You are missing the point. It's quite possible no one will pick it up but that's completely different from saying, sarcastically, "But it’s not stopping? Right".
What the above is is ignorance of what it means to develop open source code.
EDIT: an please let's try and stop this trend here on HN of replying to comments ignoring half of them. I wrote "doesn't prevent that project from continuing" not "it will definitely find other people to carry on"
It's TechCrunch, don't expect them to know about software (not that any other major tech publication, except maybe Ars, is any better than TC. Almost none of their writers have the slightest clue about the software).
Actually - TB will die. That is, it'll be maintained, but it wont keep pace. It already did not, while it had PAID employees on it. Now, it's the same, except theres zero paid employees on it.
No one's interested into making it better. Wish I was wrong.
After re-reading the TC article, I think the "Right?" comment has more to do with calling out corporate doublespeak than open source. You're right that nothing is preventing the community from developing Thunderbird, but realistically it appears that there has been very little community contribution in the past so without Mozilla's funding it's a safe prediction that development will virtually stop.
What the above is is ignorance of what it means to develop open source code.
EDIT: an please let's try and stop this trend here on HN of replying to comments ignoring half of them. I wrote "doesn't prevent that project from continuing" not "it will definitely find other people to carry on"