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Mozilla Ponders Separate Organization for Thunderbird
Yahoo ^ | 200-07-26 | John Blau, IDG News Service

Posted on 07/27/2007 8:06:32 AM PDT by N3WBI3

The Mozilla Foundation is thinking about creating a separate organization to take control of its Thunderbird e-mail application, allowing it to concentrate on development of the Firefox Web browser.

In a blog posting Wednesday, Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla Corp., a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, called for a new structure to allow "the Thunderbird community to determine its own destiny" and asked the open-source community for input.

Baker said Mozilla's Thunderbird effort "is dwarfed" by the energy it spends on the Firebox browser and the ecosystem around it.

"Mozilla doesn't focus on Thunderbird as much as we do... on Firefox and we don't expect this to change in the foreseeable future," she wrote. A separate organization focused on the maintenance and further development of the e-mail client, she added, would be able to move independently and thus deepen the user community.

There is more than organizational structure at stake, however. As Web-based e-mail services such as Google Inc.'s Gmail, accessible from anywhere through a browser, gain in sophistication and numbers of users, stand-alone applications such as Thunderbird that tie access to an e-mail account to a single computer must offer more to compete. In her blog, Baker alluded to the need to create and implement "a new vision of mail."

The Mozilla executive offered three options for a new Thunderbird structure. One could be a new nonprofit organization similar to the Mozilla Foundation. While providing the maximum amount of independence this model is also the most organizationally complex, requiring good board members to be found and recreating the administrative load.

A second option is to create a new Mozilla Foundation subsidiary to house Thunderbird. In this model, the foundation's board and personnel would remain involved in the management of the product but, as a result, the Thunderbird effort could still suffer from less focus and flexibility.

A third option is to release Thunderbird as a community project, like the SeaMonkey suite of Internet applications, with a small services company set up to support users. "Many open-source projects use this model," Baker wrote. "It could be simpler and more effective than a Mozilla Foundation subsidiary."

But Baker warned that establishing a services company as a nonprofit entity "would be extremely difficult," unlike a taxable company, which would be "the simplest operational answer."

In a separate blog posting, Scott MacGregor, a codeveloper of Thunderbird, wrote that he and fellow cofounder David Bienvenu support the third option-- to release Thunderbird as a community project and create an independent production company.


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: mozilla; opensource; thunderbird
Trying to give ThunderBird a kick in the pants, Its a really bad sign from the app that it has not been able to ride the coat tails of FireFox..
1 posted on 07/27/2007 8:06:34 AM PDT by N3WBI3
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To: N3WBI3; ShadowAce; Tribune7; frogjerk; Salo; LTCJ; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; amigatec; Fractal Trader; ..

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2 posted on 07/27/2007 8:07:28 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak....)
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To: N3WBI3; All
Baker said Mozilla's Thunderbird effort "is dwarfed" by the energy it spends on the Firebox browser and the ecosystem around it.

They might generate a little more interest and support if they would avoid using stupidly inappropriate terminology such as "the ecosystem around it"...

3 posted on 07/27/2007 8:23:11 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: tarheelswamprat

That’s their sacred “community” they’re talking about. Their motto is “give to the code and the code will give to you”.

http://www.mozilla.org/banners


4 posted on 07/27/2007 8:27:59 AM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: tarheelswamprat

Meh, I have seen experienced MCSE’s use that term when talking about a Microsoft environment its pretty common usage in many fields..

I think if they really wanted to generate interest they would have an extension contest for Thunderbird right now its pathetically light on extensions which are one of the things that have helped propel Firefox to it present position as the #2 browser in the world.


5 posted on 07/27/2007 9:11:35 AM PDT by N3WBI3 (Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak....)
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To: N3WBI3
I think if they really wanted to generate interest they would have an extension contest for Thunderbird right now its pathetically light on extensions which are one of the things that have helped propel Firefox to it present position as the #2 browser in the world.

Indeed. The only extension for Thunderbird I use is the calendar.

I would not like to see Thunderbird separated from Mozilla. I'd like to see cleaner integration between them. 

6 posted on 07/27/2007 10:18:37 AM PDT by zeugma (If I eat right, don't smoke and exercise, I might live long enough to see the last Baby Boomer die.)
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To: N3WBI3
Meh, I have seen experienced MCSE’s use that term when talking about a Microsoft environment its pretty common usage in many fields..

I don't doubt that, but it's still pretty sloppy language and a poor analogy. There are far better words which would more accurately convey the concepts they're trying to explain. /grin

7 posted on 07/27/2007 2:19:26 PM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: tarheelswamprat
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/whyupgrade/top10w2k.mspx Do a find on ecosystem "Optimize branch office infrastructure Windows Server 2003 R2 provides the underlying technologies needed to simplify integration of branch office servers into a larger enterprise IT ecosystem and still provide reliable and consistent access to data for your users. Performance, availability, and productivity—benefits usually associated with a local branch office server—are strengthened, and environmental challenges—such as connectivity limitations and management overhead—are mitigated with the R2 release. "
8 posted on 07/27/2007 3:41:50 PM PDT by N3WBI3 (Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak....)
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To: N3WBI3
I appreciate your taking the time to provide the cite. As I said, I did not doubt your statement the the usage of the term "ecosystem" was commonplace in the IT community - I merely pointed out that the term is inappropriate and silly.

The term "ecosystem" carries an inescapable connotation of interaction between natural biological and geophysical components. IT deals with artificially constructed or manufactured components . Thus, the reference to "a larger enterprise IT ecosystem" would be more accurately and correctly stated as "a larger enterprise IT infrastructure". But then, that wouldn't give them the same emotional satisfaction as ecosystem seems to provide... /grin

9 posted on 07/27/2007 4:27:53 PM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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To: N3WBI3

Firefox is awesome, but Thunderbird does not even come close to Outlook.


10 posted on 07/27/2007 4:30:07 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: N3WBI3

There are good and bad aspects about this. Less involvement with the Mozilla people will likely mean less integration with Firefox too. I don’t view that as a good thing.


11 posted on 07/27/2007 7:18:04 PM PDT by DesScorp
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