Proposal: (No?) email client for Ubuntu 17.10

[Bryan Quigley]

I support having no email client by default.


We do have enterprise customers using Thunderbird today and I'd expect
for the foreseeable future we would still want to have an email client
in main.   In a general sense, having one of the above to recommend to
those who want an email client seems nice too.

Today, I'd go with Thunderbird, but it's definitely something to watch
given Firefox's impending changes and Evolution improvements.

Thanks!
Bryan





On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 4:07 PM, Jeremy Bicha <jbicha at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> In 2011, we switched Ubuntu's default email client from Evolution to
> Thunderbird. Six years later, I think it's time to take another look.
>
> Should we even install an email client by default? The question is not
> whether it's useful, but whether it's useful enough to enough people
> to justify it being installed for everyone.
>
> - Ubuntu GNOME 16.10 included Evolution but 17.04 has no email client
> installed at all. The decision disappointed a few people but there
> hasn't been much negative feedback at all yet.
>
> - GNOME Release Team member Michael Catanzaro recommends not
> installing an email client by default since there isn't an app that is
> both well-maintained and very well-integrated into the GNOME 3 style.
> [1]
>
> - It's believed that most people just use web mail now, often along
> with apps on their smart phone.
>
> - A problem is that those who do prefer to use an installed email
> client do not all prefer the same one!
>
> If we do include an email client, which one?
>
> Thunderbird (TB)
> -------------------------
> 1. TB is still built with GTK2.
> 2. TB is a community project now and Mozilla no longer pays developers
> to work on it.
> 3. It looks like TB will have a lot of work to do next year once
> Firefox drops traditional extension support with FF57. This work might
> be shared with other apps that use Mozilla code.
> 4. TB does not integrate with GNOME Online Accounts.
> 5. TB has better Unity integration than Evolution.
> 6. There was a proposal a year and a half ago to turn TB into a web
> app but I don't think that went anywhere. [2]
>
> Evolution
> --------------
> 1. The UI doesn't fully embrace GNOME3 app design style, but it is
> closer than TB.
> 2. Small development team.
> 3. Evolution is not available on other operating systems.
> 4. Evolution is relatively easy to co-maintain with Debian.
>
> [1] https://blogs.gnome.org/mcatanzaro/2016/09/21/gnome-3-22-core-apps/
> [2] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/tb-planning/h97q9cDUZOU
>
> Thanks,
> Jeremy Bicha
>
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