Is this project dead?

Development
#1

The last Github commit was on 3 May, which is more than three months ago now and there are multiple open PRs that have not been merged since then. The last piece of news from the dev team was CodeMouse92 stepping down.

There are still multiple bugs to be patched and missing features to be implemented, and I was wondering if these issues are going to be worked on. I really like the look and feel of the application and would love to continue using it, but if the project is really dead then maybe the community should start looking for alternatives or looking into starting forks of the project.

1 Like
#2

I’m no replacement for Ben, I know, but I have to say something. People started making these same unfounded rumors before, and frankly, they were malignant. So let me nip this in the bud. NO, MAILSPRING IS NOT DEAD. NEVER HAS BEEN.

Ben has a full time job. He does this on the side, just like all the other volunteers. It’s volunteer effort that moves it forward, and a lack of volunteer effort that stalls it out. There’s no big organization around this — Foundry376 simply contributes the framework for the business aspects, namely the Mailspring Pro accounts that just barely cover the certification expenses and the server and API costs of the Pro features.

I wish I had time to contribute, but I have a full-time job now that demands most of my attention, and plenty of other irons in the fire to take up the rest of my time. All it would take for Mailspring to move forward is for someone to do what I did last winter: step up and start helping.

P.S. Three months is nowhere near “abandoned” in FOSS. You need to adjust your expectations. We’re dealing with a side project here.

5 Likes
#3

That’s barely 2 months, not more than 3…

#4

Well, I understand the problem with the contribution to open source vs day jobs, and I’m grateful for contributors’ efforts to keep OS projects alive.

But the problem with Mailspring is that it is selling subscriptions, and - alongside many people - I bought one hoping to get sth more than Thunderbirds 11-year old issues.

Are there plans to take Mailspring further, beyond just a side hussle?

Thanks,
Peter

1 Like
#5

As @iampeter said, a project with subscription instead of donations or sponsors, should be more active and not a side project.

If it was just a project with some donations or sponsors there would be not that many people complaining that the project might be dead.

So maybe the project must change it’s form of income.

1 Like
#6

@Mailspring team - make a decision, are you backing this project with a commercial effort, or are you going purely OS/side hussle. there is no such thing as a commercial side-project of this sort.

edit: I am paying, and willing to pay, and I believe many people are as well, just keep this project commercial-grade sheesh! you’re in a “shut up and take my money” situation and you’re letting it go!

#7

Hi!
I’m just a (happy) user of mailspring who wanted to give my perspective about this, informed from some of the things I have read from the mailspring team in this forum. The following seems to not be stressed enough: they claim that the money from mailspring pro goes towards covering the mailspring pro features (server, etc) only, and seems that none of the money goes towards paying developers to work on software development. I see two attitudes to take about this: to believe it or to not believe it.
If you do, you should understand that the fact that users pay for pro accounts has nothing to do with the timeline to solve software bugs or improve the project (as long as those bugs are not in the pro features). As long as the pro features work, you are paying for a working service.
If you don’t believe it, you should probably not use a pro account.