
ThunderCast #3: Behind The Scenes of Supernova
07/21/23 • 89 min
Hello Thunderbird family, and welcome back to a long-overdue episode of the ThunderCast! Ryan, Alex, and Jason get together to talk about the new features and improvements in Thunderbird 115 "Supernova." But they also share WHY those features were developed, and what's being worked on right now. Plus, Ryan shares some huge news about the future of the Thunderbird Project! It's a casual, unscripted, and informative behind-the-scenes conversation.
USEFUL LINKS:
- What's New In 115 (Use Micah's awesome slider!)
- Why We're Rebuilding Thunderbird
- Thunderbird on Mastodon
- Thunderbird on Twitter
- Thunderbird on LinkedIn
- (00:00) - Intro
- (04:11) - The pulse of our users
- (11:16) - Moving to monthly releases
- (14:24) - Why the name “Supernova?”
- (15:39) - Explaining the new Thunderbird logo
- (23:22) - What’s New in Thunderbird 115?
- (32:09) - Explaining the Unified Toolbar
- (40:08) - Why the new icons matter
- (44:11) - You are my Density
- (53:52) - Jason gushes about the App Menu
- (01:01:01) - Finally! Sortable folder modes
- (01:05:17) - Ryan gushes about Cards view
- (01:08:37) - Championing customization
- (01:10:37) - The infamous mockup
- (01:12:00) - Addressing the address book
- (01:17:03) - Iterating to perfection
- (01:19:32) - Jason’s 2 hats
- (01:24:33) - The ThunderVerse!
Hello Thunderbird family, and welcome back to a long-overdue episode of the ThunderCast! Ryan, Alex, and Jason get together to talk about the new features and improvements in Thunderbird 115 "Supernova." But they also share WHY those features were developed, and what's being worked on right now. Plus, Ryan shares some huge news about the future of the Thunderbird Project! It's a casual, unscripted, and informative behind-the-scenes conversation.
USEFUL LINKS:
- What's New In 115 (Use Micah's awesome slider!)
- Why We're Rebuilding Thunderbird
- Thunderbird on Mastodon
- Thunderbird on Twitter
- Thunderbird on LinkedIn
- (00:00) - Intro
- (04:11) - The pulse of our users
- (11:16) - Moving to monthly releases
- (14:24) - Why the name “Supernova?”
- (15:39) - Explaining the new Thunderbird logo
- (23:22) - What’s New in Thunderbird 115?
- (32:09) - Explaining the Unified Toolbar
- (40:08) - Why the new icons matter
- (44:11) - You are my Density
- (53:52) - Jason gushes about the App Menu
- (01:01:01) - Finally! Sortable folder modes
- (01:05:17) - Ryan gushes about Cards view
- (01:08:37) - Championing customization
- (01:10:37) - The infamous mockup
- (01:12:00) - Addressing the address book
- (01:17:03) - Iterating to perfection
- (01:19:32) - Jason’s 2 hats
- (01:24:33) - The ThunderVerse!
Previous Episode

ThunderCast #2: Mozilla's Mike Conley & The Retro Internet Retreat
Welcome back to the ThunderCast, the official podcast of Mozilla Thunderbird! In this episode, we're thrilled to welcome our first special guest: Mike Conley, Principal Software developer at Mozilla. Mike is a software mechanic, musician, livestreamer, and self-described "pre-internet phenomenon" among many other things.
Creators & Guests
- Jason Evangelho - Host
- Ryan Lee Sipes - Host
- Mike Conley - Guest
We had a wonderful conversation about the early days of the internet, Mike's early work on Mozilla Messaging, and his current work on Firefox. He also gives us a peek behind the curtain of upcoming Picture-in-Picture features, and some fresh changes to Firefox's migration tools.
We also asked Mike about some of the more underrated features of Firefox. Plus, we get the community involved by asking you which Thunderbird features more people should know about.
Hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as we enjoyed recording it!
Finally, here are some of the links we mentioned:
1) uBlock Add-on for Thunderbird:
2) The Joy of Coding:
3) Neocities, making the internet fun again
4) Follow us on Mastodon:
- Thunderbird: https://mastodon.online/@thunderbird
- Mike: https://mastodon.online/@[email protected]
- Ryan: https://mastodon.social/@ryanleesipes
- Jason: https://layer8.space/@killyourfm
- (01:54) - Intro
- (01:55) - Mike's Origin Story
- (13:03) - Fond memories of the early internet
- (21:41) - MIke's work on Firefox (Part 1)
- (23:35) - Firefox features more people should know about
- (31:31) - More people should use Reader Mode
- (36:15) - Thunderbird features more people should know about
- (50:43) - Mike's shoutout to Thunderbird developers
- (57:57) - Mike's work on Firefox (Part 2)
- (01:16:48) - Closing comments
Next Episode

ThunderCast #4: Will The Real moz://a Please Stand Up?
The Thunderbird team is back from the Mozilla All-Hands event, and we're overwhelmed in the most positive way. In addition to the happy vibes we're all feeling from meeting most of our colleagues in person for the first time, we have a lot of takeaways to share. in this episode Ryan, Jason, and Alex talk about how Mozilla is building AI tools for the good of humanity, and how our perception of AI has changed dramatically. Plus, the problem with the "hey Mozilla, just build a browser" argument.
Episode #4 is light on actual Thunderbird talk, and more focused on Mozilla as an organization, the current state of the internet, and the future of AI. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed discussing it!
Have a question or comment for us? Just email [email protected]!
- (00:00) - Intro
- (00:28) - The All-Hands Hangover
- (03:10) - The Thunderbird Team IRL!
- (09:42) - moz://a beyond the products
- (13:36) - Tackling AI & web issues
- (19:24) - The "just build a browser" argument
- (21:46) - Alex changes his mind about AI
- (23:38) - Building AI tools for good
- (33:09) - Fighting for the soul of the internet
- (40:11) - Thunderbird and AI?
- (47:16) - Warm fuzzy feelings
- (52:51) - Outro
If you like this episode you’ll love
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