Thunderbird bz 579023 still not fixed even though there is an upstream fix available

[Kevin Kofler]

Adam Williamson wrote:
> I think a rather large part of the problem here is that all the above
> 'special exception' pleading applies far more to Firefox than it does to
> Thunderbird. Firefox is a special exception; it's a phenomenon, the
> single most successful F/OSS app, an app with its own very definite
> distinct identity which many people know. It clearly does have a
> reputation to protect and I can entirely agree with it being very
> careful about that.
> 
> Thunderbird...uhhh, not so much. It's nowhere near as popular as
> Firefox. Most people don't know what it is. It's not really a 'special
> exception'; it's just another application like the ten gazillion others
> we ship which don't have onerous trademark restrictions attached.
> 
> I think it'd be appropriate for Mozilla to take a rather more liberal
> line with Thunderbird than it does with Firefox, if that's legally
> plausible.

Agreed, but I think even Firefox doesn't deserve this kind of preferential 
treatment.

In fact, I don't see Firefox as being the "absolute requirement" it's 
painted to be at all, we could even consider just not shipping it at all and 
picking a different default browser for the GNOME spin, e.g. Epiphany which 
is the official GNOME browser. (The KDE spin already does not ship Firefox, 
we default to Konqueror.) It's just a web browser.

        Kevin Kofler