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Thunderbird 0.7 Released

aeinome writes "Right on the heels of the release of Firefox 0.9 comes the official release of Thunderbird 0.7. Updates are similar to Firefox's, with new extension and theme managers and slight increases in speed. Be sure to read the release notes for the complete list of new features, and then download it from the Thunderbird homepage."

50 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. yes, but... by jjeffries · · Score: 5, Funny

    will it win critical acclaim?

  2. Thunderbird Rocks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have been using Thunderbird for quite sometime now. It is EXCELLENT. The spam filter works well after you train it.

    1. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by Araxen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Aye, the spam filter sets this email client above all the rest.

    2. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by darien · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I disagree entirely. I used to use Outlook, with SpamBayes as my spam filter. The Thunderbird spam filter is far, far less effective. I have a suspicion it doesn't read email headers or something. All I can say for sure is that after training SpamBayes for two weeks I used to get maybe one email a week in my "suspected spam" folder. Then I moved to TB's built-in spam filter, and since then I get more like three spams a day delivered straight to my inbox. Not good. If this new version doesn't fix that I'm just going to go back to SpamBayes, even though I'll have to run it as a separate process.

    3. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by Erwos · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I agree, too. One of Evolution's big mistakes was not integrating with SpamAssassin more heavily. I mean, OK, it's pretty stupidly simple to set up right now, but I really would like better integration so I don't have to do _any_ set up.

      Well, maybe next version.

      -Erwos

      --
      Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
    4. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by mlmitton · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've been using Thunderbird on Linux (Fedora) since .3 and I love it. However, when I upgraded to .7 from .6, it didn't import all of my mail, account information, and preferences. In all of my previous upgrades, all of these things imported on their own. Did they change the folder where these things get stored? How do you import them?

      --
      "My girlfriend's got sodium laureth sulfate hair."
    5. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by adamfranco · · Score: 3, Informative

      Check out this forum post. I had this problem on OS X, but it involved renaming a settin in the "profile.ini" file to use the old xxxxxxx.slt location instead of the new one named "default".

      Hope that helps.

      --
      "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
    6. Re:Thunderbird Rocks. by TDRighteo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Doesn't EnigMail handle GPG encryption/decryption and signing?

      Or have I been using vaporware for the last year?

  3. Great by $calar · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is great for my parents' computer because they are still using Windows. But I really like Evolution better on the Linux side of things. Thunderbird is very good overall and I recommend it to all existing users of Outlook and Outlook Express. Get out now while you can!

    1. Re:Great by DrLZRDMN · · Score: 4, Funny

      Get it now while you can!
      Too late, it is now known as thunderfox.

  4. Re:Difference between Firefox and Thunderbird? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes. One checks your mail. The other lets you browse the web. As for killer features, it depends whether you like getting your porn in your inbox or downloading from websites.

  5. Re:Difference between Firefox and Thunderbird? by gnatman64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Firefox is a webrowser, and Thunderbird is an email client.

  6. Fedora? by rleibman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Same questions as for firefox, when can we expect it in the Fedora updates?

  7. Still Room for Improvement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used Outlook for a long time before getting fed up with it, and now I'm going through the same thing with Thunderbird. In fact, I still can't seem to switch between HTML and plaintext email composition without changing my overall composition preferences, which is buried at least four or five clicks away from the composition window.

    I'm not sure if it's a config design issue as much as it is a familiarity issue. I dumped Outlook because of its history with security, and Outlook 2002's poor compatibility with Windows XP. Thunderbird is better in some ways, but it definitely has its downsides, not the least of which is the painful configuration of multiple accounts and general preferences.

    Firefox and Thunderbird are incredible aps but Thunderbird especially has a lot of room for improvement. When Thunderbird can piece together split usenet files and handle Y-EN/C then it will probably truly have arived for many of us. After that you need to out-exchange exchange :) and realize email is a centeral pda application and to that end we need scheduling, adress books that sync with our newtons, and help us manage our lives. Indeed, do Thunderbird right and you can really shake up the world because there's a real hunger and need for an ultra powerful email/usenet/scheduler/contact/pda manager.

    1. Re:Still Room for Improvement by psylent · · Score: 5, Informative
      "In fact, I still can't seem to switch between HTML and plaintext email composition without changing my overall composition preferences, which is buried at least four or five clicks away from the composition window."

