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andrew.46
March 30th, 2007, 01:35 AM
Hi,

I have been trying a few Usenet readers with varying success and eventually tried Thunderbird. I was a little amazed that it seems a very tidy and modern news reader as well as a decent mail client.

Yet Thunderbird-bashing seems a normal linux sport. Can I ask why there seems to be a prejudice against Thunderbird, why it is officially 'uncool'?

I ask this question partly in genuine interest and partly to stir things up a little :)

Andrew

DigitalDuality
March 30th, 2007, 01:48 AM
d

andrew.46
March 30th, 2007, 02:01 AM
Hi,

I guess to expand on my initial point a little:

I suspect that Thunderbird is actually a great product but is substantially neglected because it carries with it the perceived taint of Windows as well as the label of a noob-email client.

In any survey of 'what mail / news client do you use' there seems to rapidly develop a competition to discuss the most obscure / difficult to use client rather than a discussion of robust and effective software. This competition serves to enhance the 'coolness' of the participants rather than to actually discuss mail / news clients.

Again I am stirring a little but with some genuine issues at heart :)

Andrew

Mateo
March 30th, 2007, 02:07 AM
i haven't used it in a long time, but when I did I thought its rss reader was horrible. that's all I remember, really.

billdotson
March 30th, 2007, 02:36 AM
I like it. I have a plugin that puts it down in the system tray when I minimize.

That plugin = awesome

Nikron
March 30th, 2007, 02:49 AM
Sylpheed Claws > *

I don't like thunderbird because it loads rather slowly on my computer. Claws loads pretty much instantly.

karellen
March 30th, 2007, 02:53 AM
who says it's uncool? I simply use evolution because it has more features that I need, but thunderbird is fine too for mails

picpak
March 30th, 2007, 02:58 AM
Sylpheed Claws > *

I don't like thunderbird because it loads rather slowly on my computer. Claws loads pretty much instantly.

Sylpheed has pretty poor HTML mail support. Thunderbird has it by default, and you can enable it in Opera with the click of a button.

For newsgroups, I use Pan beta. It works great.

FuturePilot
March 30th, 2007, 03:17 AM
I've never heard anyone bash Thunderbird. I use it all the time. It's better than Evolution. Evolution seems to be the one everyone bashes. I like Thunderbird.

DarkDancer
March 30th, 2007, 04:19 AM
I use Thunderbird. I tried out Evolution and didn't like it, I can't remember why, somthing about the way it handled addressing e-mails I think....

rolando2424
March 30th, 2007, 04:35 AM
I use Thunderbird, all the way back when I used Windows (Sorry Outlook...).

I did take a quick glimpse at Evolution, but that's all...

dbbolton
March 30th, 2007, 05:09 AM
thunderbird IZ THE SHIZ

Anthem
March 30th, 2007, 05:34 AM
T-Bird is great. I'm all-Gmail now, but Thunderbird is a very good program.

It's not a legit contender, though, until it gets calendar support.

adam.tropics
March 30th, 2007, 07:16 AM
T-Bird is great. I'm all-Gmail now, but Thunderbird is a very good program.

It's not a legit contender, though, until it gets calendar support.

+1

OffHand
March 30th, 2007, 07:24 AM
T-Bird is great. I'm all-Gmail now, but Thunderbird is a very good program.

It's not a legit contender, though, until it gets calendar support.

There is a plugin called Lightning that works great.

karellen
March 30th, 2007, 07:26 AM
I like evolution and I use it exclusively (in xp I use office outlook 2007, which I find sluggish but has the best text formatting capabilities and it's well integrated with the office suite). but in ubuntu evolution has calendar, tasks, memos. and that's what was my primary choice for a pim

Kindred
March 30th, 2007, 08:26 AM
Sylpheed has pretty poor HTML mail support.

Hey, that's a feature.


I don't mind Thunderbird.. I use Sylpheed mostly because it starts up quicker, my requirements are pretty easy to meet.

Rhapsody
March 30th, 2007, 09:23 AM
I personally use Thunderbird, but I can't help but feel that it's a bit neglected next to Firefox. The Firefox 2.0 branch has been out for months now and is at 2.0.0.3, but Thunderbird is still languishing in the 1.5 branch, with 2.0 RC1 still at least a few days off.

Arathorn
March 30th, 2007, 10:18 AM
I love Thunderbird. It has a good learning spam filter and has a good interface. The only problem is the lack of love it gets from the Mozilla devs. Tb and FF were supposed to be released concurrently, but we've had Firefox 2.x for ages and we're still stuck with a Thunderbird beta.

Mykewl
March 31st, 2007, 06:24 AM
I use Thunderbird to read my Gmail.
When i began using Firefox a long
time ago I decided to use Thunderbird
as well. I like them both and saw no
need to change when I dropped
Windows and began using Ubuntu.

