[tor-project] Future of Tor Messenger

[Sukhbir Singh]

* Georg Koppen:

> > By making this switch:
> > 
> >     - Users will get access to secure chat from Tor Messenger and secure email
> >       from TorBirdy, in a single application
> >     - Thunderbird has a single-window chat interface which is different from
> >       Instantbird (and better)
> >     - We can continue supporting Tor Messenger as a chat client for
> >       IRC/Jabber/Twitter
> >     - Users will get a Tor Mail application which has been requested for a
> >       while
> > 
> > The idea behind this email is to brainstorm this switch and solicit feedback
> > from the community, so please share your thoughts!
> 
> Could you elaborate on what you mean with
> 
> """
> By doing this, we can continue maintaining Tor Messenger for our users
> and adding new features to it, and also prototype the "Tor Mail" bundle
> as has been requested in the past.
> """
> 
> and
> 
> 
> """
> By making this switch:
> 
>     - We can continue supporting Tor Messenger as a chat client for
>       IRC/Jabber/Twitter
> """
> 
> Are you planning to maintain two applications now? That is Tor Messenger
> and some mail bundle? If not, should there be a transition? If so, how
> would that look like given that Mozilla is on its way to remove
> Instantbird code from the tree?[1]

What I meant by this was that we will ship Thunderbird with both email and
chat support; email provided by TorBirdy, and chat provided by the code that
is already there in Tor Messenger plus the code which the Instantbird team
will merge and maintain. As per the Instantbird blog post, "Instead of working
on Instantbird, we'll refocus our energy on improving the chat features in
Thunderbird, so that it becomes friendly for users who loved Instantbird and
will seek a replacement." So they are just doing away with the interface but
the chat code will still be there.

So what this transition means is that we stop building on Instantbird and
start building on Thunderbird instead (with chat and mail support), copy over
whatever changes are required from the existing code and working on the new
features where required.

-- 
Sukhbir