Discussion
Help Keep Thunderbird Alive
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.
shaky-carrousel: By donating to MZLA Technologies Corporation? Then I guess I'll switch to KMail or Evolution.
tristanj: Mozilla brings in almost $700 million per year, they have more than enough money to sponsor MZLA/Thunderbird development.
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 are abandoned after one year?
josephg: There's also two different applications which are both "Outlook for Mac".If you go into the "Outlook" menu in the app, there's a "Legacy Outlook" button, which relaunches outlook using a completely different binary. The two outlook implementations have different bugs and all sorts of different behaviour.Outlook For Mac is free but "legacy outlook" requires a MS365 subscription for some reason.Outlook is also not to be confused with Microsoft's "Web Outlook" client, available at outlook.live.com. It all seems totally insane.
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.
0x000042: How is KMail and Evolution at this point? I have not tried them in like 10 years. Are they actively maintained and a real alternative for serious email use?
teekert: Both are ok last time I tried (last year?) but Geary is default on Gnome distro's now I think [0]. Geary is much more minimal though.I myself am pretty spoiled by Protonmail I think, really enjoying that.[0] https://github.com/GNOME/geary
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 :-)
teekert: You know what is nice? If you have clients that get automatically switched to "the new Outlook" and loose all imap connections (and they don't work anymore, period).Took me so long to learn that the fix was to switch back to the old Outlook.
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?
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?
mhitza: Wasn't Thunderbird Pro the avenue for extra project financing? Why does it take so long to launch an email service?
teekert: Was going to say it's here, but it's not indeed, you can join the waitlist: https://www.tb.pro/en-US/
cutler: < It all seems totally insane.This is Microsoft we're talking about, right?
isaachinman: Sorry, isn't Thunderbird meant to be "true FOSS" and essentially feature complete?
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.
input_sh: I don't see them begging anywhere, I only see someone sharing a link to their donate page.For what it's worth because legal names are confusingly similar, this is a legal subsidiary of Mozilla that is specific to Thunderbird, as in if you give it money it goes straight into Thunderbird. Many people here pretend to wish to be able to give money directly to Firefox, yet when they can do that for Thunderbird, people here are still finding bullshit reasons not to do so. Pick a lane.
swiftcoder: > For what it's worth because legal names are confusingly similar, this is a legal subsidiary of Mozilla that is specific to ThunderbirdRight, I get that, but why is it for-profit? Fund raising is hard enough for nonprofits, convincing people to donate their hard-earned cash to a for-profit is on a whole different level.
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?
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...
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.
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.
OccamsMirror: em Client has no Linux version though?
reddalo: Not having a Linux version in 2026 is ridiculous.
reddalo: Mozilla is so sad. They have a lot of money and they could fund the development of both Firefox and Thunderbird.Yet, they decide to waste almost $7 million per year to pay a CEO and God knows what else.
isodev: I wouldn't mind donating if they separate it from Mozilla and move it to Europe.
eu: when i used windows i was happy with The Bat email client: https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/download.php