Arisna
March 31st, 2007, 06:45 AM
gernerally.... my e-mail app preference goes this way

evolution < thunderbird < kontact

Same here. I find Evolution's calendar component too buggy. Thunderbird is good for e-mail but I want something that integrates well with KDE.

On another note, discussions of any type of Free software--distributions, text editors, e-mail, etc.--are always influenced in an odd way by what is obscure/hard to use.

DSn0wMan
March 31st, 2007, 07:14 AM
I use thunderbird. When I decided to try evolution I found that it was a little buggy on my system, and not very intuative.

I really wish Zimbra would make a fat client to compete with these guys. The Zimbra webmail rocks, but you need to be connecting to a Zimbra server.

colinleroy
April 1st, 2007, 01:37 PM
Sylpheed has pretty poor HTML mail support.

He was not talking about Sylpheed, but Claws.

notanatheist
May 8th, 2007, 08:41 AM
I would have to agree on Evolution bashing and not Thunderbird. I recently switched on my laptop because it was easier to rsync the files between computers and requirements are a lot lower. I don't have Gnome or KDE on my desktop so I like minimalist with an interface when possible. I use Gnome on my laptop as a convienance for all the power management features. When I have more time I'll probably configure Gkrellm with all my options and swith to Fluxbox w/ FF & TB.

GSF1200S
May 22nd, 2007, 01:23 PM
Kind of reviving a dead post (2 weeks old). Thunderbird can actually be quite nice, so long as a little time is put into extensions. The main complaints Ive heard for Tbird are mostly covered below...

I have a calender (todo list, alarm, appointments,etc), a contacts list, a text zooming feature, I receive my sound of choice as well as a new mail icon in the system tray and a popup email notification. While it took a little time and investigating, tbird does all that I need it to.. I prefer Tbird over Kmail or Evolution, although all of them are quite good as far as Im concerned.

The screenshot shows the new mail notifications as well as the calender/contacts pane. I used the following extensions and tips:

1) http://moztraybiff.mozdev.org/ This places an icon in the system tray when a new email is received.
2) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2610 Extension that allows custom sound and causes a popup notification.
3) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/70 Contact Pane extension
4) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313 Lightning extension (Integrated Calender)
5) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2540 Extension for zoom controls placed in the panel

And for you KDE heads out there:

1) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/423 AboutConfig extension. You can just dig through your filesystem to find this file, but I prefer to have it available on my toolbar.


You can now use the kde file dialog in Firefox 2.0 by going to about:config
and changing the value of the key
"ui.allow_platform_file_picker" to "false".
Reference: http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=13967

Cheers!

**EDIT** I forgot that some of these extensions require Thunderbird 2.0 to use. The repos currently only offer Thunderbird 1.5. Instructions on getting the latest Tbird can be found here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ThunderbirdNewVersion

ThinkBuntu
May 22nd, 2007, 01:38 PM
Who really cares if an email client is for "NOOB"s? I use Thunderbird, and it does everything I need it to. Checks all four inboxes every five minutes, raises a message if I have anything new, and overall is superb. I don't use it heavily, but I'm certainly in it every day. Sort of a requirement, because especially with Gmail, I really don't feel comfortable just leaving 4000+ messages in cyberspace for the next hacker to grab.

Bachstelze
May 22nd, 2007, 01:42 PM
Thunderbird in unKool beKause there's no K in it :p

forrestcupp
May 22nd, 2007, 03:02 PM
1) http://moztraybiff.mozdev.org/ This places an icon in the system tray when a new email is received.



I couldn't get that one to work properly. I found that it was easier to install Alltray, and open Thunderbird with that. Alltray will put anything in the tray. I'm using Gnome, and I added this to the startup programs in Sessions:

alltray mozilla-thunderbird
And it loads up in my tray automatically when I start up. In my preferences it already has an option to customize the sound it plays when a new message arrives. I am using v.1.5.

I will have to check out the lightening plugin, though.

Sepp1
May 22nd, 2007, 03:29 PM
I use TB on my Vistabox, and Evolution on my Ubuntu laptop. I really didn't choose Evolution, It just was there, as part of the Ubuntu install.
I wouldn't really care if anything got tagged as uncool though. lot of things get bashed on the internet, and bashing is like picking on someone - it spreads, primarily on the picking side.

ticopelp
May 22nd, 2007, 07:50 PM
Huh. I've been using it for years and this is the first I've heard of it being "uncool."

lepz
May 22nd, 2007, 07:56 PM
Why is Thunderbird 'uncool'??

As soon as I found out Lady Penelope wasn't involved I wanted nothing to do with it.

http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/5576/ladypenelopekl6.th.jpg (http://img478.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ladypenelopekl6.jpg)

GSF1200S
May 23rd, 2007, 12:38 AM
I couldn't get that one to work properly. I found that it was easier to install Alltray, and open Thunderbird with that. Alltray will put anything in the tray. I'm using Gnome, and I added this to the startup programs in Sessions:

alltray mozilla-thunderbird
And it loads up in my tray automatically when I start up. In my preferences it already has an option to customize the sound it plays when a new message arrives. I am using v.1.5.

