Thunderbird that is. According to this post by Mitchell Baker, the Thunderbird product is not getting enough love, and I totally agree. Having thought about the topic a little, I think one of the better solutions is to break Thunderbird off and create the Thunderbird Foundation. Although I don’t have a buisness background, or even a deep connection to the Thunderbird movement, here is my reasoning.
- Thunderbird is a powerful product but the shadow that Firefox and the infamous Outlook cast is dark and long. While many know of Thunderbird’s existence, it is not a mainstream product the way Firefox is. Creating a separate foundation will, in theory, promote much needed hype and help Thunderbird establish itself more as it’s own product and not the bastard child of Firefox.
- In terms of Outlook, Thunderbird has heavy competition. Outlook is one of those applications that works well enough, but it is so widely used, especially in the business world that many users aren’t realizing it’s potential. I believe that if Thunderbird gets moved to it’s own foundation, it could have the opportunity to have more money and people thrown at it, not too many mind you, and become a more professional app.
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