      Doesn't [shift]-Write work for you?

    2. Re:Still Room for Improvement by cheekyboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      WHY ISNT this info in the TOOLTIP for the write button?

      Its little things like that , that really make a great app, proper hints that are usefull, and inteligent software.

      No one has the time to read 100 pages of docs.

      Dont know if .7 does this, but when you customize your toolbar, you should have the option of adding ANY MENU command into a button!!!!! That is of such usefull and obvious importance.

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    3. Re:Still Room for Improvement by rjhall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, that does work for me.
      But I ctrl-m to compose a message, and ctrl-shift-m doesn't do what you would (or, at least, *I* would) expect.

  8. Re:Pardon the Ignorance... by jark · · Score: 3, Informative

    Firefox is a standalone browser whereas Thunderbird is a standalone email/news client.

  9. So advanced... by MSBob · · Score: 4, Funny

    yet still without multipart MIME support in newsgroups. Sorry guys but if you want your news client to have any sort of market share better make sure it is more porn friendly!

    --
    Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
  10. What's the word? Thunderbird! by daeley · · Score: 4, Funny

    17.5% alcohol by volume, baby!

    Er, wait, you're talking about email, huh?

    Never mind, then, carry on... [hic!]

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  11. Mozilla by Sandman1971 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My question is.... When will Firefox and Thunderbird be packaged together in a new full blown Mozilla release? Can't seem to find any info on the website regarding it.

    --
    It's better to burn out than to fade away
    1. Re:Mozilla by neverkevin · · Score: 5, Informative

      From the FireFox FAQ:

      What's happening with the Firefox development?

      Firefox will be used as the default browser in Mozilla. The current Mozilla suite will be replaced by stand-alone applications.


      Link

  12. Re:vs. Opera by Punboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Opera, AFAIK, is not open-source. Firefox and Thunderbird are. Firefox and Thunderbird IMO are more stable and have more/easier to use features. Also, they look better. And in some cases are faster than Opera. Go try them out, they won't bite :-p

    --
    If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
  13. Sure thing by billybob · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here you go.

    Hope that helps out.

    --
    Joseph?
  14. NOT A Release Candidate! by jark · · Score: 4, Informative

    The correct thread by mscott, pointing out the 0.7 release is right here. This is not a release candidate but an actual point release.

  15. Re:Warning: Release Candidate status still... by Jack+Comics · · Score: 3, Informative

    Totally incorrect. While the Release Candidate was released on Monday, which is what you linked to, the new 0.7 is the official release two days later as no major problems were found with the Release Candidate. For more information, see here.

    --
    "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
  16. Speed? by skinfitz · · Score: 4, Informative

    *slight* increase in speed? I saw that Firefox allegedly had a "3% increase" - Bollocks! - it's CRAP LOADS faster than the old version! If TBird has a similar speed increase I'm looking forward to it.

  17. Re:Nice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which is why we should all type in smaller fonts... to save disk space.

  18. Actually... by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually, at my (admittedly small) company, we have already standardized on Mozilla Thunderbird for email. There _are_ some bugs, but they are easier to live with than the shortcomings of other, lesser email software.

    We even use it on the Macs, which came with... Mail.app? iMail.app? whatever... We use it on the Macs, because it just does IMAP better. It still amazes me how poorly most email clients handle IMAP.

    Thunderbird also supports TLS for all mail communications, which is very nice to have out of the box support for in free software.

    YMMV.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
    1. Re:Actually... by jdreed1024 · · Score: 3, Informative
      We even use it on the Macs, which came with... Mail.app? iMail.app? whatever... We use it on the Macs, because it just does IMAP better. It still amazes me how poorly most email clients handle IMAP.

      You're kidding, right? At least for 0.5 and 0.6, Thunderbird had serious IMAP/SSL bugs, where it would just hang for no apparent reason. The release notes acknowledge this bug, even. This caused a problem not just with delays in INBOX operations, but also manifested itself as a problmem with sending. If you chose to save sent mail on the server, and clicked Send, and it sent the mail, and then hung trying to write it to the server, it would respond with "mail was not sent" when it clearly was, it just hadn't copied it. Even the old Netscape 4.x was able to say "Sending the mail was successful, but copying it to your Sent folder failed". I never understand why Mozilla/Thunderbird couldn't do that.