I will have to check out the lightening plugin, though.

Yeah, the reason the icon didnt work for you is because youre on 1.5. Once I updated to 2.0, it worked perfect. I also use alltray, especially for tbird and firefox..

ButteBlues
May 23rd, 2007, 01:10 AM
where thurderbird loses, is not having pop up for new messages, no spam assasin integration, and it's a bit sluggish.

Funny thing is, you just stated the exact opposite of how Thunderbird 2 is. :eek:

arbulus
May 23rd, 2007, 03:56 PM
I love Thunderbird.
I don't care for Evolution much simply because I don't need everything that it can do. I don't need an Outlook clone. Plus you can get extensions and themes for Thunderbird, which I enjoy.

Thunderbird + Lighning is a perfect setup for me.

Mateo
May 23rd, 2007, 05:17 PM
Thunderbird has terrible usenet, terrible RSS reader. If you can't do something right, don't even try. just adds up to bulk in the program. Thunderbird should be a MAIL client.

arbulus
May 23rd, 2007, 06:09 PM
Thunderbird has terrible usenet, terrible RSS reader. If you can't do something right, don't even try. just adds up to bulk in the program. Thunderbird should be a MAIL client.

Wow, I don't think I realized many people still used Usenet. And I always view my RSS as live bookmarks in Firefox, so I've never really encountered those aspects of Thunderbird.

It's a great mail client though.

Koori23
May 23rd, 2007, 06:09 PM
I've actually never heard of Thunderbird bashing.. Other than the "It's bloated" argument. Maybe I'm just behind the times.

kwaanens
May 28th, 2007, 12:40 PM
If Thunderbird doesn't do RSS or usenet good enough [1], then why use RSS and usenet with Thunderbird? Albeit, RSS and usenet are both somewhat similar to e-mail (you get "messages"), it is not e-mail, and isn't necessarily something that even should be handled with your e-mail client to begin with.

Anyway, I use Thunderbird, and my annoyances are these:
1. It doesn't look very good. There are Human & Tango themes for Firefox in the Ubunto repo. They're easy enough to make, so why not make some for Thunderbird? [2]
2. It doesn't have a calendar. Lightning is crawling in terms of development, and it doesn't even come close to Evolution calendar anyway. Why not make a Thunderbird-[Evolution-calendar] plugin, making the two communicate on the following aspects: unified adressbook, unified calendar, unified theming/skinning/whatever? Splitting Evolution into several modules would ease this.
3. It doesn't have a lot of extensions either. There are 350-something listed on addons, but many of these are old, or for Windows and/or Mac only. In Firefox there are an insane amount of extensions. I don't really know what I can't live without in Thunderbird, but there are areas that could be covered. (I'm serious here: When I look at the list of Firefox extensions I think: a. How do people come up with this stuff?, and b. How did I live without it? I need this experience with Thunderbird. Like split windows and showcase in Firefox.)
4. It doesn't integrate well with Gnome/Nautilus/whatever (This is a crucial point)
5. It's slow in development compared to Firefox. Really slow.

Now, the last point covers many applications besides Thunderbird:

6. Apps in general are starting to look old. Compared to the current development in eye candy, where are the eye-candied icons (like all things tango-ed), the rounded edges (inside windows, the window decorator takes care of the oustides)? If you don't understand what I'm talking about, take a look at the apps mentioned in this post: http://anotherugly.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/exciting-times-for-linux/
There is a solution to this: A lot of apps are skinnable/themable in some way. Why not make a deb called eyecandy-all that sets up all applications to look better? Some extensions for Firefox and Thunderbird, the change widgets for Firefox (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=369596) stuff, making Wine look better with a better theme, making KDE look Gnome-ish, etc. All these mentioned here, at the top of my hat, are featured on Ubuntuforums already, but they take a lot of time, and could easily be handled in one easy deb.

To me, there is no alternative to Thunderbird. Evolution lacks so much, and there isn't even an easy way to import all my Thunderbird stuff into Evolution. But Thunderbird has a long way to go...

- Ketil

Footnotes:
[1] What excactly are the grievances with NNTP and RSS on Thunderbird anyway? What are the tools you're lacking? I've been using news with Thunderbird since 0.5 (or thereabouts) and RSS since it was implemented, and think it works fine. I actually prefer the RSS setup with Thunderbird over Liferea. (Using Liferea on my multimedia-box, where I don't need e-mail, in order to get some basic handling on music-relevant RSS-feeds, like Dime.)
[2] I would try myself, but I suck at drawing...

brim4brim
May 28th, 2007, 02:13 PM
I think both Thunderbird and Evolution suck. Thunderbird looks amateurish and takes too long to load for a simple mail app. Evolution is just like Outlook and I have to use that at work (hate it).

