Updating thunderbird from 68 to 78 in focal

[Robie Basak]

Thanks Olivier for raising this.

For clarity, the reason I think it's outside the remit of the SRU team
is that I think the SRU team's delegation from the TB to directly decide
on new features[1] as well as microrelease bumps[2] came with
stipulations of stability for the rest of the archive. Deliberately
breaking other existing packages in the archive to achieve an update
are, I think, beyond the spirit of that delegation. If the TB wants they
can delegate this particular matter back to the SRU team, but AIUI that
would need to be a deliberate decision on the part of the TB.

(says the person who now owns both hats anyway)

I think a major release bump to Thunderbird in Focal is probably
necessary, what our users expect, and will eventually be required for
security anyway (if it isn't already). So in principle the bump is
probably appropriate, especially given the nature of the packages we
would have to break, which I think probably have virtually no users.

I think the TB probably needs to decide:

1) If we should bump Thunderbird.

2) If breaking these other packages is acceptable (or if there is
another appropriate approach to take) to achieve this.

3) How, technically, to go about breaking those packages in a way that
will minimise impact to users.

One thing Olivier confirmed on IRC is that a simple Breaks will not
cause "apt upgrade" to remove the broken packages and upgrade
Thunderbird as we'd want, if those other packages are installed. The GUI
fares a little better but the UX might be considered "scary"[3].

If anyone has ideas on the best technical approach to take for 2 and 3,
I'd appreciate your comment.

One question. Am I right in thinking that bumping Thunderbird will also
deprecate Enigmail? Is there any special handling needed to support
Enigmail-using users?

Robie

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates?action=diff&rev1=232&rev2=233
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates?action=diff&rev1=231&rev2=232
[3] https://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2021/01/15/%23ubuntu-release.html#t17:06
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