Thunderbird plans to launch open source alternatives to Gmail, Google Calendar and Office 365

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open source email client, calendar, and contact application that's been available for more than two decades. It first launched at a time when Gmail wasn't a thing and most web-based email service providers offered only a few megabytes of storage space. But the demand for desktop-only email applications has diminished in recent years. So now the Thunderbird  team has revealed plans to launch a series of optional web-based services.

Thunderbird managing director of product Ryan Sipes says the goal is to offer some of the services users have come to expect from Gmail, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Office 365 without the vendor lock-in.

Thunderbird Appointment

These new web services will be grouped together under a new Thunderbird Pro brand of optional features. At launch they're expected to include:

Thunderbird Appointment: This scheduling tool lets you provide someone with a link that they can click to book an appointment on your calendar.

Thunderbird Send: This tool adds support for person-to-person file sharing, picking up where the now-discontinued Firefox Send left off.

Thundermail: The team plans to offer its own email service that will let you sign up for a @Thundermail.com or @tb.pro email address.

Thunderbird Assist: AI features are coming to Thunderbird thanks to a partnership with Flower AI.

I suspect that last one will be the most controversial with folks that are typically drawn to free and open source tools like Thunderbird. Sipes says "the hope is that processing can be done on devices that can support" the AI models, but it's unclear if that's the case yet… or what happens if you have a computer that doesn't have a GPU or NPU capable of delivering the hardware-accelerated AI performance that's needed. In that case, would your personal data be sent to the cloud for processing?

Fortunately it sounds like all of these features will be optional. Don't want AI on your computer? Then you don't have to enable it.

Thunderbird Send extension

Another thing to keep in mind though is that it costs money to provide these services. So, as the name suggests, Thunderbird Pro won't be free… or at least not entirely free.

Eventually the plan is to offer some sort of a free tier with smaller amounts of cloud storage space or other limitations, but customers will likely have to pay if they want the full Thunderbird Pro experience. At launch though the plan is to "offer these services for free to consistent community contributors," which could be a way to say thank you, but also to get independent developers and early adopters to kick the tires and offer feedback.

via Linuxiac

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