OK, I guess it’s time for me to break my silence and offer my
humble opinion on what’s going on:
Firstly, I looked over Mitchell’s
(over 100 comments!), Scott’s,
Asa’s
and even the usual
mozillaZine forums. I’m not in a position to say how Mozilla
operates as I don’t fully understand their structure, and that’s not
the main aim here.
Basically from what I gather is that Thunderbird requires a new focus,
whether within Mozilla, or outside of it. And Scott and David are still
going to be full-time lead developers of Thunderbird “tomorrow,
the day after, and into the
foreseeable future“, as Asa goes. So, be rest assured,
Thunderbird is not going to be abandoned any time soon.
My personal opinion is that I don’t really care about the
organisational structure of Thunderbird, I just want to see development
progress. There’s no point in having an optimum organisation but yet
nothing gets done. Yes, the way the developers communicate with each
other, discuss the priorities, or even criticise each other’s work is
important, and that’s true for every office or workplace out there in
the world today. However, ultimately what end-users care about is the
final product, no matter whether they are home users or corporations.
If something has to be done about the structure, please go
ahead and do so, and do so quickly before development is slowed in one
way or another. Eventually, it should not have a negative impact on the
development of Thunderbird. We should not be in a position where
progress is stalled for a long extended period of time because some
restructuring is halting everything up.
There are many users who acknowledge the
hard work that the full-time developers, Scott and David, put
in, as well as many volunteers around the world. I personally have
exchanged correspondence with Scott, both regarding The Rumbling Edge
as well as Thunderbird matters, and I can say that he (as well as
David) is definitely one devoted to the Thunderbird cause.
Yes, Thunderbird’s impact on the web today is considerably
less than Firefox, but we should not let that affect us. No matter
whether it remains under the main Mozilla umbrella or not, I’m sure
there will be people willing to pick up the slack. I personally would
like to do so, but besides my changelogs, weekly posts and the
occasional bug report, I have been technically unable to provide
anything else until I complete the computing course that I will be
starting soon (and ending four years later). Honestly, I have learnt
many things by starting early, from writing documentation for software
to using Bugzilla to query database. It will be an interesting
educational experience for all aspiring computer programmers (or
engineers or whatsoever).
I am confident that the Thunderbird community will step up and
prove its worth in these difficult times. It is true that it will be no
match for the might of the “Firefox empire”, but being small doesn’t
mean that nothing will get done. If there’s something within my
capability to help Thunderbird through, I’ll definitely “throw my hat
in the ring”. This community has taught me enough for me to contribute
back to itself. And just like the many volunteers who don’t want to see
Thunderbird die, I will do my very best to see it through.
Gary Kwong