Anyone know if/when Thunderbird will start providing native support for Gmail labels (rather than using the less than satisfactory IMAP folder system that is currently used)?
Also think Thunderbird should implement JMAP (Fastmail standard) and/or Google RESTful gmail API because these are open standards worth supporting.
Another feature that I would like to see more fully supported in Thunderbird (through better synchronization with mail provider server back-end) is editing emails, to include most importantly the ability to remove bulky attachments without losing email text or touching important meta-data. Unfortunately gmail treats each email as an immutable object, and the hacks that have been suggested to date to work around this limitation have all been clunky at best.
I am afraid when we start adding gmail specific features at certain point google makes compatibility breaking change and becomes email. The people not using gmail will have to start because of network effect and email died.
Not giving people what they want will drive them away, which is the worst way to keep something open. It’s not like you need proprietary binary blobs to support Gmail...
Now only JMAP exists as a more modern mail standard.