[Request] [Jolla Tablet] Please port Thunderbird

asked 2014-11-28 20:54:09 +0200

mariner
1727 ●27 ●45 ●46

updated 2014-11-28 22:45:59 +0200

pulsar
755 ●32 ●53 ●59

As many user seem unhappy with Sailfish email, to match the requests for native Firefox I would like to add a request for native Thunderbird.

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1

That'd be very useful. However I am not sure that the TB UI is easy to scale down to such small screens.

juiceme ( 2014-11-28 21:06:34 +0200 )edit

1

You may be correct about the small screen of a phone, but I was thinking of the tablet.

mariner ( 2014-11-28 22:04:20 +0200 )edit

Ah, yes of course. Good point.

For the tablet that would be ideal indeed.

juiceme ( 2014-11-28 23:03:30 +0200 )edit

15

answered 2014-11-28 21:49:35 +0200

tadzik
3260 ●37 ●58 ●52

Thunderbird's UI would be fantastically unusable on a device such as Jolla, so that makes little sense imho.

Writing your own UI on top of thunderbird's backend (even if there's a clear separation) would take so much effort that you may as well write the entire email client yourself.

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6

answered 2015-01-15 13:58:31 +0200

bijjal
26541 ●112 ●133 ●101

moderator

Sorry, we are not considering doing this. As midnightoil very well explains, this is a huge project and requires a lot of effort to port it to SailfishOS. Instead, we will continue to improve our Mail app.

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5

answered 2014-11-28 22:28:32 +0200

midnightoil

3612 ●39 ●49 ●54

updated 2014-11-28 22:29:07 +0200

If the community really wants Thunderbird and Firefox ported, then it should band together and put together a bounty for developers on Indiegogo. This is a BIG project and expecting developers to complete it without incurring significant costs is unrealistic.

However, even if this was done, given the size of the current community / number of developers, I still don't think it's do-able. Far better would be to cooperate with developers active with Ubuntu Touch, since I'm certain that some of the Ubuntu community will be looking to port both. As a cooperative effort it would be much more feasible.

With regard to browsers, Opera are still listed as a founding member of the Sailfish Foundation ... but I assume they checked out long ago and cancelled any plans for porting their browser.

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I don't think there is so much synergy with Ubuntu Touch here; Sailfish uses QT and UT uses its own toolkit.

juiceme ( 2014-11-28 23:07:21 +0200 )edit

1

@juiceme - Ubuntu touch also uses Qt/Qml, just has a different set of UI components. (Btw QT stands for QuickTime :P)

VDVsx ( 2014-12-01 18:15:12 +0200 )edit

1

Yes, about Opera... I had hoped that they would port their excellent mobile browser and that it would be offered as standard browser. It would have saved Jolla a lot of time, Opera would benefit from being the standard provided browser, and the Sailfish project would be stronger for having visibly active members.

bilgy_no1 ( 2014-12-15 09:07:19 +0200 )edit

3

answered 2014-11-28 21:12:16 +0200

shmerl
9435 ●44 ●70 ●69

Mozilla now stopped actively developing it, so it's kind of not moving forward much. Missing support for CardDAV at this stage indicates the condition of the project. So I don't think Jolla should do it.

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1

Very good point. Additionally, Mozilla did pony up a mobile/touch UI for Firefox for both Android and (since recently) iOS. They did not do the same for Thunderbird providing a very clear statement just how much they do not support Thunderbird anymore...

sidv ( 2015-01-15 14:38:13 +0200 )edit

2

answered 2014-11-28 22:42:18 +0200

mariner
1727 ●27 ●45 ●46

I can understand the effort that may be required, I am just worried that we just seem to be losing functionality all the time. I don't know what the answer is because it sounds like it would be too much effort to upgrade all the existing Sailfish apps. I was hoping that being open source meant sharing development across platforms like Firefox OS, Ubuntu, etc but perhaps I can now see why Samsung have given up with Tizen. Maybe Google is the only one that can afford the development costs.

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When google started other than openmoko there was no competition from the "free " side , now we have android apps which sadly/luckily run here stopping the native development. Then you can add all the "free" people divided between Firefoxos,ubuntu,tizen etc. I would like Jolla to organise sailfish developer events , more developing videos etc and also increase presence at tech events like FOSDEM ,linuxtag etc.

pavi ( 2014-12-21 19:32:51 +0200 )edit

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answered 2014-11-28 22:01:34 +0200

mariner
1727 ●27 ●45 ●46

Even if Mozilla consider Thunderbird is ending its development cycle there is no comparable open source software able to replace it so it should be considered. I am worried that Sailfish is spending a lot of effort to provide half working simplified core apps when the standard open source equivalents provide much better functionality and the development effort could have been spent on porting. eg. Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, ete etc. The whole affair makes me lose confidence in open source and think its easier to stick to Microsoft?

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2

The thing here is the QT UI. You just cannot take an Xorg application and stick it to SailfishOS, you need to create the UI on QT and modify the backend inteface to work with it.

juiceme ( 2014-11-28 23:09:15 +0200 )edit

0

answered 2014-12-14 23:15:32 +0200

pisco
363 ●6 ●11 ●14

I know K-9 Mail from an Android tablet and a phone. And I like it better than Thunderbird on my desktop. Is K-9 Mail (as Android app) not fully working on a Jolla device? Would it be easier to port to SailfishOS than Thunderbird would be?

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im using K-9 (in alien dalvik). the only problem i've encountered so far is that the new mail notification doesn't open the new mail when you tap it. but i'm only using k9 as a workaround until IMAP push works with the native mail app so thats ok

weberik ( 2015-01-15 17:20:51 +0200 )edit

0

answered 2015-01-16 13:06:27 +0200

timorlee
46 ●1 ●6 ●5

Similiar request: Port kmail. It's Qt, so port should be easier, and imo it's a better Client :) Plus it's still under active development.

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[Request] [Jolla Tablet] Please port Thunderbird

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