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Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-21, 04:41
by Mingmaomak
1. Will this project ever be revived?
2. If the project be revived, would I be able to localize it?
3. If the project be revived, Would Fossamail ever have android version?
4. Is Thunderbird/Seamonkey Mail currently safer to use than Fossamail now?
5. My Windows 10 PC seems to be confused between Thunderbird and Fossamail. What happened?

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-21, 05:40
by Moonchild
Mingmaomak wrote:1. Will this project ever be revived?
Maybe. Depends on available time and what the Thunderbird Council will do with their client.
Mingmaomak wrote:2. If the project be revived, would I be able to localize it?
With the necessary effort, sure.
Mingmaomak wrote:3. If the project be revived, Would Fossamail ever have android version?
No.
Mingmaomak wrote:4. Is Thunderbird/Seamonkey Mail currently safer to use than Fossamail now?
No (provided you are using the unpublished builds that have received sec updates).
Mingmaomak wrote:5. My Windows 10 PC seems to be confused between Thunderbird and Fossamail. What happened?
Can't help you with that, sorry. maybe someone else can troubleshoot (but best to create a separate thread for that, unrelated to your questions obviously directed at me)

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 12:15
by galaxysurfer
Please revive this build! The latest updates of Thunderbird have Australisified everything so customizations no longer work. Can you please save the older style of Thunderbird like Palemoon has done for browser? I hope this fits in with your long term plans for Basilisk etc to create a full set of utilities. NB I am using a Linux OS rather than Windows. Any chance of getting an updated version for linux? I noticed you just did a security update for the windows version.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 18:02
by SpockFan02
I think you'll have to build it yourself, galaxysurfer.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 19:09
by Moonchild
galaxysurfer wrote:Any chance of getting an updated version for linux?
The only way to get an updated version for Linux is building it from source yourself. I don't build Linux binaries of these unpublished versions.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 21:38
by galaxysurfer
I am not a coder. Can you give me a condensed instruction set on how I would go about updating & compiling it for myself? I had hoped you would be willing to revive older style email esp now that thunderbird has become the mozilla email equivalent of firefox quantum.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 21:44
by galaxysurfer

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-29, 23:15
by Moonchild
galaxysurfer wrote:I am not a coder.
That's no excuse :)
You don't have to touch the code to build it.

As for Thunderbird going the webextensions route: that's just stupid and makes no sense, because... what web content is there in a mail client?
But... it's clear the Thunderbird Council is going with Mozilla's train a bit longer because they are afraid to get off at the right station. So they must take this step because what they build on will not support the other extension types any longer.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-30, 18:04
by CharmCityCrab
Moonchild wrote: As for Thunderbird going the webextensions route: that's just stupid and makes no sense, because... what web content is there in a mail client?
The current (Presumably still XUL) version of Thunderbird has an entire web content area under privacy, which is set to accept all cookies by default. Kind of unbelievable. I understand that some modern emails include HTML that incorporates web content when online, but why in the world would I want to allow it to set cookies? I turned that off pretty quickly when I noticed it. Yikes.

I have also set my email client to send a "Do Not Track Request" on the websites it visits- a sentence that would have made no sense to be a few years ago and still leaves me a little like "WTF? I'm visiting websites in an email client? Up is down? Black is white? Who broke the Internet?". :)

I should mention that one of the web cookies set before I deleted them and turned them off was doubleclick. I'm starting to actually wonder if running a content blocker add-on on Thunderbird that includes ads and malware might actually make sense. Since emails now display HTML pulling sites from the Internet, they could easily be pulling malware from malware domains. However, I don't think UBlock Origin or Ad Block Plus are available for Thunderbird at this time.

One issue Thunderbird may run into if it doesn't adopt Quantum is- Who is going to update the web rendering engine it obviously includes? They don't seem to think they have the man power. They could always pool resources with Basilik/Pale Moon/etc and adopt/help out with the XUL platform you've forked and maintained, but I'm not sure that's something they are interested in given their close ties with Mozilla.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-30, 18:07
by CharmCityCrab
Just as a sidenote, in case people are looking for examples, places I've received emails from that include web content are Goodreads.com and Yahoo Fantasy Football. Mostly, it's the images in the emails that it's pulling from online using HTML rather than actually sending, with the text of the email actually being sent as an email that is sent from email server to email server and stored on one's harddrive if using an email client rather than webmail.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-30, 18:20
by CharmCityCrab
galaxysurfer wrote:The latest updates of Thunderbird have Australisified everything so customizations no longer work.
There's still an extension called "Squared Australis Tabs (Tb)" that will at least square your tabs for you. I realize that this likely doesn't solve most of your issues, but solving one small issue is better than solving no issues, right? ;)

"Deep Dark" is also still a thing that works on Thunderbird's regular release channel. That may not be a customization you're interested in (It's just a dark mode, essentially), but it tells me that some customizations still exist.

When they go Quantum/WebExtensions in non-beta versions, they'll likely have square tabs by default (That's what the picture in the article shows and what Firefox went back to beginning with version 57, anyhow).

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-07-30, 18:22
by CharmCityCrab
Oh, when you go to an add-on's specific information page, that's literally a website Thunderbird loads in a separate tab.

Re: Several questions about Fossamail

Posted: 2018-08-07, 18:45
by Quorx
However, I don't think UBlock Origin or Ad Block Plus are available for Thunderbird at this time.
AdBlockPlus is running with Thunderbird now for years. As it is one of the most popular add-ons, it should be kept up-to-date with all Mozilla aberrations (and sadly will get out-of-date for Thunderbird 52 and Fossa Mail).

I remember discussions here in the forum where people asked "Why on earth should one need an add-blocker for a mail program?"
You explained why.