Slashdot Mirror
Thunderbird 1.0 RC1 Released
KingDaveRa writes "Mozilla.org has quietly released Thunderbird 1.0 RC1. 1.0 RC1 includes lots of bug fixes and improvements for features like saved search folders, the RSS reader, mail migration, and message grouping. The default themes have both been updated with new and improved artwork as well."
Is Thunderbird as "spread-like-wild-fire" as Firefox? I just don't hear people talking about TB as much as FF.
Even in newsgroups where you need a news reader to do anything, people still talk about FF. I'm using TB but I don't have the same enthusiasm to discuss it.
Is this due to lack of usage, or lack of competition, or something else? Or just me?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
using my OS, emacs
How does it do with mailto: links from Firefox in Linux? That's the one question burning on my mind.
Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
Im surprised that it took so long after firefox to be released in 1.0 that thunderbird went preview. Though i can understand why they did, I always thought that they would go 1.0 together.
I use thunderbird for all my mail, and it is much better then Outlook on windows. Good job Mozilla.
Problem with Thunderbird is that I never liked the way it handled multiple-acounts. And could not import multiple identities from Outlook very well. Hopefully this is resolved. Looking forward to Thunderbird dropping presents all over the place from the sky.
The Custom Mary
I'm a Thunderbird user and have been for a long time, about as long as it has existed. It's a fine email client, a good one, in fact. However, it's missing something. Missing what? I don't know. But it's missing something that would make people want to switch from the client they're already using. If it's your first client, or you're not happy with the one you're using, it's a good choice. But if you are happy, I'm not sure how to convince you to change to it.
Spam filters? Available in other clients, either natively or through add-ons. RSS reader? I think most people that read RSS already have a reader they like. It's not the fanciest looking client, and it still has some bugs. So, how would you convince someone to use it?
I love the features of TB, but I was really turned off by the theme they were using for it. If it has new and improved graphics and design, the experience will be complete.
Going to download my copy now.
-WeAz
I think part of the problem with TB popularity is the current fad of using Gmail... Even though I assume the two are compatible. My biggest problem with the FF/TB setup is that FF can't tell me if I have new messages unless TB is an open window... Either way, iirc, TB already announces itself anyways.
Ah, whatever...
What I really wish Thunderbird would do is sync with my PocketPC. At the very least I wish it was easier to sync my address book. I also hope they have better support for vCard exporting. On a side note, does anyone know the timetable for the next major mozilla.orf milestone, Mozilla Suite 2.0, to be released?
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
2. It would be really cool to have automatic virtual directories. I have my email sorted into subfolder by email address. I have rules set up to put emails into folders. Why not have this be automatic? Sort by email address, sort by folders. I wonder why no popular email client has this.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
1. Someone complains about Outlook Express on USENET or in a forum.
2. ???
3. Profit!---er... Download!
Pegasus Mail is a decent mail client that handles multiple accounts better than Thunderbird. Also it's particularly robust and free for personal use.
Pegasus Mail
I think the only reason why someone wouldn't use it is because there may not be a lunix client.
....allowed you to sort by "who" (i.e., the other party, not just sender or recipient), and allowed you to filter outgoing messages and put them in the appropriate folder based on the recipient.
Bummer.
i know that firefox just released 1.0 also, can anyone tell me what the pros and cons of each are? i am using internet explorer right now and wondering if it is worth the trouble of trying either
Is the Spambayes plugin for Outlook. I've used this for a while now and I simply love it. I never end up with spam in any of my inboxes, *BUT* here's the catch. I do have to check my "Possible Spam" folder every few days and see what's in there. Every so often a legitimate e-mail will end up in that folder. I can quickly & easily recover any messages I want, and then delete the rest as actual spam (which improves the training).
Why doesn't TB offer something like SpamBayes: Good Mail, Maybe Spam, Spam. I tried TB a few months ago and don't like the idea of having to check dozens of spam messages to make sure a good e-mail didn't end up in there. I've been using FF for a while now and love it, and I would love nothing more than to ditch Outlook, but so far my love of Spambayes is greater than my hate for Outlook.
I don't understand why people want a browser that has a POP and NEWS client built in? If I want to use
POP I use my POP client (not outhouse). If I want to use NNTP I use a NEWS client.
Why expose yourself to such a mess?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Basically, Thunderbird took too much in the way of resources for too little in the way of features. No Hotmail was a big no (yes, I considered writing it myself, but I was put off by the number of people who had started and failed before :-). I just had to look at task manager, though. Why would I want to switch to an app that used 35k when I had one that worked in 20? Just not sensible. So I stay with OE.
That's my burning question, I rather uses evolution than thunderbird. On my winbox, however it IS my client of choice. I think the fact that evo comes with a calander function (like the up coming sunbird), is what grabs me. However I am a bit dissapointed that they did away with the summary page with all the rss feeds ;)
Thunderbird also doesn't yet have the calendering and shared contacts lists and all the other stuff that Outlook has.
This is coming in related projects, but right now would it be wise to tell Joe the sales rep that he should dump Outlook and lose his shared calendar and contacts for Thunderbird whereas getting him to use a better, faster, safer browser in Firefox is a no brainer.
I used Thunderbird back in the Windows days (say, 9 months ago or so). Since I switched to Linus (Suse w/ KDE) I've been using K-Mail. It works great, integrates well, and does everything I need. Quite frankly see no reason for Thunderbird at this point. I do have a copy installed so I can walk my Grandparents through when they have problems, but thats it. If I still had Windows I would probably use it still.
