this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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Thunderbird for Android / K-9 Mail: April 2024 Progress Report - The Thunderbird Blog (blog.thunderbird.net)
submitted 6 months ago by boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[–] fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 31 points 6 months ago (1 children)

However, we’ve also heard numerous times that people love K-9 Mail and wished the app would stay around. That’s why we’ve announced in December to do just that. We’ve started work on this and are now able to build two apps from the same source code. Thunderbird for Android already includes the fancy new Thunderbird logo and a first version of a blue theme.

Does this seem daft to anyone else?

I assume the same codebase will generate the app branded as either k9-mail or thunderbird? What is the point of that?

[–] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 36 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I think the major hurdle is that they can't just rebrand the existing app, they have to release a new one. Keeping the K-9 app around will help the user transition long term. The folks in this thread follow Thunderbird and Thunderbird for Android development but my guess is the majority of K-9 users don't. At some point when or if K-9 installs drop they will probably revisit the issue.

[–] jwt@programming.dev 11 points 6 months ago

I think this is the way to go if it doesn't frustrate further development too much. Kinda risky to pull the old app out of stores and see the blissfully unaware part of your userbase leave for a competitor.

[–] theshatterstone54@feddit.uk 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah, I'm actually in both camps as I used K9 before even starting to use Thunderbird, and I was already a user of both when they announced this whole thing which made me super excited mainly because of Thunderbird's automatically detecting incoming and outgoing servers.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

i urge everyone, if they can, to do a monthly donation to them

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And if you can't do monthly, at least donate. These guys do good work for users.

[–] 65gmexl3@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I thought thunderbird is getting paid by mozilla

[–] jjlinux@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

My understanding is that Mozilla does contribute, but I couldn't say how much or anything.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Does anyone know where you can get the Thunderbird branded package?

[–] Zier@fedia.io 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The TB branded version is in beta and they are not releasing it until the branding is further along. Allegedly if you are using K9, there will be a migration tool to move to the TB branded app when released.

[–] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

No I think you will need to reinstall. But as you can export your settings this is not a very big deal.

https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/releases/latest

Interesting, they renamed their org from thundernest to thunderbird. Makes more sense tbh.

I changes the URL to this in Obtainium and removed the old one. It seems they are still not changing the App ID as updates worked normally, but that version should get the redesign soon.

[–] loo@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago

If I understood the article correctly, the Thunderbird app is not released, yet. They said they are working on getting it released.

[–] penquin@lemm.ee 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Been using k9 for over 4 months now. Pretty nice. A couple of not so big deal issues, but overall pretty nice. I wish it had material you design where it followed the system tint color. I wish it would stop complaining about authentication here and there. And last wish is to have the delete icon on the bottom instead of all the way at the top. Lol

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes, I'm several years into my de-googling process and a solid email client is not something I'm worried about. K9 is great and, as Thunderbird, we can only hope that it gets better.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How did you go about de-googling your phone? I've de-googled my services but I'm just getting started on the phone.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Look into installing a custom ROM, some phones are not supported but many are by at least one custom ROM. I personally installed GrapheneOS and recommend that or calyxOS (never used it but hear good things) but those are only available for pixels, iirc LineageOS has the widest support but also isn't quite as secure. F-droid and Aurora store for apps.

[–] penquin@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago

OnePlus phones are rootable if you buy them unlocked (not from a carrier), and you can install anything you want on them. Some of their older phones even support straight up Linux mobile.

[–] warmaster@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Material you is coming from what I understood reading the linked blog post. There's also a screenshot. Or is Material 3 different from You?

[–] penquin@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago

They're different in some way I guess. The material design is basically Google's HIG, the you is the tinting from the wallpaper colors. Just like how KDE does their tint the whole UI from the wallpaper.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Cool!

For the branding couldn't they just do k-9 by Thunderbird or something similar?

[–] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is also about the App ID, actually mainly. So they keep K9 so that users can get a popup "export your settings, uninstall and install TB Android". As Android only allows updates with the same app ID and developer key.

[–] yukijoou@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

They can probably even ease that out if they implement some API in K9 to let another app request data from it - Android has a system for letting apps send data to each other securely

[–] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

IPC? I mean it can export and import settings, sending that data via the share portal and opening it for import (autodetecting the extension) is really possible.

Not that I know how to write a single line of Android app code.

[–] yukijoou@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 months ago

i was talking about intents! this is a specific API for one app to start & send specific data to another app on the system

[–] electricprism@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

I'm ready for the rebranded APK now or any time