The Rumbling Edge

I am currently on vacation. I will continue to post updates intermittently during these few weeks.

2008-01-02: I'm back! (was impossible to get a reliable / affordable internet connection whilst overseas) Returned to realise that my second-hand 6600GT on the PC rig had failed. Sought to replace it with a 8800GT but it for some reason just couldn't work with a 6 month old ASUS M2V. Ol' well, a 8600GT will make do then.

Continued from part two..

d) Meek STV voting algorithm ("If you are electing multiple people and simplicity is not important, then we recommend Meek STV. Most people agree that Meek STV is the best variant of STV, but it can only be implemented with a computer program." - from OpenSTV FAQ)

Output from OpenSTV: (precision for this case was increased to three decimal places)

Election: Suggested enhancements to Thunderbird in the form of an extension or otherwise.
Method: Meek STV
Number of Ballots: 688
Threshold Name: Droop Dynamic Fractional
14 candidates running for 9 seats.

Round 1: Count of first place rankings.
Candidate Default calendaring support is elected.
Candidate 64-bit support is elected.
Candidate Groupware server integration is elected.
Rounds 2 to 6: Transferring surplus votes. (shortened multiple lines of output)
Eliminating candidate Video conferencing.
Candidate Data synchronization with other devices is elected.
Round 7: Transferring surplus votes.
Candidate Instant messaging is elected.
Round 8: Transferring surplus votes.
Round 9: Transferring surplus votes.
Eliminating candidate Search bar improvements.
Rounds 10 to 14: Transferring surplus votes. (shortened multiple lines of output)
Eliminating candidate Improved migration of data.
Rounds 15 to 20: Transferring surplus votes. (shortened multiple lines of output)
Eliminating candidate Find-as-you-type.
Candidate VOIP is elected.
Round 21: Transferring surplus votes.
Candidate Minimize-to-tray is elected.
Candidate Offline applications is elected.
Rounds 22 to 41: Transferring surplus votes. (shortened multiple lines of output)
Candidate Collapse quotes in messages is elected.

Winners are Default calendaring support, 64-bit support, Groupware server integration, Data synchronization with other devices, Instant messaging, Minimize-to-tray, VOIP, Offline applications, Collapse quotes in messages.

Basing on average scores in the raw reports, here are some ideas for new Thunderbird enhancements, be they extensions or incorporated into the application. Top is default calendaring support, which is already in the form of the extension Lightning, but as yet does not come default with official Thunderbird builds. Aside from that, data synchronization with other devices is also much wanted, followed by search bar improvements (similar to GmailUI). Find-as-you-type (Nostalgy) and collapsing of quotes (Quote Collapse) currently exist as extensions. A notable 44 (6%) respondents regarded "Others" as their top choice; there are other enhancements that they feel are more important but which are not listed here as well.

Edit: Did up using the voting algorithms to list the top 5, instead of using average scores. (For Meek STV, which is known for its accuracy, the top 9 were obtained instead.) This time, the order is different - see the order listed for Meek STV, but nonetheless default calendaring support (Lightning extension) is still the top requested enhancement, no matter which algorithm was used. For some reason, 64-bit support came in second, while groupware integration and data synchronization with other devices came in after that.

Question 7: Do you use the Mac version?

Question 7 results (click for larger image)

	Number	Percentage
No	560	81%
Yes	129	19%
Total	689	100%

Note: Here, there are 689 responses as tracked by SurveyGizmo; someone must have started the survey at this point.

About a fifth of respondents have used the Mac version before. (This question was not phrased very well. On hindsight, it should have asked for the usage of all the operating systems that Thunderbird supports, instead of being Mac-specific.)

Question 8: If yes, rank suggested Mac-specific functionalities. (Note: Mac OS X Address Book integration and support for tabbed messages have already made it to Thunderbird trunk.)

