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Cutting corners: Thunderbird developers are working diligently to update and rebuild the classic mail program for PC. However, due to limited development resources, the team has decided to discontinue support for older operating systems starting with the next major release.
According to a recent message from Thunderbird engineering director Andrei Hajdukewycz, the open-source mail client will not extend support to older PC platforms as Firefox has done. Mozilla recently announced that the latest "Extended Support Release" of its web browser (Firefox 115 ESR) will receive an additional six months of security updates for Windows 7 and 8. However, the Thunderbird team has decided to take a different approach.
"We will not be extending support of Thunderbird 115 in the same way," Hajdukewycz confirmed. Support will end as planned, with the last version providing guaranteed compatibility with Windows 7/8 and macOS 10.12-10.14 being 115.15.x. There may be one additional minor update after 115.15.0, but nothing more, the developer said.
Hajdukewycz explained that there are three main reasons behind the team's decision. Thunderbird has a "significantly" lower user count on Windows 7 and 8 – approximately six percent compared to 11 percent for Firefox. Additionally, the Thunderbird development team has fewer resources than the Firefox team. Planning further releases after version 115 could divert valuable programming time from more critical tasks, such as preparing the project's main monthly releases.
Hajdukewycz is urging Thunderbird users to recognize the "requirement" to update their OS – and likely their hardware – as essential for maintaining a secure PC system. The last 115 ESR release of Thunderbird will remain available for download through Mozilla servers for the time being, but this option could eventually disappear altogether if the program becomes unsafe to use.
That said, Thunderbird 115 and even earlier releases are likely to continue functioning with very few issues on Windows 7 for a while longer. My main offline email client is still Thunderbird 3.1.9, an ancient version released by Mozilla in 2011, though I should upgrade the program as soon as possible.
Thunderbird is currently developed by MZLA Technologies Corporation, a subsidiary created by Mozilla in 2020 after the company decided to re-enter the email client market. The MZLA team is working to essentially rebuild the software from scratch, featuring a new interface and support for modern email capabilities.