I don't think people want to change email addresses very often. How do I know Mozilla will still be doing this in 5-10 years? (Edit: Others have pointed out that, if we can bring our own domains, technical users can retain their address. However, for non-technical users that's not an option.)

Also, I'm not sure about charging a fee at the start (except for TB contributors) and providing a free tier later - reverse of the usual way of launching a product. Maybe this is a soft launch to shake out the bugs and build a little momentum, and you can pay if you want to take part?

Mozilla could do something awesome here. I hate to say it, but here is a chance to start fresh and make big, legacy-breaking changes to Thunderbird. The new audience - which should become the vast majority if they are successful - won't care if it's not like the old Thunderbird (possibly unlike many on HN). Here is a chance to do something special and the mail client is all most users see or understand.

This is REALLY cool news. This will make them the second JMAP compatible vendor and the first that didn’t invent it (which is an ick)!

This makes it MUCH more interesting to build JMAP clients. I will most likely subscribe to this just to play around with JMAP because I‘ve been to lazy to set up Stalwart for myself.

I wonder whether they will build a new web front-end, since the existing FOSS ones I’m aware of aren’t all that great.

Site is here with waitlist signup. It's also titled "For Those Who Know" and says: >> status beta_signup.is_open=true so perhaps theres a CLI or hidden way to signup immediately?

> open_source & privacy_focused & user_controlled

Is their philosophy a bit string? Or maybe this simple mistake of using a bitwise AND is what's gotten Mozilla's mission so corrupted these last many years.

Trust once lost is not easily regained.

It's not easy for me to believe that these domain names are chosen for email address by someone in the email business.

I don't see how it's an effective product, if they released this 20 years ago at the advant of hotmail going downhill and the release of unlimited storage (lol) gmail it would've been a game changer since they had a client this whole time.

But now, vendor lock in is strong w/ Microsoft and Outlook that I question do people even use Thunderbird? It was a great competitor to Outlook Express and 2003... but now.. I really don't know, but I guess their product managers think so.

"The Thunderbird database says its number of active monthly installs has dropped from 17.7 million in late December 2020 to 16.2 million in late March 2025, with the mail app struggling to keep up with the industry’s main players like Gmail.

With the launch of Thunderbird Pro, Mozilla is adding Thunderbird Appointment, a new scheduling tool for sharing calendar links; Thunderbird Send, a rebuild of the discontinued Firefox Send; and Thunderbird Assist, a new AI-powered writing tool enabled via a partnership with Flower AI that is intended to do the processing locally to eliminate privacy concerns.

The final launch will be Thundermail, an email hosting service using the open-source Stalwart stack. Usrs will be able to pick between thundermail.com and tb.pro domains."

I really don't see how this is a market changer, the market is stuffed with competitors and every domain registrar offers some form of email service too.

Outside of the corporate world email is almost a legacy protocol. Like phone numbers we have one because we need to but do not really use it that much anymore.

I believe email was de facto replaced by WhatsApp, iMessage, Social media and OpenID almost 20 years ago.

Just ask a gen Z or Alpha when was the last time he sent an email.

Now they are gonna try to ride the wave of the Big bad tech escape but Proton has a 10 years lead here.

That "Usrs" is not my typo. And what strange choices for domain names.

Anyway I hope they launch a custom domain supporting paid email service (and not go skimpy on details and features like, e.g., Apple's iCloud).

Mozilla has lost all trust from me, the recent privacy policy fiasco was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I totally understand why and it's fair, but if you want to take on gmail, you just lost. Google is dominant because most of its services are free.

Trust once lost is not easily regained.

Fix your trust issue.

The decision to reduce focus on Thunderbird was remarkably mistimed with the email client market just shooting through the roof with a bunch of orivate players being acquired for tens and hundreds of millions right after.

From a different article:

>Thundermail isn’t going to use your messages to train AI, it’s not going to invade your inbox with ads, and it’s not going to harvest and sell your data.

And? We've seen with DOGE that they can just walk into any place and take your data, anyway. It's only safe if it's outside the US.

Ah yes, let's see if it can last longer than 18 months this time..

Dooblydoo@thundermail.com

Many businesses are looking away from US based services.

If Mozilla moved headquarters to Switzerland, UK or Norway, then maybe it would make sense.

Is this a late April fools joke?

Update: OK, I'm trying it again.