Question 8 results (click for larger image)

	Less important	Important	More important	Total
Ability to search Tbird mail in Spotlight	18% (27)	28% (41)	54% (81)	149
Keychain support to store passwords	22% (33)	27% (40)	51% (76)	149
Mail alerts	27% (40)	45% (66)	28% (42)	148
Others	68% (73)	20% (21)	12% (13)	107

The ability to search Thunderbird mail in Spotlight as well as Keychain support are regarded as being more important than mail alerts. Again, there is this hint of more functionalities being requested instead of other factors.

Question 9: The following lists some ways that Thunderbird could make use of to increase the number of users. Please tick those that apply.

Question 9 results (click for larger image)

	Number	Percentage
More features	371	54%
Better enterprise / consumer level support	327	47%
Improved marketing	289	42%
Involve the community (keep people updated on progress, regular bug days etc.)	289	42%
Improve developer / end-user level documentation	222	32%
Thunderbird for mobile devices	212	31%
Hire many developers	209	30%
Others	84	12%

More than half of the respondents feel that Thunderbird needs more features to attract more users. Next comes improved support for enterprises / end-users, and the marketing and community involvement could also help to increase the number of users. Improvements to documentation, a mobile Thunderbird and the hiring of many developers are statistically tied at the rear of the pack.

Question 10: Please add other relevant comments / options here, if any. (Optional)

An exhaustive list of ideas in no particular order, which include: (some that duplicate the options in some of the previous questions have been removed to avoid replication)

• Many suggestions regarding Calendaring, e.g. free / busy scheduling, task lists, invitations etc.
• Slideshow (like Mail.app in Mac OS X)
• Group mails by relevance
• Improved tagging
• Improved user interface / unclutter the current UI / overhaul of the many menus Thunderbird currently has
• Add progress dialog
• Increased webmail integration
• Encryption of mail storage
• Easy creation of one-click installation of Thunderbird and extensions for deployment in enterprises
• Improved address book features / search in address book
• Replicate the functionality of Outlook & Exchange
• Easier installation of extensions
• Compare with Mail.app; it's always about keeping ahead of the competition
• Roaming profile support
• Mail re-direction feature
• Cut down on memory and CPU use
• Date recognition in Thunderbird -> insert in Lightning straight away
• Co-operate with web programs e.g. social networking sites, webmail, google calendar, instant messengers etc.
• Improved integration with Linux, e.g. KDE, Gnome / Tango icons
• Use tags to group address book entries
• Improve IMAP functionality, i.e. do not download headers for all folders
• "Trainable" spam filter with whitelists
• Improved newsgroup support
• OpenOffice integration
• Improved profile backup and management
• Better nested email view
• Better threaded views
• Simplify font settings
• Dynamic front page
• Change display of headers / customize date format
• Improved filtering system
• Improve followup and business features
• More predictability
• Improved MSI installer support
• Full vCard support in address book
• Create automated test frameworks
• Switch to mozStorage (aka SQLite) for emails and address book entries; mork is obsolete!
• Message templates
• Archive emails & secure them
• Integrate filters with saved searches
• Make it easier to create Thunderbird extensions (similar to FUEL for Firefox?)
• ... and many many more (I've only looked through 4 out of 27 pages, that's 15%, feel free to look through the rest) ...

Anything you feel that could have been done better in this survey?

Ideally, the sample size should be greater than 689, but that was the best I could garner via The Rumbling Edge in three weeks.

Question 3, about the places the respondents go to for support, should have other options such as no support needed and search engines. I should have restructured question 7 (do you use the Mac version?) to reflect on the different operating systems that people make use of, instead of being Mac-only. Oh well, I haven't used Thunderbird long enough on the others to come up with suitable options for them.

There should also be localizations, and a better theme etc., but all these are beyond my personal ability, and the entire survey questions were my brainchild, so this had to make do while I juggled between Thunderbird-related activities, my studies and ice skating =) .

I want to praise / discuss / criticise this. Where should I comment such that you will read my opinions?

Please feel free to comment below. If it is closed, please head to the respective forum threads at Mozilla Labs or MozillaZine.

Will you do up another survey again?

