Companies should be laser-focused and, if possible, focus on one thing and do it better than anybody else.

That’s why I think Mozilla’s Thunderbird spinoff is a win-win for everybody. Mozilla understood the opportunity it had, but also understood that it was holding back development. I think it’s a courageous move to make it a separate subsidiary — and a bet, albeit a strong one.

“We have been thinking about what to do with the project,” said Baker, “And decided this was the right move to give it more focus.” Mozilla wants to focus on Firefox and the browser opportunity, she said. There have been very public complaints about bloat coming back to Firefox and lack of innovation. “Thunderbird is a solid client and has an active user base, but we feel it can be more than just an email client,” she said. Thunderbird needs to thrive on its own, she pointed out. In comparison with Firefox, Thunderbird seems to be a step child and gets much fewer resources from Mozilla.

When there’s enough opportunity for two birds to fly (pun not intendend) and one is being held back simply due to a focus / resources problem, it’s pretty obvious what needs to happen.