: Thunderbirds are Pro: Open-source email client to get message hosting, appointment scheduling, more
  • maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone
    522·
    17 days ago

    Thunderbird is funded by donations and operates under the MZLA banner.

    These articles today are doing a disservice to the Thunderbird team who work independently of Mozilla afaik.

    • lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      16 days ago

      Independently of the Mozilla team, yes.

      However, my understanding is that, if Thunderbird were to become hugely profitable, the Mozilla Foundation would benefit financially, though indirectly.

      The organizational structure:

      • Mozilla Foundation = parent organization
      • MZLA Technologies Corporation (which owns Thunderbird) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation
      • Mozilla Corporation (which produces Firefox) is also a subsidiary of the Foundation

      When Thunderbird moved to MZLA Technologies Corporation in January 2020, this was specifically done to allow Thunderbird to “collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations”.

      As a wholly owned subsidiary, any profits generated by MZLA would ultimately flow back to its parent organization, the Mozilla Foundation.

      In the end, that revenue would probably go to all the smart investments we’ve seen the Mozilla Foundation make over the previous years. 🙄

    • Niquarl@lemmy.ml
      31·
      16 days ago

      As written in the article

      Moz doesn’t contribute financially to Thunderbird’s development, according to Sipes, and whatever revenue the Thunderbird team generates will go straight into furthering its work.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      24·
      17 days ago

      Thunderbird really needs to be a totally separate thing

      Mozilla is the new Google at this point. Google set the bar in hell so everyone else can get away with a lot.

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
    397·
    17 days ago

    Ah yes the move from software developer to service provider. Smells like en(shit)tification.

    Lets hope they do this right unlike everyone else.

  • brisk@aussie.zone
    25·
    17 days ago

    I really hope this doesn’t impact the client too significantly. A substantial part of why I use Thunderbird is to keep out of these “ecosystems”.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1211·
      17 days ago

      I’m sure Mozilla will run a heathy and sustainable project straight into the ground.

      That’s what they do

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      1·
      16 days ago

      I think the purpose is to find a source of revenue so that they don’t have to ruin their product. There’s a lot of potential good here, in addition to the unfortunately undeniable potential bad.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
    212·
    17 days ago

    when they said they would look for a way to monetize firefox i was worried, but this is actually great if they make a good service.

  • network_switch@lemmy.ml
    171·
    17 days ago

    Always felt like this needed to happen for long time now. I guess now better than never. Got to figure out a business model. Reselling Mullvad as Firefox VPN was a start. I feel like everything that Proton does, Firefox should be doing but with a Linux file manager application

  • Rozaŭtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    12·
    16 days ago

    Sounds like good news. I just hope they won’t put some bullshit in the TOS saying they can scan your emails to train their AI.

  • jackalope@lemmy.ml
    111·
    17 days ago

    This is great news!

    People should check out thunderbird appointments if they haven’t.

  • twinnie@feddit.uk
    73·
    17 days ago

    I hope they’re going to keep the late 90s theme from Thunderbird. Maybe a dancing baby gif.