The Mozilla Community Surveys Project was started not too long ago. They have mentioned that Thunderbird-themed surveys will most likely come your way, with better tracking, details, analysis etc. Thus, this may be the first and probably the only one done up in private capacity.

I want to make use of the results in this survey. May I do so?

Sure, please notify and attribute to me, Gary Kwong, if in print, or a live link to The Rumbling Edge or this post will do. (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, see sidebar)

Who are you?

I am currently a university freshman who should be studying for his examinations at the time of writing, and who loves to travel around the world and meet all kinds of people. Long-time Thunderbird contributor too, though working on Thunderbird doesn't fulfill any of my module requirements. (What's the use of studying bubble sort when it's so comparatively inefficient in practice?)

I don't want to read everything above! Can you please summarize?

(Please do not take the results as a gauge of the sentiment of the entire Thunderbird community)

MozillaZine is a popular location for users to head to for Thunderbird information, as well as Planet Mozilla for development news.

Thunderbird 2 is already a great product lauded for its stability and adherence to open standards, but with lots of room for improvement and / or innovation. It could do with more features and functionality, especially improved global search across all accounts and default calendaring support (Lightning). Finally, more could be done about the level of official support, marketing and community involvement of Thunderbird in order to increase its userbase.

Continued from part one..

Question 6: Suggested enhancements to Thunderbird, in the form of an extension or otherwise. (Some may already have been implemented as extensions) (Note: Mac OS X Address Book integration and support for tabbed messages have already made it to Thunderbird trunk.)

Options:

• Default calendaring support
• Data synchronization with PDAs / mobile phones / other stuff
• Search bar improvements (e.g. Search suggestions, advanced operators etc.)
• Find-as-you-type
• Collapse quotes in email / newsgroup messages
• Improved migration of data (e.g. export all emails / selected newsgroup messages based on search criteria using 7z compression etc.)
• Minimize-to-tray
• Groupware server integration (e.g. Kolab)
• Instant messaging
• 64-bit support
• Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
• Offline applications (e.g. integration with Facebook)
• Others
• Video conferencing

The OpenSTV .blt file I used is available here. The various options were used with their default settings.

a) Instant runoff voting algorithm ("If you are electing one person and simplicity is important, then we recommend instant runoff voting. Instant runoff voting is easy to explain and gives good results." - from OpenSTV FAQ)

Output from OpenSTV:

Election: Suggested enhancements to Thunderbird in the form of an extension or otherwise.
Method: IRV
Number of Ballots: 688
14 candidates running for 1 seats.

Round 1: Count of first place rankings.
Round 2: Eliminating candidate Video conferencing.
Round 3: Eliminating candidate Search bar improvements.
Round 4: Eliminating candidate Find-as-you-type.
Round 5: Eliminating candidate Minimize-to-tray.
Round 6: Eliminating candidate Improved migration of data.
Round 7: Eliminating candidate Others.
Round 8: Eliminating candidate Collapse quotes in messages.
Round 9: Eliminating candidate VOIP.
Round 10: Eliminating candidate Offline applications.
Round 11: Eliminating candidate Instant messaging.
Round 12: Eliminating candidate Data synchronization with other devices.
Round 13: Eliminating candidate 64-bit support.
Candidate Default calendaring support is elected.

Winner is Default calendaring support.

b) Condorcet voting algorithm ("If you are electing one person and simplicity is not important, then we recommend Condorcet voting. Most people agree that Condorcet is the best method for electing one person, but it is more difficult to explain." - from OpenSTV FAQ)

Output from OpenSTV:

Election: Suggested enhancements to Thunderbird in the form of an extension or otherwise.
Method: Condorcet
Completion Method: Schwartz Sequential Dropping
Number of Ballots: 688
14 candidates running for 1 seat.

Pairwise Comparison Matrix:

Smith Set: Default calendaring support
No completion necessary since the Smith set has just one candidate.
Winner is Default calendaring support.

c) Scottish STV voting algorithm ("If you are electing multiple people and simplicity is important, then we recommend Scottish STV, as it is the simplest of all the STV methods." - from OpenSTV FAQ)

Output from OpenSTV:

Election: Suggested enhancements to Thunderbird in the form of an extension or otherwise.
Method: Scottish STV
Number of Ballots: 688
Threshold Name: Droop Static Whole
Threshold Value: 115.0
Delayed Transfer of Surplus: Not Enabled.
Batch Elimination: None
14 candidates running for 5 seats.

