Mozilla severs most ties with Thunderbird e-mail client

The Register reports Mozilla has made its final decision about the future of its Thunderbird e-mail client. The product shares a unified code base with Mozilla's Firefox browser but this gig is coming to an end as Mozilla is cutting most ties with the Thunderbird project. The e-mail client will remain under Mozilla's roof and will get legal and fiscal support, but the Thunderbird Council will have to manage its own operations, infrastructure, developers, and community relations. This also means that from now on, the source code of Firefox and Thunderbird will diverge.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Mozilla's Philipp Kewisch said: “The Mozilla Foundation has agreed to serve as the legal and fiscal home for the Thunderbird project, but Thunderbird will migrate off Mozilla Corporation infrastructure, separating the operational aspects of the project.”

Kewisch added:

From an operational perspective, Thunderbird needs to act independently. The council will be managing all operations and infrastructure required to serve over 25 million users and the community surrounding it. This will require a certain amount of working capital and the ability to make strong decisions. The Mozilla Foundation will work with the Thunderbird Council to ensure that operational decisions can be made without substantial barriers.

The Thunderbird Council says the application will remain Gecko-based at least in the midterm, but the long-term plan is to modernize the e-mail client and to migrate the code to web technologies. Details about future funding weren't really disclosed but the Thunderbird Council says they welcome donations of any size from both individuals and organizations.