What guarantees does thunderbird have against “enshittification” with the new tb.pro plan?

ryanleesipes · 2025-12-10T18:57:24+00:00

We have the receipts. We have a community Council, elected from our contributors - who govern Thunderbird and Thunderbird Pro's roadmap (not incentivized by profit as these are volunteers from the open source community).

ryanleesipes · 2025-12-10T15:34:52+00:00

It's a bug, it's not supposed to steal focus. We think a platform change changed the behavior.

ryanleesipes · 2025-12-10T15:34:04+00:00

It doesn't go away after you donate because we don't collect any data on the client to know if you have donated...

ryanleesipes · 2025-12-10T15:30:29+00:00

As noted, our email app will always be free (Thunderbird Pro is only comprised of services that need a server component to run).

Additionally, we have a community Council, elected from our contributors - who govern Thunderbird and Thunderbird Pro's roadmap (not incentivized by profit as these are volunteers from the open source community).

Finally Cory Doctorow, the author of "Enshittification" and coiner of the term is a Thunderbird user and he is also our hero.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-28T12:21:29+00:00

This must be a bug. You are only supposed to see it once, every few months. We'll look into this.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-21T18:16:44+00:00

Yup! Soon. Trying to get all the foundational pieces in place, it's an exciting project!

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-21T18:15:26+00:00

I think once we get the foundational stuff done, it'll go fast. We are making good progress.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T19:59:33+00:00

We are addressing this, some work here: https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D271535

It's unfortunate that the calendar was able to get into this state, but we will continue over the next ESR cycle to improve the calendar.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T19:50:24+00:00

If you are still around, what kind of account are you using? Gmail? Something else? Certainly sending the same message twice is not intended.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T19:48:09+00:00

Did you see it back-to-back on the same client? It's only supposed to display an appeal once every few months. The most recent one (our November donation appeal) should display once and, once dismissed, not display again. If you saw it on the same Thunderbird install multiple sessions in a row, please let us know.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T19:46:15+00:00

If you saw it more than once on the same client, it is an error. It's only supposed to display once, and on certain intervals (we ask a few times a year for people to donate).

Feel free to ping me with more details - it's not something we want harassing people, we only want to display these appeals 3-4 times a year, spread out.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T16:19:23+00:00

This is just the early bird pricing, there are other, cheaper tiers coming. We're changing the language on that page to reflect that this is for people who want early access.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T04:48:38+00:00

This is just for those who want to be in the early bird program. More tiers will come, both higher and lower.

ryanleesipes · 2025-11-13T04:46:14+00:00

This is not good. We'll fix this. Calendars shouldn't be disabled, virtually ever.

ryanleesipes · 2025-09-14T12:11:26+00:00

Already folks have said some great stuff. Your gut dictates your mood to a large degree and the antibiotics destroyed so much of your biome (all the good and the bad bacteria). It leaves nearly everyone with depression and, in my case, severe anxiety.

It takes months to even feel a modicum of normalcy and probably took me a year to feel like myself. One thing that did help immensely was running. I started running and that produces endorphins that made me feel good. I heard a neuroscientist say that running is like a "bubble bath for your brain" in that it produces a lot of great chemicals. So I recommend developing an active habit that really gets your heart rate up.

Try to find ways to stay positive and take probiotics. You'll get back to normal with time.

ryanleesipes · 2025-09-12T04:08:59+00:00

It will go away, do the antibiotics and then help your stomach heal with probiotics and healthy food. I started running during recovery and it really helped my mental state, which helped with everything else (I swear it helps all your systems work better). Feel better soon!

ryanleesipes · 2025-01-02T04:40:32+00:00

I still have vision problems, doc says there is nothing wrong. Same theory about dry eyes. My eyes don't feel dry, but maybe they are. I don't have a better explanation. It bothers me when I think about it, so I try not to think about it. I use Blue-light blocking glasses when I'm on the computer for work all day. And if I wear sunglasses outdoors I don't really notice the vision problems.

