[inferiorhuman]

> I have to point out that thunderbird has had IRC and XMPP support for ages so it is not out of character to add another open instant messaging service

Sure and Thunderbird should relegate both IRC and XMPP to community maintained plugins. Ultimately developer time is a zero sum game and Thunderbird is wasting finite resources on fluff while neglecting the core of what's supposed to be an e-mail client.