The Mozilla team has come to the conclusion that, at this point, “continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority.” Mitchell Baker, chair of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, writes: “We have seen the rising popularity of Web-based forms of communications representing email alternatives to a desktop solution… Thunderbird provides an open-source, cross-platform email alternative for those of us who still use stand-alone email clients.”
It was a good run for the nearly 8-year-old Thunderbird, with the current version Thunderbird 7.0.1, based on Thunderbird 7 released in September last year. But this clearly marks the passing of an era as we see less emphasis on fat client software and the dawn of the new era — a world of mobile and web apps.
We are well in our 12th year of creating a pure web client for mail and collaboration – and provide flexibility if users want to stay with their favorite email client; including Thunderbird, Outlook or the Mac applications. For Thunderbird die-hards that want to stay with their favorite email front-end, the CardDAV and CalDAV services of OX will enable those users to connect with the Open-Xchange server.
Like the Mozilla team, we’re 100% in the camp that believes web apps will rule in the not-so-distant future, and we have already seen the flipping-point – but we also want to make sure that those who want to use their desktop clients, still have that option.