Today, internet users have a number of different options when it comes to email clients. From Gmail to Hotmail to Microsoft Outlook, you don’t hear many people saying “I wish somebody would develop a better email client.”
Many people use Thunderbird as their primary email client. Today, those users will have to adjust to a recent announcement by Mozilla, which stated that the web browsing company would no longer devote resources to Thunderbird development.
Thunderbird is a free open source email client that has been developed in conjunction with Firefox over the years. It’s always been the number one free alternative to Microsoft Outlook, and its open source features gained it a wide following over the years.
However, with Mozilla now devoting resources to other areas of development, Thunderbird will now switch over to ‘maintenance’ mode, which means that resources will solely be used to keep the email client operational as opposed to developing new features for it.
This shouldn’t be a heartbreaking announcement for anybody. Instead, it should be a moment to recognize just how far Thunderbird – and the entire Mozilla brand – has come over the last decade.
Of course, since Thunderbird is open source, switching over to ‘maintenance mode’ doesn’t mean that there will be no future upgrades to the project. It just means that any updates will have to come from the community, not the Mozilla development team itself.
How does this news affect you? Will you continue to use Thunderbird. Or is it time to find a new email client? Let us know in the comments!