Help Keep Thunderbird Alive

shaky-carrousel

By donating to MZLA Technologies Corporation? Then I guess I'll switch to KMail or Evolution.

plmpsu

I wish I could use Thunderbird at work now that it has Exchange support . Unfortunately we're mandated to use Microsoft Outlook. Outlook feels like it has completely been forgotten by Microsoft. I don't recall the last time they updated anything meaningful in the product (at least on macOS), it's quite a mess of a product. Wishing Thunderbird all the best it's the competition we need.

bravetraveler

Anyone using Thunderbird was forced to see this, not sure we (or the well-funded corp) need another round.

tristanj

Mozilla brings in almost $700 million per year, they have more than enough money to sponsor MZLA/Thunderbird development.

mhitza

Wasn't Thunderbird Pro the avenue for extra project financing? Why does it take so long to launch an email service?

swiftcoder

> MZLA Technologies Corporation is a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation and the home of Thunderbird. I guess I don't understand why the open-source email client with zero revenue potential is managed by a for-profit subsidiary, nor why that for-profit subsidiary is begging for donations. Shouldn't this whole thing be managed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation?

code-blooded

Campaigns like this need more info. This page doesn't answer any basic questions. How much money do you currently get? How much money do you need and how will you use it? Does it even go directly to Thunderbird development or will be used up by Mozilla for other projects? Edit: I found some info here: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/donate/ Still, my point stands that communication around it should be super clear and available on all pages where they collect money. It shouldn't require me to search for it.

Loic

Interestingly, I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux. But as the development stalled, I moved to Gnome Evolution, the nice integration with the general Gnome desktop made the switch less painful (at the start, it was hard, Evolution was not that good). But Evolution improved nicely, less bugs, faster, still well integrated into the desktop and I see no reasons to switch back to another tool. The only change in my workflow is that now, I am also using in parallel a stupid command line tool "vibe coded" in Python to read my emails. It allows me to quickly check my emails out of VS Code in a Claude Code session, a bit like when I was doing my emails directly in Emacs :-)

elAhmo

Mozilla is such a weird company, asking users to donate and keep one of their projects alive, while dumping billions in useless initiatives is really dishonest.

latexr

If you press the browser’s back button on the donation page, they send you to a page pestering you for your email address so they can send you a reminder to donate later. Talk about a dark pattern. Mozilla has really gone off the rails. An organisation who claims to work on behalf of the user and who makes a web browser, actively hijacking the user experience to peddle for a few dollars? Why the heck is Thunderbird “fully funded by financial contributions from [their] users”? Where do the billions of dollars from Google go? All the stupid doomed side projects which no one asked for nor wants and are abandoned after one year?

bulbar

I have actually bought a lifetime license for em Client. Thunderbird had consistently (Windows / Linux) a bad performance for me and feature and UX wise it has always only been okay for me. Still important that a few FOSS solutions for email exist, though.

cutler

I used TB happily for years on Mac OS but its font rendering on Linux was one of the main reasons I never switched.

sergolala

Made an account just to say that I will not support the bloated mess that is Thunderbird that pushes on you a new way to configure it, a new layout and new workflows with every major update, makes it difficult to set up text-only mail and messes up line breaks every so often with no way to properly configure it, which should be developed by Mozilla, which is flush with money but rather spends it on theming their software and executive salaries. I switched away from Thunderbird about a year ago and couldn't be happier I have made the change.

isaachinman

Sorry, isn't Thunderbird meant to be "true FOSS" and essentially feature complete?

nottorp

Is that a Stripe screen? Set up american style to reduce friction, not supporting 3d secure, which means european credit cards will deny by default?

ano-ther

As a lot of people in this thread advise against Thunderbird, what do you recommend instead (preferably for Windows as I am stuck on that)?

nisegami

I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it, aside from search. My use case is mostly receiving email rather than sending email however. I would be much more amenable to donating if I knew that my donation would be going to support Thunderbird specifically and not rolled up into the parent MZLA Technologies Corporation, but I understand that's usually impractical.

rambambram

Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years. I once donated to Wikipedia - and they have billions I heard - so might as well donate to another important piece of software for my digital life. Now that I read the comments I find out Mozilla might have enough money and a CEO taking in millions. Any recommendations for a good email client on Linux? Just as a backup for now...

mrks_hy

I really like Thunderbird, it's the only truly cross-platform mail app, with K9 also now on Android. Works perfect, I even migrated my Windows install to Linux just by copying the data folder, absolutely seamless. Not sure why people are hating on it so much here. Point to an alternative with the same features?

alsetmusic

Donated. I don't even use it, but we needed it for opening email archives from clients at my old employer. We need as many options as possible.