I use gmail's interface for mail because it is the easiest way to use my mail. I'd love if I could get a gmail like desktop mail app.

kwaanens
May 28th, 2007, 02:29 PM
I use gmail's interface for mail because it is the easiest way to use my mail. I'd love if I could get a gmail like desktop mail app.

Did you try GmailUI (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/1339) for Thunderbird?

- Ketil

Maupertus
November 26th, 2007, 11:43 PM
I love Evolution because it never ceases to amaze me. Every time I want to do something and think: "D*mn, I wish Evo could do that for me." I look on the forums or in the Help, or have a good scrounge around the program and find a solution.

I love the calendar version and the tasks and memo's. If only rss was better, I would be very very happy, now I'm just very happy.

Don't get me wrong, I have no real technical issue why I like evo best, but for some reason it just works for me, I even think I have a better setup with Evo then I have with Outlook, which I used to use at work.

If only it could sync with my SE P1i, I would throw away Windows right now. :D

jrusso2
November 27th, 2007, 12:10 AM
I have tried all the email clients and Thunderbird is the best. It has good junk filtering. A basic news reader. With Lightning plugin it has a good calendar and task list and it has a plugin that allows that calendar to synch with Google Calendar.

Pretty darn good if you ask me. Plus any security issues are fixed quickly.

defenestratos
November 28th, 2007, 09:40 AM
Nowadays with all of these online solutions like Gmail ad nauseum, what indeed is the real use for an email client for me and you? I understand it for people on the run who don't have internet access all the time but otherwise...

DSn0wMan
November 28th, 2007, 08:56 PM
Nowadays with all of these online solutions like Gmail ad nauseum, what indeed is the real use for an email client for me and you? I understand it for people on the run who don't have internet access all the time but otherwise...

As long as you have ... let's say more than one web mail account it is much easier to have thunderbird snag all your mail for you and put it in one place. Don't forget the handy option to not delete mail from the server.

crimesaucer
November 28th, 2007, 09:28 PM
I like both Gmail and Thunderbird.

Thunderbird is able to have all of my different pop3 accounts in one place, I could even add Gmail to it if I didn't like having customized Gmail skins so much.

My Thunderbird 1280x800 view: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-98-3.png
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-98-4.png


My Gmail 1280x800 view: http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-99-3.png
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/crimesaucer/Screenshot-99-4.png

TSanchess
December 8th, 2008, 09:38 PM
I like both Gmail and Thunderbird.


Hi, Сrimesaucer! Your screens of Thunderbird and Gmail look absolutely amazing! I've searched the web for tips on making Thunderbird look nicer, but nothing compares to what you have. How did you achive this? Could you possibly explain how you made Thunderbird look so cool? Please)

strawberry fields 4ever)

speedwell68
December 8th, 2008, 10:08 PM
I started using Thunderbird in XP, as it knocks the hell out of Outlook Express. I just continued using it under Ubuntu, because it is the mail client I was used to. Two years on I see no reason to change it as my mail client as it works so well. I wouldn't know about how it handles RSS as I don't really use RSS. Thunderbird is a bit basic when you first install it, just like Firefox. But I see that as a good thing as I like software that is easily customisable. I certainly wouldn't be worried if others considered my mail client as being cool or not, I don't choose software on the basis that girls will find me more attractive if I use it. Mail clients should be judged on their stablity and ease of use.

Sealbhach
December 9th, 2008, 12:52 AM
I use Thunderbird to read my Yahoo mail and for RSS. It's OK for anything I need to do. One thing it doesn't do though, is play flash videos. I think that coming in TB3.


.

crimesaucer
December 9th, 2008, 10:40 PM
Hi, Сrimesaucer! Your screens of Thunderbird and Gmail look absolutely amazing! I've searched the web for tips on making Thunderbird look nicer, but nothing compares to what you have. How did you achive this? Could you possibly explain how you made Thunderbird look so cool? Please)

strawberry fields 4ever)

Thanks for the complements, this was a pretty old post.... over a year ago.


I also got your private message and I wrote a long description of how to edit a Stylish script for gmail to look like that. I also included this tip for Thunderbird that I'm going to post for others since it's a Thunderbird thread:


To get Thunderbird to look like that, all I did was add my own icons (that were a custom mod of the UbuntuStudio icons). The theme was a regular clearlooks-glossy gtk that I also made.


A good way to change the Thunderbird icons is with the app called "File-Roller". You can open up the "classic.jar" file and change the Thunderbird mail-toolbar.png with the one that you make yourself using GIMP.


To change the default mail-toolbar.png, use File-Roller in root (gksu), and open up the classic.jar file located at:


/usr/lib/thunderbird-2.0/chrome/classic.jar


Then goto this folder in the open jar file:


/skin/classic/messenger/icons/mail-toolbar.png


..... and click the "Add Files" button to add and replace the "mail-toolbar.png" with you new homemade one.


Just make sure your 2 "mail-toolbar.png" images have the same number icons, in the same order, and the same exact pixel size.


