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Mozilla Thunderbird 0.4 Released
Random BedHead Ed writes "The latest release of Mozilla Thunderbird, the standalone Mozilla mail program, has been released and is available for download here. A quick scan of the release notes shows some new improvements and features, including a new look, bug fixes, and for Linux users the ability to click on a URL in an e-mail and have it actually launch in your default web browser (how novel). Download and enjoy..."
Thunderbird is really very stable. I have been using it since 0.2a as my main e-mail software. (Including all the nightly builds.)
I can't think how stable 1.0 will be. Just give it a try. You'll like it.
less is more
The exact reason I use Firebird is that it's "bare-bones".
Sure it has bloat like popup-killer and tabbed browsing, but that's SUPER-USEFUL bloat I couldn't live without. (really!)
Um... you don't have to use all of the features. In fact, Mozilla is just as usable out of the box as is IE, and any of the special things you may want to use later are usually about 5 clicks away.
:-0
It sounds like you don't know exactly what you want out of your browser. You want less bloat than Mozilla, but more features than Mosaic. There isn't really much in between (and IE has the worst of both worlds, so it doesn't count).
I'm sorry to say this, but your argument for not switching is very flimsy. At least you didn't say "because it's already there."
And yet, conversely, Microsoft's little Internet Explorer does not even support tabbed browsing.
If you aren't able to get complete support for your needs, you or anyone could write an extension; modules that add functionality to Thunderbird.
I've heard people wanting this and that in Firebird and Thunderbird and others arguing that certain features would just bloat the programs. With extensions, people get the features they want, and people who don't want them can rest easy. Works well for the birds.
--- March, milde, march!
Done it - bullshit. Latest everything on gnome/kde is nowwhere near as integrated or consistant as windows.
Having said that - I still prefer KDE to windows despite the quirks because it is transparent, and some things are just plain great, KDevelop is a joy to use compared to DevStudio, which used to be my favourite IDE.
...me and half the world that is.
The CALENDAR.
I use outlook everywhere because I need the calendar.
If they could provide a simple calendar program, like the Good'Ol palm desktop, they'd open the door for quite a lot of people.
I don't mean a large-scale office multi-user integrated calendar solution like MS Exchange.
Sure, you could get to that later on, build it on top of MySQL or something, I mean something simple I can use at home for myself. Something that people with non-corporate needs can use to organize their life (These people _do_ exist you know. One or two of them.)
Of course you'd be fighting an uphill battle to set some form of open standard for calendar/mail/addressbook syncing. An API for handhelds/smartphones to use (as opposed to "Does it sync with Outlook?"), Microsoft would be clobbering you on the head every step of the way - Windows Mobile 200X will not support you out of the box, Outlook will continue shipping with PDA's, ActiveSync will work flawlessly with Outlook and they'd be paying non-MS mobile vendors (like palm) to support Outlook-syncing in their (even non-MS) OS and not support alternative sync standards.
And yet, if such an API did come to exist, the Open Source community would complement the software support that the PalmOS/Windows Mobile/Symbian/Linux handhelds/smartphones will lack to sync to the desktop, not to mention the desktop software itself.
In my view, FireBird seems like the mother of all places to start pushing such an API.
Bit until that happens, I'll stick with Outlook.
-
I have been solely using Mozilla Mail for about 5 years and it has been excellent. However, I have never used or found a use for "Local Folders". In fact, they just get in the damn way. I wish I could delete them!!! What are they for???
"Exchange Functionality"?
Exchange is a proprietary Microsoft implementation of an email server on top of a x.500-like directory/store.
You can "sort of" connect to it with IMAP, but many things don't work (refer back to "proprietary" above).
Anything which was 100% totally and completely Exchange interoperable would almost certainly infringe on trade-secrets and/or patents. Microsoft would then hunt you down and kill you and everyone in your family through to your great-grandchildren.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
I think going after reverse engineering the Outlook MAPI is a terrible and never-ending task. As microsoft keep changing things to ensure incompatibility with Free softwares, its pointless to chase outlook.
I disagree completely on this issue. Each new release of Exchange server is 3 years or so from the previous. And does my Outlook 98 machine install still interface with Exchange 2003? You bet it does! I'll admit that trying to hit some of Microsoft's moving targets is fruitless, but interfacing with Exchange should be one of the easier ones to hit if someone is willing to pick up the gun and aim. Heck, even just writing a perl script to talk behind the scenes to the Outlook Web Interface and translate the HTML into a common format should work. (BTW _ Isn't that how Ximian Connector works???)
"That's the thing with open source, you can't assign work to your developers."
Actually you can - hire some developers.
Open source is just a development model. Open source doesn't automatically mean everybody has to be a volunteer. You can still hire as many professionals as you want.
"poking holes" is a good way to iron out the wrinkles, to mix the metaphors...
If you want, IMO, a more evolved linux email client, use Evolution (pun intended).
- this ends the basic comment -
Now, as for "horrible" on the desktop and your other comments, I bed to differ. Most home users don't "pay big bucks" for an email client; they use what comes pre-installed. Downloading an alternate email client, even in Windows, is too much for some home users, so they use Outlook Express and perphas Outlook if they have Office.
Don't mix popularity with features/good software. Back in my Windows' days, I prefered Eudora and then Pegasus mail to Outlook Express (as well as whatever Netscape had at the time). If most machines would have come pre-installed with Eudora, folks like you might compare Tbird to Eudora these days.
Finally, I'm all for ease of use, but the "users must be extreme idiots" syndrome has reached an all time high, thanks to Outlook Express. I've seen this time and time again - the settings for an ISP are taylored for Outlook Express or Outlook. If you have another email client, see the Other/Mac/Linux section! A few years ago, a user was asked to locate "email server" in his settings, or, in some rare cases, alternate settings for Eudora and others were presented.
The thought that a home user can't configure his own email program unless he/she is shown graphics as to the exact location of said setting is scary, to say the least! Good God! What if the user's theme is different! Argh!
Seriously, this is stupid, not easy. Easy would be for your ISP to set up a service that all email programs would connect to in a standard way and just pick up all relevant email settings, with a wizard guiding and _confirming_ the rest of the setup. There is a clear line between ease of use and stupidity.
Having them as a single program seems to make so much more sense - click on a link in the e-mail to go to a browser window, then click on a link on the page to send an e-mail reply - why would anyone NOT want them integrated????
That's exactly what happens if you have them set as the default applications.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
Funny, that's what I hated about outlook, it tossed all my POP3 email into the same place
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)