In a recent blog entry, Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker stated that something needed to be done about Thunderbird, the Mozilla e-mail application.

That is something we don’t need Homer Simpson to weigh in on [Doh!], as it has been apparent for awhile that Thunderbird is languishing, while the most concerted effort goes into Firefox. The transition from revision 1.5.07 to 2.0.0 was a rocky one, where so many problems were seen that many stopped using it.

In the entry, Baker asserts that it is unclear whether Thunderbird should be spun off into a separate entity, or merely made a subsidiary of Mozilla. To this question, I think the majority would answer, ‘Who cares?’. The internal struggles of the Mozilla Foundation are not something most would even ponder momentarily.

What matters is the code.

The code is lagging behind, having been released with so many bugs that many have stopped using it. Adding features was nice, but the features should actually work, or the project should be called a continuous beta effort.

I believe a more modular approach would help, with e-mail features taking precedence, and other things, like RSS feeds, left out of the primary download. When the features are solid, the company could release a memo, to the community, to that effect.

Not mentioned, whatsoever, was that earlier this year, when Eudora stopped being a paid application, the public was told that the functionality of Eudora would be folded into Thunderbird. The mention of source code release was there, so it’s not as if the coders at Mozilla need to contact Harry Potter. The project was given the name Penelope, and that is where it seems to have stopped.

Perhaps the Thunderbird mail application should become a project for the community. At least that way the progress would not be in doubt. FreeBSD works in this manner, managing to turn out great code, and keeping to a decent release schedule.

If the project moves in this direction, it should be renamed Stravinsky, as Firebird and Phoenix are already taken, but it will indeed be rising out of ashes.

[tags] Mozilla Foundation, Mitchell Baker, Firefox, Thunderbird, Penelope, Eudora, FreeBSD, Harry Potter, Homer Simpson [/tags]