It's easy to make your own "mail-toolbar.png" by copying the default Thunderbird toolbar to your home folder. Then open it up in GIMP and add a translucent 2nd layer over it. Next add your same size icons to the correct places with "Open as Layers", then delete the old default layer and save the new mail-toolbar.png as the same name and install it with "gksu file-roller" like I said above.


Now when you restart Thunderbird it should use you new icons.


It really is easier then it sounds. Here is the default Thunderbird mail-toolbar.png:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar.png


and this is an old purple version I did last year with GIMP:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar-1.png

klange
December 9th, 2008, 11:40 PM
Thunderbird 3 / Shredder will be getting a new Tango/GTK-icons theme fairly soon, but I ended up switching to personal webmail too early to care.

@crimesaucer: "Mail/News Client"? That's not very original, is it a default in Arch/whatever, or is it something you put there yourself?

crimesaucer
December 9th, 2008, 11:51 PM
@crimesaucer: "Mail/News Client"? That's not very original, is it a default in Arch/whatever, or is it something you put there yourself?

After wondering what the hell you were talking about, I see that you were talking about the default Thundebird greeting that is in every Thunderbird app since the very first versions. (the big blue "Welcome To Mail/News Client")


No, that is not what we were talking about. I was talking about the custom made icons I was using in Thunderbird. The ones that I made using the UbuntuStudio icons..... except for in different colors (black/orange in the Thunderbird picture and purple/orange in the mail-toolbar.png image)


And at that time last year (when my 1st post was made), no none had even made the UbuntuStudio icon pack in a black color yet (I had but I never shared it because it wasn't a complete icon pack), nor had they made a Thunderbird version of it..... and Firefox didn't even use Linux icons yet, so I even made those Toolbar icons in the Firefox picture..... which was pretty original then..... back before Firefox 3 ever used Linux icons and widgets. (notice the userchrome on the tab-bar background I had made to match the clearlooks-glossy)


These are a few others that I made to match my custom icon packs:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar-2.png

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar-small.png

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar-3.png

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbarBROWN.png

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/mail-toolbar-1.png


I had a bunch of other ones that I lost..... I'm pretty much done using these UbuntuStudio icon now that I use the hydroxygen icon pack.

klange
December 10th, 2008, 12:27 AM
My comment was completely unrelated to the current discussion and simply a reaction to the image you posted earlier of your Thunderbird client. It is my understanding that Thunderbird has always said "Welcome to Thunderbird...", or as in development builds, "Welcome to Shredder", not "Mail/News Client".
My first comment was not related to your post, but rather to the overall idea of icons and integration with a typical desktop environment.

e: I just noticed how old that post was. Who bumped this in the first place and why?

crimesaucer
December 10th, 2008, 12:40 AM
My comment was completely unrelated to the current discussion and simply a reaction to the image you posted earlier of your Thunderbird client. It is my understanding that Thunderbird has always said "Welcome to Thunderbird...", or as in development builds, "Welcome to Shredder", not "Mail/News Client".
My first comment was not related to your post, but rather to the overall idea of icons and integration with a typical desktop environment.

Well your "reaction" and comment is off because the image I posted was:


NOT ABOUT THE "WELOCME TO THUNDERBIRD" PAGE. IT WAS ONLY ABOUT THE UBUNTU STUDIO ICON THEME THAT I WAS USING.


..... which at that time (over a year ago), the only Linux themes available for Thunderbird were Human and Tango.....

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-98-3-1.png
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-98-3.png

and for Firefox before it used Linux icons and widgets:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-99-3-1.png
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr169/Arch-newb/Screenshot-99-3.png


And my comments have had nothing to do about your "Thunderbird 3 tango comment"......


.....yet the funny thing about this conversation is that the "NEW tango icons and gtk theme for ThunBird 3" that you are also commenting about..... was what my "Unoriginal" theme was accomplishing last freaking year..... back when Thunderbird 2 had just come out with the ability to use a default Linux gtk theme..... but no way to use the default Linux icons unless you installed your own like I described above. (or if you used the default Human or Tango icons then you could install a Thunderbird theme like Human or Tango.)


/rant

tdrusk
December 10th, 2008, 03:26 AM
Alpine...

It's actually pretty great for a quick email.

I usually use Gmail in Firefox.

Rhapsody
December 10th, 2008, 03:40 AM
I'm using KMail these days (I got tired of slow Thunderbird updates) but may give Thunderbird another go once 3.0 is out. I'm also looking at Mutt and Alpine. I should be using more terminal apps.

xarte
December 10th, 2008, 04:37 AM
I used it for a while on my Mac, and was very frustrated to find that I couldn't bulk-export my vast collection of email to Mac Mail or Entourage. I tried going through various intermediary processes and programs, but couldn't find a workable solution.

pt123
December 11th, 2008, 10:07 AM
Ars had an article about the Thunderbird 3 beta and the GUI is very appealing, and there are more screenshots on Thunderbird's head's blog
http://ascher.ca/blog/2008/12/09/thunderbird-3-beta-1-a-platform-for-innovation-shapes-up/
It seems to have unqiue enticing features.

w1tebear
December 12th, 2008, 01:18 AM
Hi Thunderbird fans!

