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Thunderbird Default Theme Controversy

There's been quite a bit a of recent debate about the default Mozilla Thunderbird theme, which currently includes both Qute and Classic icons. Work from sboulema -- mentioned on a Blogzilla posting a little while back -- has sparked a minor controversy over at MozillaZine.

This controversy really comes down to two major points. The first being a call to arms put forth for the creation of a Thunderbird theme at the client's project page:

We desperately need contributors to help build our default Thunderbird theme (by helping generate our default icons for starters). While we are highly motivated, we just don't have the artistic talent to make this happen.

Later on, it is mentioned that "Arvid Axelsson, the designer of the Qute Theme for Firebird has agreed to develop a matching theme for Thunderbird." This being the case, sboulema (seeing the need for quicker improvement in the client's appearance) decided to put out the effort to build a modification.

When done, he emailed Arvid seeking permission for his work to be put onto a new build. Arvid's response was quite simply no, with little explanation as to why. Thunderbird being an open-source, community-based project, Arvid's response should've (at least in my opinion) been a bit better explained. Therein lies the second point.

This entry is not an attempt to rile more fuss, but hopefully clear issues up a bit. Arvid, broke up the "turmoil" (for most purposes) at MozillaZine:

I'm fairly sure the theme will be fully complete before 0.4, with many improvements to the existing icons as well. There may be some new icons in 0.3 too. While some new stuff is ready, I often "synchronize" different parts of the theme during development to ensure consistency; that makes it easier to release more at the same time.

There you have it folks, Qute will be finished come very soon. And thanks to both Arvid and sboulema for the work they've (independently) been a part of.

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