Thunderbird:AArch64

Thunderbird on ARM64/AArch64

Arm platforms are the hot thing in 2021 with Microsoft's Windows 10 ARM, Apple Silicon, and Raspberry Pi, Pinephone/Pinebook, and who knows what's next!

This page is to track progress for running Thunderbird natively on ARM64/Aarch64 based platforms. Eventually Thunderbird will support Windows 10 ARM, Apple Silicon, and Linux on ARM64.

Linux Aarch64

Current Status - 2021-01-27

Linux-aarch64 is a Tier 2 platform. Builds are available on Treeherder for comm-central. There is no automatic update support. This will remain a tier 2 platform until either Firefox upgrades it to tier 1 or we have sufficient community interest.

While this build will run on small screens such as a Pinephone, the UI is definitely not optimized for such use. You can still plug most of these devices into a larger screen and use Thunderbird just fine. Firefox has a similar situation. The PostmarketOS team has developed a mobile-config-firefox package to make Firefox easier to use on small screens. It has limitations, but it may be a good starting point for making Thunderbird small screen friendlier.

Known to run on:

- Raspberry Pi 400 - Pinephone

Apple Silicon

Current Status - 2021-01-27

Initial support is expected to land in the Thunderbird 87 dev cycle. Patches are currently being tested on try-comm-central and are expected to hit the review cycle soon. This will be a tier 1 platform.

Windows 10 ARM

Will be completed after Apple Silicon support lands and will be a tier one platform. Currently, it's unknown if OTR chat encryption will be possible due to lack of a supported compiler. (libotr and its dependencies do not build with MSVC-style compilers that are used for building Thunderbird itself. MinGW does not support Windows on ARM.)