Thunderbird will be default in Oneiric (11.10), maybe

A very healthy and civilised session about switching to Thunderbird by default just ended here in the Ubuntu Developer Summit, and the outcome was that if the Thunderbird developers manage to do some needed work (to be defined) by a certain time in our cycle (to be defined), we will ship Oneiric and more importantly, the 12.04 LTS with Thunderbird by default.

The bits I can remember that need to be done are:
– Evolution data server integration
– Tighter integration with Unity
– Shrink the size of the overall application so it fits in the CD
– A good upgrade story
– Migration plan for Evolution users

We will also make sure it ships with integration with contacts in Ubuntu One, thanks to James Tait’s head start with the Hedera project.

I’m a big fan of Thunderbird, so I’ll be doing my best to help them achieve their goals 🙂

Martin Albisetti

May 12, 2011

Ubuntu, Ubuntu One

17 responses to “Thunderbird will be default in Oneiric (11.10), maybe”

Randall

May 12, 2011 at 7:36 am

This is awesome news! Thunderbird is truly an amazing project from an amazing group of people 🙂

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mw88

May 12, 2011 at 9:31 am

Sounds great but does Evolution data server integration mean that lightning will be included with thunderbird by default?

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1. beuno
  
  May 12, 2011 at 9:31 am
  
  My understanding is that yes, it will be included by default and talking to EDS.
  
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Michael

May 12, 2011 at 10:33 am

Well, *that* is some great news. Hopefully this will play out. I never could get used to Evolution and it’s quirky IMAP handling…

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Martin

May 12, 2011 at 11:49 am

As someone who is often on the move with work, with an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop which must be kept in sync, I have come to rely on Evolution’s ability to work with Google Calendars and Contacts – I literally could not work with the same efficiency without this. Due to poor support for these in Thunderbird (at least last time I checked, circa 10.04 release) I have *had* to use Evolution. Much as I want to use Thunderbird, it’ll be a non-starter if it doesn’t play nicely with these Google toys I’m afraid… Is there any way to press/coerce/bribe for what is included in the “(to be defined)” list? :o)

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1. beuno
  
  May 12, 2011 at 11:51 am
  
  Martin, Evolution will still work and be in main. If Evolution works for you, you will be able to continue using it.
  
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Pēteris Krišjānis

May 12, 2011 at 12:38 pm

I have simple question – if there’s nothing wrong with Evolution, why migrate to TB?

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James Tait

May 12, 2011 at 3:03 pm

Hey Martin – you linked to the wrong James Tait! I don’t use no freedom-hating Twitter crap! 😛

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novatillasku.com » Blog Archive » UDS: Thunderbird y LightDM

May 12, 2011 at 4:29 pm

[…] Thunderbird: WebUpd8 y Martin Albissetti’s Blog LightDM: WebUpd8 Comparte y […]

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Jon

May 12, 2011 at 4:46 pm

A Q about dropping TB’s size to fit the CD-ROM. That’s an odd one for me. Presumably you could drop Evolution from the first CD if it wasn’t the default. How much space would that free up? Just how much bigger is TB?

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Agustin

May 13, 2011 at 3:00 am

I find this awesome.. I really like TB, and it’s my default e-mail client so i’m looking foward to see a better integration with Ubuntu

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Martin

May 13, 2011 at 5:39 am

Thanks Beuno – I appreciate I can always install Evo, even if it’s not main; I’m just saying really that I’d like to use TB – apart from the fact that default apps tend to get more development love, prior to getting an Android phone I used to use TB and I prefer it and would like to move back. But until I can get it to work some way with my phone, it doesn’t support my workflow.

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¿Qué esperar de Ubuntu 11.10?

May 13, 2011 at 8:30 am

[…] podría convertirse en el cliente de correo por defecto, si se solucionan varios de los temas que permitirían reemplazar a […]

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¿Qué esperar de Ubuntu 11.10? « Tecnologia, Actualidad,y mucho mas….

May 13, 2011 at 2:30 pm

[…] podría convertirse en el cliente de correo por defecto, si se solucionan varios de los temas que permitirían reemplazar a […]

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Jon

May 13, 2011 at 3:02 pm

I Love Thuderbird for my email but we use Evolution for our calendar. I prefer Lightning’s interface but we have huge CalDAV calendars and Lightning is S.L.O.W with big calendars, the only thing slower than the calendar load time is Lightning’s developement. My excitement in Thunderbird/Lightning’s package inclusion is we get more hands on Lightning’s code and get some speed out of it. HOORAY!

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anonimo

May 13, 2011 at 4:18 pm

I hope Thunderbird will work better in our environment than Evolution, regarding to support to connect to Exchange 2010 servers.

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Paula

June 2, 2011 at 12:51 pm

I love Thunderbird and also find Lightning much better than its Evolution counterpart – but I need to use syncevolution. Syncing Thunderbird’s contacts with Funambol absolutely wrecks them and this is the deal-breaker for me. It’s no good using Ubuntu One – I can’t sync it with my phone’s addressbook. I don’t particularly like Evolution but until Thunderbird’s contacts and syncing become more useable, I’m stuck with it.

Whilst I’m on the subject of Thunderbird contacts – it doesn’t let you copy an email address to clipboard from preview without opening the contact. This is reaaaaalllllly annoying!

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