      I haven't compared against 0.7 yet, but last I checked Mail.app was an exceptionally good IMAP client, and even pine was better than Thunderbird at IMAP/SSL.

      --
      There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
  19. Re:Web browser overload!! by AnonymousCowheart · · Score: 4, Informative

    Three? There's WAY more browsers than that! Check this out:
    http://www.mozilla.org/projects/

  20. Compared to web-based e-mails? by line.at.infinity · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the past I've used First Class Client, pine, and currently I'm satisfied with web-based e-mail. What's the benefit of using mail clients such as Thunderbird or Outlook over web-based e-mail? For my web-based e-mail I get

    * no ads
    * at least 1 GB per mail account
    * spam filtering
    * impossible to download infected attachments
    * etc

    I also edited the .forward file for my pine account so I can read those e-mails on my web mail account.

  21. Warning to Mac OS X users by gwoodrow · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, it could just be that I'm a moron, but I thought I'd share anyway.

    Virtually every program I use in Mac OS X Panther allows me to overwrite an old program with the newer version without screwing up any of the settings. Thunderbird, however, screwed up big time. It copied perfectly, and opened smoothly, but it did NOT keep any of my settings. I'm having to go through and reconfigure all my email accounts and settings from scratch. I like thunderbird, but this little feature is a big enough pain in the ass that I may have to stick with Mail just so I don't have to worry about wasting time with this again. Proceed with caution, Mac users.

    1. Re:Warning to Mac OS X users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually they decided to change the default location of account files. Breifly, you need to find ../Thunderbird/profiles.ini. Open it and either change the path to point to your old files (Profiles/defult/XXX.slt something like that), or copy the files in xxxx.slt into the new Thunderbird directory.

      Head over to the Thunderbird Support forum on www.mozillazine.org for a better explanation.

  22. Threaded messaging by brunes69 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anyone who uses email frequently cannot live without threaded messaging once exposed to it. This and this alone will keep me off of webmail forever (sure, you *could* thread in webmail, but it would either result in many trips back / forth to the server to expand / collapse the threads, or it would need fancy JS and DHTML magic which I have never seen in a webmail app.).

    I access my email solely through IMAP, and while I *do* occasionally use my webmail access while away from the desk, it is far from my first choice.

    Other things client side email can give you
    - Better spam filtering than webmail, since you can run your own and fine tune it
    - Don't have to worry about your email account suddenly being terminated due to the whim of a company
    - Privacy issues
    - Infinite GB per email account (in theory)
    - Better integration with your desktop calendar and addressbook
    - Ability to easily sync with your PDA / Cell phone
    - Ability to click "mailto:" in your web browser and have it work
    etc...

  23. Re:Not from me.... by Masami+Eiri · · Score: 5, Informative

    Delete your old install first, then install it. Or install to another folder. That should make it work.

  24. Warning to Upgraders by fupeg · · Score: 3, Insightful
    From the release notes:
    Upgraders: DO NOT install Mozilla Thunderbird into a directory containing program files from a previous version. Overwriting files from a previous release WILL cause problems.
    They have an installer and yet they have this problem? How amateur is this? If this is the case, then the installer should delete the old directory or better yet, delete the files that are not overwritten and cause problems. I love Thunderbird, but this is pretty weak.
  25. so is it better than Eudora from 1995 yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can Thunderbird finally display progress from separate mail accounts at the same time? Maybe something more than "Downloading 1 of 629" ? Something that indicates how much time is left?

  26. Re:Another question by mrchaotica · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thanks, I'd never heard of Nvu until just now.

    But to answer your question (with another question, don't you just hate that?), why would mozilla bundle Firefox and Thunderbird together, when a) lots of people only use Firefox, or only use Thunderbird, b) the total file size probably wouldn't be much smaller, and c) even if the total file size was smaller, the people for whom it matters most (dialup users) would still be better off with separate files?

    Also, I don't see why mozilla.org would distribute Nvu at all, since they didn't make it (despite the fact that it uses Gecko). (Not that it wouldn't be nice if Mozilla made it; they're more interested in cross-platformness than Lindows, and I wouldn't mind having a version for Mac OS X)

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  27. Re:Multiple email addresses per identity yet? by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just a heads up... I installed it and it looks like they've worked this out quite well.