This may not be the right thread for this question, but I could not find another one that appeared applicable and there seem to be some folks who understand Thunderbird well on this thread.

I am a longtime thunderbird user but have recently realized that the email I forward no longer contains its images. I don't know how long this has been the case as I rarely forward to myself. I have tried forwarding inline and as an attachment but still no images.

I have Thunderbird v2.0.0.17, Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (2.6.22-15-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 18:39:13 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux).

Can anyone point me to where my problem is?

MikeTheC
December 12th, 2008, 05:54 AM
My experience with Thunderbird on Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux pretty much is in line with what many others have said about performance. The thing is just sluggish as heck.

One thing I really like about it, though (which is also something I used to like about Outlook 2000 and 2003) is the ease with which you can set up a filtering "mail room" of sorts. It worked really well, and it's something Apple would do well to emulate in Mail (which has got to be one of the worst email clients of recent memory, and that's coming from a Mac user.)

andrew.46
January 1st, 2009, 12:12 AM
Hi,

I was amazed, as the Original Poster of this thread, that it is still going :-). Since starting the thread I have not only been away from Ubuntu and returned but I have moved from Thunderbird completely and now use slrn for news and mutt for email.

And this thread has been going for over a year!

Andrew

Kernel Sanders
January 1st, 2009, 01:33 AM
Thunderbird is Firefox's neglected cousin. It's barely being worked on in comparison to Firefox.

Evolution is better, and to be frank, most people are using Gmail. Thunderbird is a fringe project. FAIL.

doorknob60
January 1st, 2009, 01:37 AM
I like Thunderbird, it's not the greatest, but I like it. I prefer simply using gmail.com though.

Corfy
January 1st, 2009, 01:52 AM
I use Thunderbird on my Windows computer at work for my personal mail. I used to use it on my Linux computer until I needed a program to sync my Palm. I switched to Evolution at that point. As an email program, I still prefer Thunderbird, but Evolution is a more versatile PIM (Personal Information Manager).

pt123
January 1st, 2009, 03:13 AM
Thunderbird is Firefox's neglected cousin. It's barely being worked on in comparison to Firefox.

Not since Mozilla created a new company for Thunderbird
v3 has many new cool features

http://ascher.ca/blog/2008/12/09/thunderbird-3-beta-1-a-platform-for-innovation-shapes-up/

wolfen69
January 1st, 2009, 03:50 AM
Thunderbird is Firefox's neglected cousin. It's barely being worked on in comparison to Firefox.

Evolution is better, and to be frank, most people are using Gmail. Thunderbird is a fringe project. FAIL.

why does it fail? because you say it does? i have 3 gmail accounts and it's wonderful for checking all 3 at the click of a button. it does what i need. isn't that what computing is about?

give me proof as to it barely being worked on. not that it matters. it's an email/newsreader client for god's sake.

wolfen69
January 1st, 2009, 03:53 AM
I like Thunderbird, it's not the greatest, but I like it. I prefer simply using gmail.com though.

i guess it doesn't matter if you only have 1 gmail account, but if you have multiple accounts, thunderbird is good.

Dr Small
January 1st, 2009, 03:58 AM
I detest mail clients (save mutt). SquirrelMail on the LAN works swell for me :)

northwestuntu
January 1st, 2009, 04:08 AM
thunderbird is good, but to me online email is the way to go.

JDorfler
January 1st, 2009, 04:20 AM
As someone that triple boots, I find Thunderbird a God send. It's too easy to synchronize all my email no matter which OS I am in.

jrusso2
January 1st, 2009, 07:00 AM
If I was concerned with being cool I would use OS X not Linux.

wolfen69
January 1st, 2009, 07:45 AM
thunderbird is good, but to me online email is the way to go.

ummm, thunderbird is online email. TB is online and does the same thing that going to www.gmail.com does. except that opening thunderbird launches all 3 accounts at once. everything you do in thunderbird is the same as logging in online.

phrostbyte
January 1st, 2009, 08:14 AM
I used Thunderbird on Windows, it was pretty good.

On Linux I use Evolution. I think it has improved a ton in the past 2 years. It's actually a very good E-Mail client.

spupy
January 1st, 2009, 10:51 AM
I like Evolution for the calendar/to-do/contacts stuff.
Thunderbird scores major points for customizability (what a word?). I like to be able to change the look of the programs that I use, and in Evolution I can't even move the icons on the toolbar.
I'm still strongly considering trying Evolution again, but that means I have to edit the source to change the interface to my likings (I've done this before with many other programs). While thunderbird has the plugins to take care of this stuff.

