Latest Thunderbird Email Client Sports Native M1 Support

Mozilla Thunderbird is adding support for the M1 chip, Apple’s custom silicon powering its new Macs.

Mozilla Thunderbird is a full-featured email, calendar, chat and newsfeed app, making it the primary competitor to Microsoft Outlook. The latest release, version 87 beta 1, adds support for Apple’s M1, meaning the program runs natively instead of using the Rosetta 2 translation layer.

Thunderbird was originally under development by the Mozilla Foundation, before spending a couple of years in limbo as Mozilla de-prioritized it in favor of Firefox. In January 2020, Thunderbird was placed under the control of MZLA Technologies Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. This gives the developers the freedom to pursue deals and partnerships to continue growing Thunderbird’s reach.

Thunderbird’s quick support for M1 Macs is good news for customers, and ensures there is a viable, full-featured, open source alternative to Outlook on Apple latest machines.