My first concern about Mozilla taking over K-9 is that it not get privacy-violating phoning-home, nor dark patterns pushing that, like Firefox has.
For example, there's zero technical need for an email program to phone home to Mozilla when you configure it for a new email server.
Nor is there a technical need for a Mozilla "sync service" for K-9 settings, nor for dark patterns pushing users to use it.
My concern is they'll just make it worse. My other concern is they felt the need to use the same Thunderbird brand on several independent products.
1. Most people are not using a fully encrypted self-hosted email server. "Phoning home" is meaningless if everything is already hosted in the cloud, more like the cloud phoning the cloud. But point taken, it is one MORE person with access to your data.
2. Again, sync services are helpful for most people and can easily be disabled for power users.
3. Mozilla is doing as much for free software as anyone and should be supported in this expansion.
No, it's exactly how mozilla operates. They are nothing more than controlled opposition almost fully funded by google to the tune of nearly $1bbn and an adtech corp in their own right.
> 1. Most people are not using a fully encrypted self-hosted email server. "Phoning home" is meaningless if everything is already hosted in the cloud, more like the cloud phoning the cloud.
Some of us are.
> But point taken, it is one MORE person with access to your data.
Not just one more, one more giant database (and therefore giant target). My server provider isn't trawling through my server looking for datasets to sell. It's not worth their time for a couple of cents/dollars. But when you can mass-collect data from every user of software, prepackaged in a nice homogeneous gift wrap it is both easier to collect and worth more.
> 2. Again, sync services are helpful for most people and can easily be disabled for power users.
Email can be autoconfigured with nothing more than a username and password. Mozilla could trivially store k9-specific settings directly on the email server. Cheaper (more efficient use of funds), easier to maintain, No privacy leaks and no dependence on mozilla. But there lies the rub.
> 3. Mozilla is doing as much for free software as anyone and should be supported in this expansion.
No, they should stop doing everything that's not firefox and even that should be met with fierce pushback since they don't seem to care about a free and open internet until they are made to.
The problem with this is that it's just a dumb database (it doesn't check SRV and TXT entries) and as such, the database should really be client-side. The entire thing is just a pretext so that they can collect of all mail domains used by users.
This isn't very Privacy-friendly.
I'm using K-9 but I cannot say configurability is the app's strongest point. For example, when getting a notification about a new email, I always wished I could just Archive directly (the current buttons are "Mark as read" and "Delete", I think). It's impossible to configure that, and the issue has been around for.... 6 years[0].
The FairEmail app always felt way more configurable, but it isn't shining when it comes to design, at least the last time I checked.
[0] https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/34...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.thunderbir...
1: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/06/email-client-k-9-mai...
[..]Temporarily removed telemetry while we improve user choice[..] from https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/releases/...
Seems this is the issue where it's debated: https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbird-android/issues/81...
> Meanwhile, K-9 Mail has suggested that K-9 Mail should continue to be available with its own name, icon, and color scheme, but the same code base, after Thunderbird becomes official.
I don't know what Android has to do with it, but starting from the main screen: Click the left hamburger menu to open the panel, scroll to the bottom, click settings, click about.