FishRCynic
January 2nd, 2009, 01:40 PM
thunderbird was the simplest to cross platform - triple boot vista/xp/hardy
laptop used vista partition mail location for all 3 - access the exact same files from each os - no synchronizing necessary.

dual boot intrepid64/vista64 works the same way

and multiple email account support is simply excellent.

it works.

evolving_monkey
January 5th, 2009, 12:34 AM
In terms of Evolution vs Thunderbird, the only real benefit I see with Evolution is that it works with Exchange Server and Thunderbird does not.

I use Thunderbird for personal because I multi-boot and can share the mail folders on a common drive with Windows or other operating systems. At work I use Evolution because we use Exchange Server.

In the end I like Thunderbird better. Thunderbird tends to be easier on resources and can be made feature rich with addons (e.g. Lightning for calendars).

Just my personal opinion. I don't really get the "uncool" thing (unless you talk to someone who really wants to stick with GNU/Linux. In that case you would probably have been referred to Icedove. I try to stick with GNU/Linux on servers when possible). Everything has a place and it just depends on how you're going to use it.

ender4
January 6th, 2009, 11:36 PM
Thunderbird score major points for customizability (what a word?). I like to be able to change the look of the programs that I use

I strongly agree, cuztomizability is what won me over for both firefox and thunderbird, while i was still using windows.

geoken
January 7th, 2009, 02:49 AM
I like the fact that Thunderbird can use my contacts from google contacts, has two way sync with gcal and obviously supports imap.

At this point gmail is essentially a free exchange server with all the integration Thunderbird provides.

I tried to use gmail's web interface, I even went so far as to install prism and create a gmail prism web app so I could launch it with a minimal browser UI and handy menu/panel shortcuts but I always found the web based UI extremely cumbersome and slow.

GMU_DodgyHodgy
January 7th, 2009, 03:27 AM
Since I have switched totally to Ubuntu(linux) - I have found that I prefer Evolution over Thunderbird because it has all the functionality I need as a PIM and it integrates exceptionally well with the Gnome desktop. It has improved significantly over the past few years and does benefit from the investments made by Novell.

Its the same reason I prefer Epiphany over Firefox - Firefox runs slow on my machine - Epiphany is much faster and integrates with the Gnome desktop.

bruce89
January 7th, 2009, 03:52 AM
Since I have switched totally to Ubuntu(linux) - I have found that I prefer Evolution over Thunderbird because it has all the functionality I need as a PIM and it integrates exceptionally well with the Gnome desktop. It has improved significantly over the past few years and does benefit from the investments made by Novell.

Its the same reason I prefer Epiphany over Firefox - Firefox runs slow on my machine - Epiphany is much faster and integrates with the Gnome desktop.

Indeed, but Epiphany shouldn't be faster (yet) as it uses the Mozilla rendering engine (ATM).

Cl0ud9
January 7th, 2009, 04:03 AM
I have found alpine to be the best e-mail client.

jrusso2
January 7th, 2009, 07:29 AM
Men as so funny being worried about what's cool enough for them to use. Thunderbird not cool enough, And Ubuntu not cool enough. I never met a woman that cared about such things.

sharon.gmc
January 7th, 2009, 07:54 AM
I've been using thunderbird and I actually think it's a great product. . .

pbpersson
January 7th, 2009, 08:09 AM
When I switched to Linux I needed an email package where I could easily import my 12 year's worth of emails from Outlook. Thunderbird allowed me to do this and I have never looked to switch.

dannybuntu
January 7th, 2009, 01:29 PM
Because it is trying to look like Microsoft Outlook when it aint.

sefs
January 7th, 2009, 03:02 PM
There is some integration I think ...

see attached png.


gernerally.... my e-mail app preference goes this way

evolution < thunderbird < kontact

where thurderbird loses, is not having pop up for new messages, not easily integrated with clam or other antivirus solutions, no spam assasin integration, and it's a bit sluggish.

i like it, just like i like firefox. but i opt for opera purely for page rendering speed. mozilla is just sluggish on linux.

sefs
January 7th, 2009, 03:52 PM
Isn't there a sunbird plugin for calendar support?


T-Bird is great. I'm all-Gmail now, but Thunderbird is a very good program.

It's not a legit contender, though, until it gets calendar support.

tjwoosta
January 7th, 2009, 04:56 PM
who said thinderbird is "uncool"?

i like thunderbird just fine, but i opt for evolution because of its features



I suspect that Thunderbird is actually a great product but is substantially neglected because it carries with it the perceived taint of Windows as well as the label of a noob-email client.

whoever decided an email client isn't good enough (because its too "noob") is obviously an idiot

i mean seriously it just an email client

would you prefer a CLI email client?
http://www.cli-apps.org/content/show.php/Alpine?content=94193&PHPSESSID=81700a3f67c5801233d3f2d31cf3fd8f

forrestcupp
January 7th, 2009, 05:56 PM
When I got a pocketpc phone, I started using Evolution because you can't sync with Thunderbird unless you're using Windows and buy BirdieSync for around $40.

