Finding a new home for Thunderbird

Hi everyone,

Last December, we had a conversation[0] in this forum about the future
of Thunderbird, initiated by Mitchell. At the time, we said that we
would move to separate Thunderbird from Firefox’s release engineering
infrastructure. Since then, we have been reviewing the options for a
clear path forward for Thunderbird with a view to ensure its long-term
stability while providing it with the right independence. We have looked
both at the technical dimension and the organizational aspects, and this
message gives an update on where we are.

On the technical side, it has become clear over the past few years that
Thunderbird and Firefox have diverging needs and that the fact that they
share a common release engineering infrastructure puts a strain on both
Thunderbird and Firefox’s developments. We came to the conclusion that
we needed to disentangle them.

We’ve started the process of helping the Thunderbird Council chart a
course forward for Thunderbird’s future technical direction, by posting
a job specification[1] for a technical architect. In the next weeks, we
will assign the chosen person the mission to assess the situation
holistically, provide advice to the Thunderbird leadership on how best
to proceed and draft a plan to help separate the technology underpinning
Thunderbird from the one supporting Firefox.

This means that Thunderbird will need an organization to support these
new experiments. It will also need the legal ability to raise money to
finance itself. Mozilla has put in place the ability for Thunderbird to
take donations in the short term. But we need to decide where the best
home is for the long term.

Therefore, we are today publishing a report[2] authored by open source
leader Simon Phipps that explores options for a future organizational
home for Thunderbird. This can be discussed either here or on the
tb-planning mailing list. This is the start of a conversation, not the
end, and we hope the Thunderbird community will have a productive
discussion about the best path.

We hope that, by mid-2016, the outcome of this process will be a clear
path forward for Thunderbird, both on a technical and on an
organizational level, towards a solution that ensures long-term stability.

Mark Surman has also posted a blog post[3] with more about the origins
of the transition process and the steps towards Thunderbird
independence. I am assisting the Thunderbird project through this
process and am also happy to answer questions.

Gerv

[0]
https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21msg/mozilla.governanc...
[1] https://careers.mozilla.org/position/ohUW2fwT
[2]
https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/files/2016/04/Findin...
[3]
https://marksurman.commons.ca/2016/04/25/firefox-and-thun...
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