Mozilla could spin Thunderbird off as separate organization
Thunderbird could be ready to leave Mozilla's nest. Sorry. But Mozilla Corporation CEO Mitchell Baker says Mozilla is thinking about setting up a separate organization to oversee Thunderbird, allowing Mozilla to focus primarily on the popular Firefox web browser.Baker says "the Thunderbird effort is dwarfed by the enormous energy and community focused on the web, Firefox, and the ecosystem around it." In other words, while Mozilla's proud of the work they've done on Firefox the corporation is treating Thunderbird like a bastard child and they're getting sick of looking at it. Okay, not so much sick of looking at it as feeling that it could thrive better in another environment.
Mozilla is seeking input from members of the open-source committee on what type of organization they would like to see set up:
- A nonprofit organization like the Mozilla Foundation
- A new Thunderbird organization that would still be part of the Mozilla Foundation and guided by its board
- Thunderbird could be released as a community project with some support from a Mozilla founded company
