[rbut]

K-9 Mail is great. Coming from iOS to a google-less android, I'd be lost without it.

The decision to keep both names is strange though. If its just a name and colour theme, what is the point? Thunderbird already has far more brand recognition, so it makes sense to just switch.

[GrantMoyer]

I've used K-9 for over a decade, and it's the best email client I've ever used, mobile or desktop. I personally have much more fondness for the K-9 brand than the Thunderbird brand, so I appreciate the decision to keep the K-9 branding around, even though I know there's no practical difference.

[Arnt]

It's funded by donations, so what matters in such questions is name recognition by the donors.

[wcallahan]

It seems keeping both names reflects the high degree of opinionated fans in the open source community (for both apps, apparently).

They seem to be taking from the playbook of a merger sharing two names for a transition period to call attrition risk…

I share the view in support of Thunderbird as the future (although I’m an iOS user still so awaiting over here), but was surprised to see some many comments in support of the opposite.

Especially given Thunderbird has been signaling this path for over a year.

And re: your migration to a Google-less mobile experience, I’m right there with you.

It’s still surprisingly difficult to get great email client developers to support basic IMAP/CalDEV/CardDEV functionality (e.g., Superhuman, Missive). It’s the only thing keep me from migrating all accounts to a great host like Fastmail.