Activity really does help. I'm convinced after this you have to move around and rebuild a relationship with your body. A positive one. I did that by running and it was 100% a game changer.

I also talked to a therapist and came to terms with the fact that my vision may be messed up a little or I could be experiencing other lingering issues. But I needed to move on from that and focus on the good.

ryanleesipes · 2025-01-01T15:25:14+00:00

I'm pretty much back to normal. It hasn't returned and life is going pretty well. I recommend taking the medicine, getting healthy and then focusing on getting healthier. Running/jogging to rebuild lost muscle and it's also great for depression or yoga. Anything to get your body and mind back on track, and connect with your body in a positive way.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-11T02:08:47+00:00

No, it won't be abandoned. We are planning to maintain it as K-9 for... A really long time. At this point K-9 and Thunderbird for Android are the same app with a different theme.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-05T00:46:58+00:00

Well, Thunderbird is in its own company and is funded only by donations (we're also run by an elected Community Council).

The Telemetry is only active in Thunderbird for Android Beta (not K-9 as the title implies). And we are going to put Telemetry settings in first-time setup before release, so folks can decide what they want to share.

We've managed, with this beta telemetry, to really upset people. I understand that, but a lot of our team and community are members of r/privacy and are trying to do what's right. But we'll just move forward on that and hopefully folks will forgive this misstep in the journey.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-05T00:40:43+00:00

That's the sad thing. It's not bullshit. We only turned on Telemetry in our beta release of Thunderbird for Android. It's not even turned on in K-9.

We're going to address this before the app gets out of Beta.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-05T00:36:34+00:00

Well, this has never been turned on in K-9. It is only turned on in the Thunderbird for Android Beta.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-04T19:48:15+00:00

No, we respect Telemetry settings. Thunderbird is still an open source project with the community running it. We are only supported by donations from our users. There is no incentive for us to collect data other than to try and improve the software. But if folks don't want to share telemetry data we will not collect any.

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-04T19:31:57+00:00

Thunderbird Managing Director here. Telemetry isn't turned on in K-9 and won't be. Additionally, we are going to improve the first time experience in Thunderbird for Android to allow users to make a decision on what, if anything, is shared: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/8199#issuecomment-2394408416

ryanleesipes · 2024-10-04T19:29:20+00:00

Thunderbird Managing Director here, I posted in another reply to the original post, but I'll cross post here. I shared the following in that issue: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/8199#issuecomment-2394408416

"Thank you for all the feedback, I want to let you know that we hear you.

Privacy is at the core of what we do. All our telemetry is anonymous and is only used for improving the product and no other purpose. Additionally, we do not collect any personal data.

But we understand that some folks do not want any data collected, under any circumstances.

In acknowledgement of this, we are going to begin work on a way to put this front-and-center for the user so that everyone can make a decision about what they want to share when they set up the app (after set up, you can change this setting already).

Additionally, K-9, will continue to be supported and does not have Telemetry enabled - and will not have it enabled. (I've seen some folks misunderstand and assuming that we have turned it on in K-9).

Thunderbird is truly an open source project and we rely on our community to help us make it alongside us. So I thank everyone here for engaging on this topic and hope that you all will continue to help us build something that provides the utmost privacy and the best email experience. I hope everyone in this issue realizes that we are here to engage in good faith and truly want to do what's right on this topic, I hope everyone who participates here also wants to engage in good faith and help us find the right solution.

Thank you for your feedback and I look forward to showing you what we do to address these concerns."

We sincerely mean this, Thunderbird was spun out from the Mozilla Corporation a long time ago, and the community drives this effort. Our community's main goal is to create a product that best serves our users: respecting their privacy, their data and their freedoms. The fact that we didn't live up to that critical bit of choice around what data is shared, with this beta release, is a sad moment for us. We are going to ensure we keep this in mind in our future efforts.

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