Is thunderbird still part of mozilla or is it independent, and if latter why?
I got an email asking for $ donation as Mozilla no longer supports Thunderbird. And Thunderbird has been acting odd very odd (two screens show up, the data columns (from, date, size, etc) disappear and have to be reset when log on & a few other glitches.. Is Thunderbird now independent, and if so why? I'm wondering if it is still safe and on the up and up.
Chosen solution
Thunderbird has been independent since 2012. See https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/07/06/thunderbird-stability-and-community-innovation/ Many people have not realized this, but for Thunderbird to grow and adapt to a changing environment having some sort of income stream is important. There is a limit to what the volunteers can do. Hence significant fund raising efforts.
The web site perhaps answers the current arrangement best. https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/about/
One of the issues we face is that people in general do not differentiate between Mozilla co the commercial entity that produces Firefox and the Mozilla foundation that owns it. Thunderbird's arrangements are with the foundation, not the company.
It is perhaps best demonstrated in this forum. Support for both Firefox and Thunderbird are offered here, but the web site as a .org is part of the Foundation not the company. Thunderbird is as legit as ever, just the management changed over the past 8 years a number of times as different bits of the separation occurred. There are details of the core contributors here https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Core_Team. Some are paid, others like myself give their time. But money is needed. Thunderbird is n a time of significant software turmoil as the changes Mozilla Co have made and are making to the core Thunderbird and Firefox share means that significant work is required on the Thunderbird side of things just to keep the thing running. That is expected to settle, and in some regards this has started. The next Thunderbird release will have quite a number of new features, including a much improved addon interface for addons to use.
Now to your flaky issues. not deal breakers, but a pain.
Open the help menu and select troubleshooting information. Click on the show button against the profile entry. Close Thunderbird. (this is very important.) Delete the file Session.json. Restart Thunderbird.
That file stores setting like the display of the reading pane, tabs from previous sessions and folder headings. When you restart a new one will be created populated with default values, so restarting in itself will not fix everything, but a second restart should see your settings saved.
I am assuming the file has become corrupt in some way the issues you are describing start to appear.
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Chosen Solution
Thunderbird has been independent since 2012. See https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/07/06/thunderbird-stability-and-community-innovation/ Many people have not realized this, but for Thunderbird to grow and adapt to a changing environment having some sort of income stream is important. There is a limit to what the volunteers can do. Hence significant fund raising efforts.
The web site perhaps answers the current arrangement best. https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/about/
One of the issues we face is that people in general do not differentiate between Mozilla co the commercial entity that produces Firefox and the Mozilla foundation that owns it. Thunderbird's arrangements are with the foundation, not the company.
It is perhaps best demonstrated in this forum. Support for both Firefox and Thunderbird are offered here, but the web site as a .org is part of the Foundation not the company. Thunderbird is as legit as ever, just the management changed over the past 8 years a number of times as different bits of the separation occurred. There are details of the core contributors here https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Core_Team. Some are paid, others like myself give their time. But money is needed. Thunderbird is n a time of significant software turmoil as the changes Mozilla Co have made and are making to the core Thunderbird and Firefox share means that significant work is required on the Thunderbird side of things just to keep the thing running. That is expected to settle, and in some regards this has started. The next Thunderbird release will have quite a number of new features, including a much improved addon interface for addons to use.
Now to your flaky issues. not deal breakers, but a pain.
Open the help menu and select troubleshooting information. Click on the show button against the profile entry. Close Thunderbird. (this is very important.) Delete the file Session.json. Restart Thunderbird.
That file stores setting like the display of the reading pane, tabs from previous sessions and folder headings. When you restart a new one will be created populated with default values, so restarting in itself will not fix everything, but a second restart should see your settings saved.
I am assuming the file has become corrupt in some way the issues you are describing start to appear.
Dear Matt:
Thank you so much for devoting time to the endeavors that are the Mozilla Foundation and Thunderbird email platform. I made a small donation to Thunderbird tonight- I wish it could be more, but my income is low. I admire people like you who volunteer time and energy to positive causes, especially knowing that people with advanced technical computer knowledge could choose to be in hot pursuit of the biggest bucks possible, rather than helping to build a freer and more open community.
Respect.
B