Comments on: MailCo: Am I missing something?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:16:36 +0000

“Personally, I’m excited to see what happens when a group of people excited about mail are given to the opportunity to innovate.”

I’m interested in your excitement, because I don’t see a lot of room for innovation in email itself. My understanding is that the innovation is going to take place by integrating IM and social networking into the email client. Part of this is good - IM is the new email, and smartly integrating my chat logs with my email sounds like it could be wonderful. Alternatively, am I going to have to open something called “communication center”?, because that sounds like a title for bloated software :(

By: Is People

Is People — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:10:45 +0000

Time for fixing what ain’t broke?…

Mozilla has spun off MailCo, presumably creating a surge in of interest in the email market. Google is making use of its acquisition of Postini and Yahoo is buying email service Zimbra Inc.
I can see a possibly useful and interesting merging of instan…

By: kveton

kveton — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:31:49 +0000

I didn’t say “kill” Thunderbird, I said MoCo should abandon it and do as Chris is saying; let the community pick it up and see where it goes from there. Yes, its a product with several million users … you’d be crazy to pull the plug on it.

By: Chris Messina

Chris Messina — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 02:36:54 +0000

Actually, I’m with you but I see Polvi’s point. Whether it really will be a separate company is yet to be seen; of course this is a first from Mozilla so there are more questions than answers.

Arguably, they should gone (and de facto DID) this route with a Firefox, Inc. It helps to focus, as you pointed out, and lets Mozilla Foundation focus on the broader issues of the open web.

Honestly, after Mitchell’s initial call, this doesn’t feel like a satisfactory result. Or, maybe it’s the best possible thing that could have happened, but the way in which it was brought about rubs me the wrong way. We knew Thunderbird was being put out to pasture, but $3M and new CEO seems kind of anti-climactic. I’m with you — I think the community should have had a chance to “rescue” the fallen bird and then solicit Mozilla for support after the fact, grassroots style.

This feels like business acting prudent. But what do I know? ;) I’m only talking about my instinct here.

By: Alex Polvi

Alex Polvi — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:32:52 +0000

“Ditch Thunderbird as a product and MailCo as a company. Its not your “main thing” and will only serve to bifurcate Mozilla’s focus.”

When thinking in the context of Mozilla Corp, this is what is happening. Thunderbird will not be a product of Mozilla Corp, it will be a product of MailCo. Mozilla Corp (an entirely different group of people than MailCo) will continue to focus on Firefox.

There is no reason to straight-up kill Thunderbird. It has a few million users, many of which are entire institutions (providing support could be a monetization strategy, for example), not just a group plain-ole consumers.

And how can you think this move didn’t piss people off!? :)

Personally, I’m excited to see what happens when a group of people excited about mail are given to the opportunity to innovate.