On 23/10/2020 15:44, fsmithred via Dng wrote:
>
>> Has any of you TB users (assuming there are any here} done this migration?
>> How is the new shiny? Is it fine? Shall I forget about TB? Any suggestions
>> of what could replace it?
> Nope. This is the first I've heard of it.

One really needs to keep track of the various Thunderbird mail
lists/groups for news like this.

As someone who watches the whole thing fairly closely, it's actually
quite hard to keep track of the changes. However, this deprecation of
old addons, which is what is forcing the loss of Enigmail, which in turn
is what is forcing Thunderbird to take on OpenPGP encryption internally,
has been publicly know for about a year. See here:
https://admin.hostpoint.ch/pipermail/enigmail-users_enigmail.net/2019-October/005493.html

> This is not the first I've heard
> of problems with enigmail. Over the past 5 years or so, it seems like it
> only works about half the time. And I mean it goes months without being
> available for installation.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is *not* a problem with Enigmail.
Enigmail continues to work fine in earlier versions of Thunderbird.

(As an aside, I don't recognise your negative perception of Enigmail.
I've use it for years, I don't know how long, and I've always found it
reliable and useful. If it was unavailable for installation then that
would very likely be a problem with Mozilla's addon server, not
Enigmail's fault).

The reason for this change is that Thunderbird is deprecating all its
old addons (the entire ecosystem) in favour of WebExtension-based addons
and Enigmail won't work on the new Thunderbird. Thus Thunderbird has to
take over OpenPGP encryption internally.

Disclaimer: I say all of the above as a very long time user of
Thunderbird who is (a) not happy with the direction in which Thunderbird
is now being taken and (b) who is not impressed with the outward
appearance of the style of governance of  the project. To be fair,
whether or not it would be possible to continue Thunderbird development
in any other way with currently available resources is questionable.

--
Mark Rousell