Round 1: Count of first place rankings.
Candidate Default calendaring support is elected.
Round 2: Transferring surplus votes from candidate Default calendaring support.
Round 3: Eliminating candidate Video conferencing.
Round 4: Eliminating candidate Search bar improvements.
Round 5: Eliminating candidate Improved migration of data.
Round 6: Eliminating candidate Find-as-you-type.
Round 7: Eliminating candidate Collapse quotes in messages.
Candidate 64-bit support is elected.
Round 8: Transferring surplus votes from candidate 64-bit support.
Round 9: Eliminating candidate Minimize-to-tray.
Candidate Groupware server integration is elected.
Round 10: Transferring surplus votes from candidate Groupware server integration.
Round 11: Eliminating candidate Others.
Round 12: Eliminating candidate Offline applications.
Candidate Data synchronization with other devices is elected.
Round 13: Transferring surplus votes from candidate Data synchronization with other devices.
Candidate Instant messaging is elected.

Winners are Default calendaring support, 64-bit support, Groupware server integration, Data synchronization with other devices, Instant messaging.

Continued in part three..

Written on 18 Nov 07, and last updated on 23 Nov 07. (3,000+ words and counting)

Edits till 21 Nov 07: Completed main text.

Edit on 22 Nov 07 till 24 Nov 07: Added Condorcet / other voting algorithms using OpenSTV to determine most preferred choices as suggested by an anonymous commenter. (Two tries; original calculations were borked)

What is this?

The Rumbling Edge Thunderbird 2 survey (version 1) ran for three weeks, from 29 October 2007 till 18 November 2007, and there were just under seven hundred complete responses, a thousand if partial ones are to be included. A similar number (1,022 to be exact) were abandoned. I made use of SurveyGizmo to gather the results from the questions which numbered ten in total though some were optional.

Where do the respondents come from?

The above screenshot capture was taken from SurveyGizmo, just after I closed the survey. As you can see from the image, most respondents (and hence people who know about, are using or have used Thunderbird) are from North America and Europe, though there are others from South America, India, East Asia and Oceania. You can even see responses from Iceland.

The raw reports compiled within SurveyGizmo have been saved into PDF format, both around 50 pages with rounded percentages. (Without partial responses / With partial responses) - thanks to Colin for hosting.

Which report are you referring to?

I am referring to the report without partial responses, as I feel that the information is more likely to be more accurate than if they were included. Anyone is free to come up with their own analysis on the questions on any report though; I'd be glad to link to them from here. I activated randomization of options within the questions so as to reduce the effect of "first option preference" as well. There was no limit on the number of times people could take the survey, though the number who did so is considered to be negligible.

What is the purpose of the survey?

I have been running The Rumbling Edge for more than three years, and with the pending formation of MailCo, I thought it would be a good idea to gather ideas for improvement from the community, especially regarding the future development of Thunderbird 3. No, I am not doing this under the Mozilla Community Surveys Project, it is just something that I do in my free time, so please take the analysis (and maybe the results as well) with an overdose of sodium chloride =) .

Enough of all this. I want to read the analysis now!

Question 1: Please choose the level of expertise you are at for Thunderbird.

Question 1 results (click for larger image)

	Number	Percentage
Power user	413	60%
Average	216	31%
Developer / tester	53	8%
Beginner	6	1%
Total	688	100%

The sample size of 688 were mostly taken from readers of The Rumbling Edge, which may not necessarily be a true reflection of the views of millions of Thunderbird users in the world. This question merely shows the breakdown of the survey respondents, who are mostly power users and average users. Whether the percentages apply to the whole Thunderbird population is anyone's guess at this point in time.

