It turns out that the UI of the mail software 'Thunderbird' will be redeveloped from scratch
The development team of the mail software ' Thunderbird ' developed by open source announced that it will recreate the interface from scratch within the next three years. In addition, it is also revealed that we will work on rewriting old code and changing the release cycle.
Why We're Rebuilding The Thunderbird Interface From Scratch
Thunderbird is an open source email software, and in addition to sending and receiving emails, it also has an RSS subscription function, a calendar function, a task management function, etc. The development of Thunderbird is led by Mozilla, known for its web browser `` Firefox '', but in 2020 Mozilla transferred the development and operation business of Thunderbird to its subsidiary `` MZLA Technologies Corporation ''. I was worried about the impact.
Development of Thunderbird is progressing even after the transfer to a subsidiary, and in September 2020, it supports email encryption by OpenPGP . In addition, it has been announced that an update 'Supernova' will be released within 2023 to revamp the appearance of the calendar.
According to the development team, Thunderbird has received opinions such as `` it looks old '' and `` it takes time to install new functions ''. The development team reveals that it is undergoing a major renovation of the appearance and internal system along with the development of the Supernova update. The goals set by the developer team for the next three years are as follows:
Eliminate technical debt by keeping code lean and reliable and rewriting old code
・Rebuild the interface from scratch and create a consistent design system
・Develop and maintain a flexible and customizable user interface
・Update the latest version every month
Thunderbird's development has been going on for about 20 years, and its source code is like a 'stacked block'. For this reason, if changes are made to one part, it is necessary to change other parts, and the maintenance cost is very high. However, since Thunderbird has only 12 core development members, it is still difficult to keep up with Firefox changes and development environment updates.
To remedy the above situation, the development team decided to significantly revamp the code to remove technical debt. The newly developed user interface aims to achieve both 'providing simple and clean operability for new users' and 'high customizability that satisfies even experienced users'. Some of the new interfaces will be introduced in Thunderbird 115, scheduled for release in July 2023.
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in Software, Posted by log1o_hf