There're many decent web-based proprietary mail solutions, and I was really excited once Nylas Mail showed up, even though it's Electron-based. And then instantly disappointed by its license. Later, I was considering switching to Nylas Mail when they re-licensed their open-source client, but turned out by "please use this" they still require you to opt-in with Nylas Identity tied to Nylas Cloud[1] They could only help replace free (from mail vendors) Thunderbird, playing by the rules of the Thunderbird.
> but turned out by "please use this" they still require you to opt-in with Nylas Identity tied to Nylas Cloud
We're talking about Thunderbird development. When I wrote that they changed to a compatible license and reached out to say "please use this", that's not referring to their attempt to get users. That's a reference to their attempt to donate their code and energy towards improving Thunderbird.
> They could only help replace free (from mail vendors) Thunderbird, playing by the rules of the Thunderbird.
> That's a reference to their [Nylos]* attempt to donate their code and energy towards improving Thunderbird.
(*My edit in brackets) You meant towards improving Nylas Mail, not Thunderbird? If not, I don't get any sense in this argument, it sounds like Nylas was reaching out Mozilla to replace Thunderbird with their re-licensed Nylas Mail. I'm not sure that ever happened (and I'm not sure GPL is a totally suitable license for Mozilla Foundation[1]). If you made a typo and meant "Nylas Mail", then I get your argument about development, but I see how community (me included) would be reluctant to make any contributions into a not entirely free product without forking.
> Huh?
Simply put, I'm fully agree that upstream Thunderbird could clearly indicate their will to move off Gecko to stimulate code contributions from community. I see how it might work out for the already popular, long time-tested, free Thunderbird, but I don't believe Nylos Mail is the same case here.
> My edit in brackets) You meant towards improving Nylas Mail, not Thunderbird?
No. What I wrote is what I meant.
> it sounds like Nylas was reaching out Mozilla to replace Thunderbird with their re-licensed Nylas Mail
Yes. (But not "replace", necessarily. Replace parts. Merge. Improve.)
> I'm not sure that ever happened
Uh, okay? If you hadn't heard that before, that's... fine. But, I mean, now you have. And I don't know what else to say.
> I'm not sure GPL is a totally suitable license for Mozilla Foundation
You're right; it's not. Thunderbird is MPL. They can't accept GPL contributions and continue to make releases available under MPL. That's why I specifically mentioned how Nylas relicensed their code to one that is compatible (MIT).
> I'm fully agree that upstream Thunderbird could clearly indicate their will to move off Gecko
I didn't say move off Gecko. I said dropping XUL. Moving off Gecko is almost definitely not in plans for the short term, and probably not even in the long term.
[1] https://github.com/nylas/nylas-mail/issues/3484