    It's behavior in this regard is different that Outlook Express but not in a bad way. I'm still getting used to it, but I think I can make the switch!

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
  28. Exhange Server by Phoinix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can I use it instead of outlook to connect to the Exchange server at work?

  29. Re:Nice. by jhobbs · · Score: 5, Funny

    And don't forget that a simple semicolon will do in many situations where you may be tempted to use a whole colon.

  30. Caution with themes! by Trillan · · Score: 5, Informative

    I don't know if it is a general problem or not, but when I've tried to download Thunderbird themes Firefox has attempted to use them, instead of passing them to Thunderbird.

    Not passing them to Thunderbird isn't that big a deal, really. Trying to use them in Firefox is. Installing a Thunderbird theme into Firefox will cause all of Firefox's controls to disappear.

    A little caution is in order.

  31. It's not. by justinarthur · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, running Mozilla is faster than running both Firefox and Thunderbird at the same time, because the mail/news and navigator components of Mozilla use the same instance of the Gecko Rendering Engine without wasting system resources. There is NO reason that I can possibly think of for switching from Mozilla [SeaMonkey] to Firefox+Thunderbird until Firefox+Thunderbird can utilize the same instance of the GRE. Moreover, if you want standalone, you can always select the specific components you want installed during the graphical installation or during compile.

    1. Re:It's not. by mikefoley · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Which makes me wonder why so much effort is being put into confusing potential users.

      I love Mozilla. I switch alot of people to Mozilla. Why not put alot of the nice look and feel of Firefox and Thunderchicken into the Mozilla suite?

      Confuse less of your "customers" and satisfy the rest.

      --
      What's my Karma Mr. Burns? "Excellent"
  32. Charamel for both! by ShadeARG · · Score: 3, Informative

    Charamel is pretty nice. It's a dual theme for both Firefox and Thunderbird. I've been using it for the last couple of days, and it supports the new extensions for Firefox 0.9 and Thunderbird 0.7. It's definately worth checking out!

  33. Re:Difference between Firefox and Thunderbird? by Disevidence · · Score: 4, Funny

    One's made of fire and likes eating bunny rabbits. The other is very loud and normally hunts fish.

    --
    Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
  34. Re:app refuses to start ? by Snoopy77 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Though you say that your products are not release ready, people actually USE them as if they were.

    And who's fault is this? They tell you that their product is not release ready yet you use it as if it is. Are they suppose to magically make it release ready just because you use it as such?

    Surely you knew what you were getting yourself into when you switched to a sub 1.0 program. It was a decision you made so don't blame the developers for your poorly thought out choice.

    BTW you promised to start your rant with kudos for the Mozilla developers but I don't see you praising them at all.

    --
    "She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
  35. HTML email sucks by BinLadenMyHero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Parent is not trolling, HTML email is indeed bad etiquette. Just a matter of KISS. Anyway, why HTML email? Email is meant to send text messages. Attachments are fine if you want to transmit something else (like you can do in regular mail), but deliver the text as text (preferably 7-bit ASCII) so it's easier to read for everyone in any device.

  36. A moan… by shic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I like thunderbird 0.6 and 0.7 looks set to extend my good experiences with 0.6 - however (don't laugh) I'm not ready to give up Outlook just yet. As far as I'm concerned Thunderbird is a better mail client than Outlook in all but one respect.

    I use email as a productivity tool - I send many emails to many people, on many topics - data entry speed is very important to me - and the clarity of my messages is very important to my recipients. I believe I can spell, and that my grammar is good - but this only means I can be sure my message 'hangs-together' when I've proof-read it a couple of times. When I use Word as my editor it corrects my silly typographic errors on the fly and detects and alerts me about many malformed sentences with its famous "wobbly green line" - which I find invaluable. I realise that as a grammar checker Word's is wanting, and that Thunderbird has a spelling checker... but I, for one, find these differences make using Thunderbird less productive than using Outlook.

    Are there any plans to wire in a grammar/style checker?
    Will we ever see an "autocorrect" feature like Word's?

    As silly as these two might sound, IMHO, they are the single biggest barriers to adoption of open source productivity tools.