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Thunderbird's Devs: Rust Is Coming (linuxiac.com)

submitted 7 months ago by KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Planned work for the 2024 release of Thunderbird.: https://developer.thunderbird.net/planning/roadmap

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[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago

Only mention of rust: "Standalone Rust component experiment of a notes implementation in Thunderbird"

Other planned features of note

Microsoft exchange support
updated database allowing for modern conversation view

[-] 7eter@feddit.de 11 points 7 months ago

I personally don't use Exchange but native support is a huge plus when recomending Thunderbird!

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 7 points 7 months ago

Who needs notes in a mail program? But cool anyways.

[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 7 months ago

Thunderbird is already more than a mail program. It supports calendar, todo, contacts, multiple chat protocols etc. Notes are in line with features like todo I'd say

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What chat protocols? Anything actually used? I tried their chat once but it didnt work with Matrix I think.

That they support Calendar is the result of CalDav I think. For some weird reason mail providers are often also CalDav providers, so you use the same account and that makes sense.

Although I would really like to have calendar and contacts as seperate apps. The combination is weird, and with some CSS it should be possible to have a single-purpose "app" with its own process ID and desktop entry with icon.

I dont know how to do that though, at least yet, as I dont know the CSS. But Libreoffice Flatpak fixed the "calc + writer shown as the same app" which is done via desktop entry stuff

[-] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 7 months ago

Being able to create create calendar events from dates in emails benefits from being a single app. Also contacts integration is necessary to auto fill email adresses. It'd be great to have seamless integration between mutliple apps, but with Thunderbird having tabs it's also a good experience.

I believe Thunderbird supports IRC and matrix, but I don't use those features. Standalone apps usually provide a better experience.

Hopefully notes is compatible with other notes systems, maybe markdown with a folder structure. This'd compatible with Markor on Android and also many (diy) solutions (e.g. vim).

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 1 points 7 months ago

Thats true. Their tabs are weird though, at least the "places" bar which doesnt make sense as the tab bar is still there and the places bar is incomplete.

[-] neme@lemm.ee 16 points 7 months ago

Android roadmap: https://developer.thunderbird.net/planning/android-roadmap

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What I am honestly wishing for is

native "Thunderbird Conversations" view for threads. Outlook has this and I guess ever other mail program, even K9Mail has native implementation.
multi-level boolean Filters, example (if title "spam1" or "invitation") and ((mail is older than x days) or (mail comes from this recipient)) then delete
better tablet/Laptop view in K9mail (to make it future-proof, for example a GrapheneOS tablet or laptop-like system
dark mode in mail reader?
fixing sensitive information sent through the autoconfiguration

[-] Ugurcan@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

OS Native notifications for Calendar

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 2 points 7 months ago

And mails, which has no notifications at all

[-] Aradia@lemmy.ml 6 points 7 months ago

🦀

[-] Aatube@kbin.social 3 points 7 months ago

GTK/Qt theming when?

[-] havuq@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

I’m ignorant. What does native exchange support mean? I know we can get outlook/hotmail etc but is this more of the enterprise support?

[-] KarnaSubarna@lemmy.ml 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Here is my understanding of it -

Currently, TB uses POP3/IMAP protocol to access your Mailbox on Exchange Server.

Ideally, it should be done via MS EWS Web API [1][2] which TB currently doesn't support, but MS Office Outlook does.

Given that MS Exchange is heavily used in corporate/company setup, it[3] will put TB on par with Outlook in that regard.

[1] https://www.techtarget.com/searchwindowsserver/definition/Exchange-Web-Services-EWS

[2] https://www.envisionup.com/blog/pop3-imap-microsoft-exchange-email-platform-use/

[3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1847846

[-] OfficerBribe@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Just to add, consumer outlook / live / hotmail also benefits from this since it is also using Exchange in backend.

Additionally EWS is atually deprecated and planned to be closed on 2026 October for at least commercial Exchange Online (M365 / Cloud) customers (unclear from that article if free Outlook accounts also will be affected) although as with all MS announcements it will probably be prolonged. Microsoft Graph API is the new hot thing, but it seems some EWS features are not yet available in Graph API based on comments.

Another thing that in a proper company setting that uses Exchange Online you must approve applications before they can be used to access data (Not just Exchange data, this is Entra ID formerly Azure AD feature) for both EWS (in the past it was different, but now Oauth must be used which requires approval) and Graph API so company administrator will have to approve Thunderbird which many will not allow.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 4 points 7 months ago

Microsoft's email service isn't really following standards like IMAP/POP anymore and this breaks many apps. So they need to add support for their custom alternative system.