Question 2: How satisfied are you with the current state of Thunderbird? (If unsure, just select "Neutral")

Question 2 results (click for larger image)

	Extremely dissatisfied	Quite dissatisfied	Neutral	Quite satisfied	Extremely satisfied	Total
Adherence to open standards	0% (2)	1% (8)	14% (94)	51% (353)	34% (231)	688
Stability	1% (4)	5% (33)	11% (73)	51% (352)	33% (226)
User interface	2% (11)	10% (71)	19% (133)	59% (403)	10% (70)
Level of functionality	1% (5)	10% (70)	24% (163)	57% (395)	8% (55)
General state of Thunderbird	1% (6)	11% (78)	23% (155)	57% (395)	8% (54)
Total	28	260	618	1,898	636

Sorting according the satisfaction amongst the respondents, it can quite clearly be seen that Thunderbird is popular due to its adherence to open standards and stability (~85% satisfaction for both). People were not as sure about the user interface (~70% satisfaction), while a larger proportion of users were dissatisfied with the level of functionality and the general state of Thunderbird. Though not a large percentage (just over 10% dissatisfied in each), these areas could be where Thunderbird are in need of improvement to gain more users, or even to retain the current ones.

Question 3: Currently, where do you go to obtain Thunderbird support? Please tick those that apply.

Question 3 results (click for larger image)

	Number	Percentage
MozillaZine forums	383	56%
MozillaZine knowledgebase	328	48%
Google *	138	20%
Mozilla newsgroups	128	19%
Others (open-ended)	51	7%
No support needed *	45	7%
IRC via irc.mozilla.org	41	6%
Mozilla feedback form (Hendrix)	14	2%
Bugzilla *	10	1%

Note: * denotes notable answers that were entered in the "others" field.

Most headed to MozillaZine for Thunderbird issues, though a sizable proportion headed to search engines, such as Google, and Mozilla newsgroups. IRC and other places, such as thunderbird-mail.de and geckozone forums made up ~7% each, as did respondents who did not require support. The Hendrix feedback form is virtually unused, while Bugzilla may only appeal to developers, so they bring up the rear.

An underlying indication could be the lack of proper Thunderbird documentation along the lines of an official knowledgebase similar to that for Firefox that is currently in beta form. Negligible numbers made use of the current help documentation found at Thunderbird Help, which can be accessed via the help function within Thunderbird.

Question 4: How do you usually keep track of the development of Thunderbird? (Optional) Please tick those that apply.

Question 4 results (click for larger image)

	Number	Percentage
Planet Mozilla blogs	402	58%
MozillaZine forums	257	37%
Bugzilla	140	20%
The Rumbling Edge *	90	13%
Others (open-ended)	78	11%
Slashdot *	32	5%
IRC via irc.mozilla.org	23	3%
heise.de *	9	1%
Digg *	7	1%
Bonsai *	4	1%

Note: * denotes notable answers that were entered in the "others" field.

A vast majority proceed to Planet Mozilla for their dose of Thunderbird development news, of which The Rumbling Edge is a part of (~70% if combined). MozillaZine forums come in runners-up, followed by Bugzilla. IRC accounts for only 3%, while news sites, such as Slashdot and heise.de, and other sites make up the last ~20%.

Question 5: Rank the following suggested improvements to functionalities that already exist in Thunderbird.

Options to be ranked: (removed raw average scores since they may not tell the whole tale)

• Do not preview spam
• Icon refresh throughout the default UI
• Improved global search (across all types of accounts)
• Improved spam filtering
• More localizations
• More useful homepage
• Other default webmail settings, besides Gmail
• Others

The OpenSTV .blt file I used is available here. The various options were used with their default settings.

a) Instant runoff voting algorithm ("If you are electing one person and simplicity is important, then we recommend instant runoff voting. Instant runoff voting is easy to explain and gives good results." - from OpenSTV FAQ)

Output from OpenSTV:

Election: Rank the following suggested improvements to functionalities that already exist in Thunderbird.
Method: IRV
Number of Ballots: 689
8 candidates running for 1 seats.