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1 | Hello Mozillians: | |
2 | ||
3 | On Monday Mitchell Baker will be posting on the future of Thunderbird. | |
4 | We'd like you to be aware of it before it goes public. However, this | |
5 | is *confidential* until the post is pushed live Monday afternoon PDT. | |
6 | Please don't tweet, blog or discuss on public mailing lists before | |
7 | then. | |
8 | ||
9 | In summary, we've been focusing efforts towards important web and | |
10 | mobile projects, such as B2G, while Thunderbird remains a pure | |
11 | desktop-only email client. We have come to the conclusion that | |
12 | continued innovation on Thunderbird is not the best use of our | |
13 | resources given our ambitious organizational goals. The most critical | |
14 | needs for the product are on-going security and stability for our 20+ | |
15 | millions users. | |
16 | ||
17 | However, Thunderbird is one of the very few truly free and open source | |
18 | multi-platform email applications available today and we want to | |
19 | defend these values. We're not "stopping" Thunderbird, but proposing | |
20 | we adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that | |
21 | allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance, as well as | |
22 | community-driven innovation and development for the product. This will | |
23 | mean an eventual shift in how we staff Thunderbird at Mozilla | |
24 | Corporation - we are still working out details, but some people will | |
25 | likely end up on other Mozilla projects. | |
26 | ||
27 | We are going to open this plan for public discussion to individuals | |
28 | and organizations interested in maintaining and advancing Thunderbird | |
29 | in the future on Monday. We are looking for your feedback, comments | |
30 | and suggestions to refine and adapt the plan in the best possible way | |
31 | throughout the summer so we can share a final plan of action in early | |
32 | September 2012. | |
33 | ||
34 | If you have any questions prior to Monday please reach out to me | |
35 | [jb@mozilla.com] or Mitchell [mitchell@mozilla.org]. Again, this | |
36 | information is for Mozillians-only until Mitchell's post goes live. | |
37 | ||
38 | Regards, | |
39 | ||
40 | Jb Piacintino | |
41 | Thunderbird Managing Director | |
42 | ||
43 | ||
44 | Additional information: | |
45 | ||
46 | New release and governance model for Thunderbird will be available | |
47 | here concurrently to Mitchell's post: | |
48 | https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Proposal:_New_Release_and_Governance_Model | |
49 | ||
50 | Info on Modules and Thunderbird owners: | |
51 | https://wiki.mozilla.org/Modules | |
52 | ||
53 | ||
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59 | ||
60 | Mozilla | |
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64 | ||
65 | ##################### A Comment From the Paster ###################### | |
66 | ||
67 | Oh, you'd like to repudiate the headline? Not necessarily because it's | |
68 | inaccurate, but because, well... it just hasn't been massaged into the | |
69 | right form, has it? | |
70 | ||
71 | This: | |
72 | We're not "stopping" Thunderbird, but proposing we adapt the | |
73 | Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both | |
74 | ongoing security and stability maintenance, as well as | |
75 | community-driven innovation and development for the product. This | |
76 | will mean an eventual shift in how we staff Thunderbird at Mozilla | |
77 | Corporation - we are still working out details, but some people | |
78 | will likely end up on other Mozilla projects. | |
79 | ||
80 | Means this: | |
81 | The Thunderbird team at the Mozilla Corporation (the one absorbed | |
82 | from Mozilla Messaging) will be essentially dissolved. A few will | |
83 | be allowed to continue development as their primary "assignment", | |
84 | in a token gesture. Others *will* continue to work on | |
85 | Thunderbird, of course, but it will be in their free time. In | |
86 | that sense, they could just as well be spending their time | |
87 | analyzing the history of East Asian pottery glazing techniques, | |
88 | but with this, we'll be able to point to them and say "Look! | |
89 | See? They're-- C'mon, they're still there. See?" | |
90 | ||
91 | This will happen in a half-sincere* hope that a "community-driven" | |
92 | model will come up and take over, leaving unpaid volunteers and | |
93 | contemporary open source companies to fill the gaps. | |
94 | ||
95 | (*) Whether or not this is successful is not really much a | |
96 | concern. | |
97 | ||
98 | And a more broadly focused post script that won't necessarily make | |
99 | sense to those outside Mozilla (or even a good chunk of those within): | |
100 | ||
101 | The fact that this message was marked "confidential" is part of a | |
102 | deeply, deeply troubling trend. The biggest irony? Uninitiated | |
103 | employees--those being discussed in .governance right now, and who | |
104 | feel that there's actually quite a lot at Mozilla that shouldn't | |
105 | happen in the public--will point to this incident to try to make their | |
106 | point, in a tremendous display of Not Fucking Getting It. | |
107 | ||
108 | - | Let's rewind a year or three, MoCo. |
108 | + | Let's rewind a year or three, |