The old UI was plain and flat. No side menus, no swiping. Using the screen entirely with all important items (inbox, unread, favorites, folders, sync, etc) just one (in words: ONE) click away!
All reachable with just the thumb, even on larger screens.
There was text telling about updating within the app, there was text telling me what is happening when sending a mail.
There was a back button, that was a back button, not a quit button!
There was swiping possible to select mails very fast.
All in all it was lean, fast, easy, reliable, intuitive, informative and stable!
We really do not need to convince anyone as there absolutely was no need to change anything UI wise!
I haven’t spent the time to take a look at the development from 5.6 to 5.8 to see who thought the UI needed a change and more importantly, why!
Nevertheless, when it comes to software development, an update as huge as a breaking change like done to the UI is NOT an update from 5.6 to 5.8!!
It’s not only the new UI ruins everything k-9 was loved for, it’s also hiding change like that within 2 dot-versions! A change that huge needs a major version update as it completely changes the way the app is working! It’s not k-9 anymore! So do a new release “k-10” maybe!
All in all you want an explanation?
So please explain to the users why the devs are acting like script kiddies? Hiding major updates in a minor version bump against all development guidelines? Breaking changes with only 2 betas? A complete new app UI-wise under the label of a quality app? No announcements prior to the update? Why no 5.6.1 update just for announcement of the coming UI changes with a link to the betas, with explanation of the need to do so and a version bump to 6.x or a renaming to k-10?
Again, 5.8 is not k-9 anymore!
Nothing, nada prior to forcing a complete and breaking change!!!
We, the users, need to explain the devs the principles of software development?
Even not MS would put the start menu in the upper right corner and convert the double click principle of windows into a one click principle within a version bump from windows 10 to windows 10.1!!! An update is an update and an upgrade is an upgrade! Major changes need major version bumps.
Acting against all that needs explanations, not vice versa!!!