(Disclaimer: I’m an employee for Mozilla Corp, who works full-time on Thunderbird development. These opinions are my own.)

Today, through various channels, it was announced that continued innovation on Thunderbird is not a top priority for Mozilla.

Now before you all go running around with your heads chopped off saying things like, “Welp, that’s it for Thunderbird!”, or “We’d better fork that mutha!”, stop for a second, and read this.

Thunderbird is not dead.

Not by a long shot.

Please don’t overreact.

We’re simply not going to pour resources into trying to “innovate” on Thunderbird. Users will still be getting an email client that answers to nobody but them. Users will still benefit from stability, performance and security updates from Mozilla. And their mail will continue to land in their inbox, just as it always has.



So please, relax. It’s all good. Let’s not make a mountain out of a mole hill.

I’d also like to ask those people talking about forking Thunderbird… why? Why would you do that, instead of contributing to the core project? You’d be cutting yourself off from us, the people with experience developing Thunderbird, who can help you with your projects. Work with us. We’d love to have you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to continue testing some kick-ass contributor code. This new Australis default theme is going to blow your mind…