[tor-bugs] #31341 [Applications/TorBirdy]: TorBirdy does not support Thunderbird 68

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#31341: TorBirdy does not support Thunderbird 68
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 Reporter:  ozozoz                    |          Owner:  sukhbir
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/TorBirdy     |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  TorBirdy, Thunderbird 68  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by u451f):

 Replying to [comment:5 cypherpunks]:
 > So, where does this leave regular TorBirdy users?
 >
 > Anyone able and willing to take on the following workaround?
 >
 > > Thunderbird 68 already only supports !MailExtensions, but legacy
 extensions can supposedly be converted to MailExtensions relatively
 easily: It requires converting the old RDF manifest to a JSON manifest,
 and then in the JSON manifest the legacy key can be used to load the
 legacy XUL extension.
 > > !https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/tb68
 > > !https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/tb68/overlays

 I guess the most important part of this comment was that one:

 "I looked through the MailExtensions […] API of both Thunderbird 68, and
 the pre-release version, and didn't see any functions which would allow us
 to set the preferences set by TorBirdy"

 So basically even if one would convert the manifest, the legacy extension
 would have no way to set the preferences needed to make Torbirdy work.

 This is very sad and the options I see for the non-Tails Torbirdy usecase
 is

 - to check which are the preferences that still make sense with the new
 Thunderbird:
   - some issues have been mitigated by Tails' patches that were merged
   - some might have been mitigated by their total code rewrite
   - some new issues might have been introduced

 - to check with Thunderbird upstream directly if they are willing to
 implement those by default, or if they can provide an API endpoint into
 which an extension can hook into

 - manually change Thunderbird's preferences: basically what Tails will now
 do.

 The two first options require time, communication skills and workforce,
 the latter is a more pragmatic "let's make it work" approach.

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31341#comment:7>
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