One thing to sit up for: After relaunching the Thunderbird mission in 2020 by establishing the brand new MZLA subsidiary, the Mozilla Basis is busy bettering its electronic mail shopper software program. The group has now unveiled among the most fascinating adjustments anticipated within the coming months.
Final 12 months was a “fantastic” one for Thunderbird, in keeping with Mozilla. Nonetheless, the perfect is but to return. The “Supernova” improve (Thunderbird 115) was essentially the most important milestone of the previous 12 months, introducing a brand new codebase (as soon as once more based mostly on the Firefox mission) to additional modernize one of the crucial common (and open-source) electronic mail purchasers on the market.
Regardless of the controversial reception of Supernova’s rebuilt interface, MZLA builders are diligently working so as to add extra flexibility, reliability, and customizable choices to Thunderbird. The e-mail shopper goals to accommodate completely different wants and workflows, as Mozilla states. The mission’s revitalization is now symbolized by a brand new emblem created by Jon Hicks, the designer of the unique Firefox and Thunderbird logos.
One of many major adjustments Thunderbird builders are at the moment engaged on is assist for Microsoft Change, the favored mail server and calendaring platform designed to run solely on Home windows Server working methods. Mozilla acknowledges that Thunderbird customers are “anticipating” this performance, and a few “exploratory work” has already been completed on that entrance.
The Thunderbird codebase can now make the most of the Rust programming language, seemingly a prerequisite for each bettering the prevailing code structure and introducing Change assist. Native assist for the Change protocol is a “complicated subject,” warns Mozilla, however no less than it’s now formally on this system’s roadmap.
In response to Bugzilla’s relevant bug tracking thread, Mozilla plans to “totally assist” Microsoft Change, together with consumer authentication, electronic mail, calendar, and contacts. Thunderbird goals to supply assist for Change by way of the EWS (Change Internet Companies) protocol, a substitute for the usual Microsoft MAPI protocol.
EWS is a deprecated function that will probably be deserted by Change On-line on October 1, 2026. Nonetheless, builders argue that the protocol stays one of the simplest ways to allow assist for each Change On-line and on-premise customized Change Server installations. Microsoft’s new Graph API for cloud entry has been thought-about and “could also be” revisited sooner or later.
Along with implementing Change assist, the Thunderbird staff is specializing in bettering communication with the group and introducing beforehand introduced options akin to Sync and Account Hub. Advertising and marketing efforts may also be elevated, that includes new tutorials, video guides, and different productivity-focused content material.