I've always been a Thunderbird guy, but now that I have Evolution set up, I like it better. In Thunderbird, if your contacts have multiple email addresses, you can only select the default address. To use an alternate address, you have to actually open that contact and copy/paste it into the To: bar. That's crazy. In Evolution, when you click the To: button, it lists all email addresses you have saved.

The bad thing about Evolution is that it is slightly more work to have emails from multiple accounts go to separate folders.


ummm, thunderbird is online email. TB is online and does the same thing that going to www.gmail.com does. except that opening thunderbird launches all 3 accounts at once. everything you do in thunderbird is the same as logging in online.I think he meant "web mail". The benefit of web mail is that you can check your email on any computer.


Isn't there a sunbird plugin for calendar support?Sunbird is pretty much what evolved into Thunderbird. You're thinking of Lightening, which adds calendar support to Thunderbird.

bryonak
January 7th, 2009, 06:10 PM
who said thinderbird is "uncool"?


There was this cute girl, sitting around and waiting for something.
I decided it was worth a try and approached her.
"Hi there, I'm a Thunderbird Guy!"
She looked at me blankly and said nothing.
"You know, Thunderbird, the email client?"
Still nothing.
"Ain't that cool, eh?"
A slightly frustrated "Not really" was the only answer.

That day I learned that Thunderbird simply wasn't cool.

(Disclaimer: I'm a happy Thunderbird user)

Corfy
January 7th, 2009, 06:30 PM
Sunbird is pretty much what evolved into Thunderbird. You're thinking of Lightening, which adds calendar support to Thunderbird.

Sunbird is not Thunderbird.

Sunbird is a stand-alone calendar program. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Lightning is the same calendar program only integrated into Thunderbird. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/

If you use Thunderbird and want a calendar, use Lightning. If you don't use Thunderbird and want a calendar, or if you don't want your calendar integrated into Thunderbird, use Sunbird.

-grubby
January 7th, 2009, 06:33 PM
Indeed, but Epiphany shouldn't be faster (yet) as it uses the Mozilla rendering engine (ATM).

More than the rendering engine affects browser speed (I am NOT talking about rendering speed).

tjwoosta
January 7th, 2009, 07:10 PM
There was this cute girl, sitting around and waiting for something.
I decided it was worth a try and approached her.
"Hi there, I'm a Thunderbird Guy!"
She looked at me blankly and said nothing.
"You know, Thunderbird, the email client?"
Still nothing.
"Ain't that cool, eh?"
A slightly frustrated "Not really" was the only answer.

That day I learned that Thunderbird simply wasn't cool.

(Disclaimer: I'm a happy Thunderbird user)


lol

yea i guess you got me there

forrestcupp
January 7th, 2009, 07:12 PM
Sunbird is not Thunderbird.

Sunbird is a stand-alone calendar program. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

Lightning is the same calendar program only integrated into Thunderbird. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/

If you use Thunderbird and want a calendar, use Lightning. If you don't use Thunderbird and want a calendar, or if you don't want your calendar integrated into Thunderbird, use Sunbird.

Sorry for the misinformation. Minotaur is what evolved into Thunderbird.

GMU_DodgyHodgy
January 7th, 2009, 08:39 PM
Indeed, but Epiphany shouldn't be faster (yet) as it uses the Mozilla rendering engine (ATM).

I understand it uses the same rendering engine - but Firefox runs much slower than epiphany on my desktop at home. Its not as customizeable as Firefox - but it suits my needs and is just faster.

forrestcupp
January 8th, 2009, 02:51 AM
I understand it uses the same rendering engine - but Firefox runs much slower than epiphany on my desktop at home. Its not as customizeable as Firefox - but it suits my needs and is just faster.

I actually heard that coming soon, Epiphany is going to totally ditch Gecko for Webkit.

jrusso2
January 8th, 2009, 03:12 AM
I actually heard that coming soon, Epiphany is going to totally ditch Gecko for Webkit.

I would not be surprised with the amount of development apple and google put into webkit.

pt123
January 8th, 2009, 08:34 AM
I actually heard that coming soon, Epiphany is going to totally ditch Gecko for Webkit.

it was meant to be out with 2.20 but it is buggy and slow.

amitabhishek
January 8th, 2009, 09:35 AM
I cant actually pin point but (whenever I boot into XP) I find Outlook Express more user friendly. I don't like when Thunderbird puts those red boxes around text when you fwd. or reply mails.

wheels666
September 16th, 2010, 12:31 AM
i tried thunderbird and found it completely useless - it didn't even open attachments!

its beyond me way this featureless programe is worshiped like a god - bashed?? - you have got to be kidding....

evolution is way better for me, but i have to say outlook 2003 smokes both of them because it does so much more

):P

CharlesA
September 16th, 2010, 12:33 AM
Res'd a thread that's been dead for for over a year and a half?

Mmk.