafl** » September 26th, 2007, 11:37 am

I'm unstickifying this thread since nobody has commented on it for a week.

Amsterdammer · Post by **Amsterdammer** » October 8th, 2007, 8:36 am

Mitchells blog:
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell ... f_cha.html

nth10sd · Post by **nth10sd** » October 8th, 2007, 8:58 am

It's a part one. There'll be more.

"In my next post I'll describe how we went from this realization to our current plan."

And more answers to at least some of the questions and rumours flying around relentlessly now.