this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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Thunderbird is funded by donations and operates under the MZLA banner.
These articles today are doing a disservice to the Thunderbird team who work independently of Mozilla afaik.
As written in the article
Independently of the Mozilla team, yes.
However, my understanding is that, if Thunderbird were to become ~~hugely~~ profitable, the Mozilla Foundation would benefit financially, though indirectly.
The organizational structure:
When Thunderbird moved to MZLA Technologies Corporation in January 2020, this was specifically done to allow Thunderbird to "collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations".
As a wholly owned subsidiary, any profits generated by MZLA would ultimately flow back to its parent organization, the Mozilla Foundation.
In the end, that revenue would probably go to all the smart investments we've seen the Mozilla Foundation make over the previous years. 🙄
You're right, but I think "hugely profitable" is probably optimistic - I'd expect something to the level of Proton or Fastmail. Fine, but not a big money maker like Firefox is.
Sure, applies to getting to any level of profitability.
Few know how things are structured. Or more importantly, how it could be restructured later.
These articles purport to be written by journalists though. Fact checking is meant to be a staple of the job description.
Just for argument’s sake, it’s easier to change the behavior of one mismanaged foundation than the broken news cycles
Thunderbird is not a Mozilla project. It is independent of Mozilla including it's financing and has been for several years now.
My understanding is MZLA was set up so Thunderbird could accept donations and manage it's own finances independently of Mozilla. There have been no allegations anywhere that MZLA has been mismanaged.
few people know that or will understand it; it’s been tarnished by the foundation.
If I were managing thunderbird, I would do a rebrand because I am not the first or last person to make that mistake ; there are tens of millions of me
The journalists who published these articles had an opportunity to educate their readers by not spreading misinformation and by not misrepresenting Thunderbird's relationship to Mozilla.
The issue here isn't the disdain anyone has for Mozilla (although that might be yours). The issue is the misrepresentation of Thunderbird as a Mozilla project by news media.
I am influenced by both and control none, bobbing along the waves of misinformation and mismanagement like a cork in the ocean .
Thunderbird really needs to be a totally separate thing
Mozilla is the new Google at this point. Google set the bar in hell so everyone else can get away with a lot.