Thunderbird development stopping

I'm disappointed in the word that Mozilla is stopping development of the Thunderbird e-mail client except for security and stability updates (rough translation - probably not going to see much of that, either).

Yes, it's a Web and cloud-based world, but there's a place for a machine-based client.

The Web interface for my university's email, based as it is on Outlook, is much too clunky and slow. I use the IMAP interface through a client, which just allows me more flexibility in quickly managing my mail or, at times, in downloading things to my machine for when I know I won't have good online access or would have to pay through the nose (like in some airports).

Right now, I use T-bird as backstop. I recommend downloading the SeaMonkey browser package, also from Mozilla. It has integrated e-mail as well as an integrated Web authoring tool. It's the little cousin of Firefox, but I think it should get more attention (although I do wonder sometimes how long Mozilla will keep it going).