Proposal: (No?) email client for Ubuntu 17.10

[Jo-Erlend Schinstad]

I think it's a very bad idea for Free Software distributions to stop
distributing Free Software based on the argument that a lot of people use
proprietary software. That used to be the whole point; most people use
proprietary software, so we should make an effort to get people to use Free
Software.

If the argument is that a lot of people use webmail and Gmail in
particular, then why stop there? A lot of people use Google Docs too, so
maybe ditch LibreOffice? Online streaming continues to grow in popularity,
so local media playback might no longer be a technical requirement. People
can just install it if they want to.

There's very few desktop applications in Ubuntu that needs to be shipped
once we accept the argument that the proprietary clouds are a suitable
replacement.

On 18 April 2017 at 22:07, 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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>
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