I would call it an updated theme, I wouldn't really call it new. Certainly a bit more polish to it though. If you were really put off by the "old" theme you will likely not like this one either.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If you like outlook, keep using it. Thunderbird is a great mail app. Try it out, if you like it... fine. If not, then fine too. Thunderbird gives functionality that a good mail client should.
Asking for some amorpheous feature that you don't even know is ridiculous. If it gives you everything you need, why are you complaining?
I liked the old theme more, the new icons are just too big, and roundish styled.
Or should I say, does anything do that well? My only experience with filing sent mail was Lotus Notes & that was a bit scabby.
It would be a great feature.
If you steal this sig, the only people who will profit are professional criminals.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That's why theme support was created.
Your ad here.
415 KB/sec...after 35 comments on Slashdot!
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Despite our "corporate software standards" I run Firefox as my default browser. However, I have not found that I can replace Outlook 2003 with TB in an Exchange 2003 environment. I'm sure that Microsoft puts less effort into IMAP workings than they do integrating their client.
It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. -Aristotle
Perhaps TB doesn't have the same popularity as FF as there is no spreadthunderbird.com site to whip the hardcore followers into evangelical frenzies. It also does not help that what appears to be the focus of Mozilla's calendar project, currently called Sunbird, is designed as a standalone product instead of something intergrated into program proper like Outlook has. It just seems like TB has an identity crisis: is it going to be just an e-mail client/RSS reader? Because if so, there are plenty of other programs already out there. Or, is it going to be an Outlook replacement product as some people tout it? Because if so, it is a long way from being at the same level for features.
I submitted this yesterday with a much nicer writeup.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
SpamBayes seemed much more on the ball at filtering spam. Maybe I haven't trained Thunderbird enough, but it lets an awful lot through.
Does it support the maildir format yet or just mbox? This was a stumbling block for me when I tried a previous version and tried to share a mailbox with kmail rather than export & import all my mail.
GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
Tbird is one of the few mail readers that support 'Secure Password Authentication' for people that want to read email off of a Windows 2003 POP server without Entourage on the Mac.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
I've eagerly watched Thunderbird shape up quite a bit on the way to version 1.0 -- all the developers involved deserve a great deal of credit for what they've accomplished. Thunderbird has come a long, long way in the past three months thanks to an inspiring collection of effort, and I'd like to wholeheartedly thank them for all the hard work and dedication. These folks have created a really great email client, and I can't wait to switch my user base over to it.
~jeff
I quite like TB as an email client. Its 'learning' ability for detecting spam is brillant. But as a news reader it lags a tad.
I know the new version has impoved grouping for threads, but I'll wait till i see it tonight before i pass judgment on that feature.
I am still waiting for:
* combining of encoded posts that are split,
* mark posts for download
As I'm a lurker in alt.binaries.pictures.wallpapers , encoded post handling is important (especialy when someone split a 400k wallpaper into 20k chunks).
"When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes
Good think I just reformated. Last time I installed one of there big "updates" I ended up having 2 "Thunderbirds" installed on my Add/Remove Programs. How many releases are they going to do?
Aw, damn, and I installed Thunderbird 0.9 on an entire workgroup yesterday. I was waiting until TB1, but I got tired of waiting. :/ That'll teach me, huh?
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Funny I submitted this over 12 hours ago but it got rejected.
Anyways. Some links in mine were from osdir.com
screenshots and the article
And I'll have fun fun fun
'til my admin takes my T-bird away
(fun fun fun 'til my admin takes my T-bird away)
with apologies to The Beach Boys.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Contrary to what many people say its no competition for Outlook. Outlook Express, sure. But its really lacking in features for business and expecially corporate users. No built-in mature calendar, no real full featured palm syncing. How useful is syncing ONLY your address book? I'm not talking about a full blown Exchange client here, but there are certain basics people expect. Unfortunately judging by the response over the last few years those types of features and turning Thunderbird into something that competes with Outlook proper is not something the dev(s) is interested in.
I hope Thunderbird fans don't think I'm just bashing it. I suggest and install Thunderbird for any OE users I encounter. OE is just not safe to use. I'm just kinda let down because its hasn't turned out the way I had envisioned it.
Oh and as the other person pointed out, on Linux Evolution is very nice. Perhaps one day it will be availabe for Windows.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Aww...I wanted a TB "Preview Release" first!
That's only available on windows. I could care less about it.
Eudora is _much_ better. (aspell w/ pine is better too - as is gmail, etc) + I have it crash in spell check on me at least once a week.
--
+1 for low user id
I've been a longtime thunderbird user, but I've had issues before with the spam filters. Basically, even after training with several hundred messages, the filter was very ineffective, letting the majority of the spam through. I decided to use popfile instead, and had great success there in terms of filtering, but usability was not as good, and configuration was a pain.
.6, but I thought it would be best to ask here for other's experiences before going through the training process again. I really would like the effectiveness of popfile with the usability of TB's interface.
Has anything in thunderbird's filtering changed significantly? I haven't used built-in filtering since around
The thing that really sold me on TB is it's RSS handling. I never got into RSS at all - as an interaction designer, I read a lot of design blogs, and, stupid as it may be, I like to see the design of those sites when reading the articles. Most RSS readers put too much focus on the 'aggregation' part for me, when what I really want is a folder with subscriptions to all my design blogs, which show me the entries exactly as if I were browsing them on the web. Being that this is exactly the way TB handles RSS, I've finally gotten into RSS. I just wish there were an easier way to send RSS links to TB from FF. (I'm not into Sage or FF's "Live Bookmarks").
Also, the "Charamel" theme, available for both Firefox and Thunderbird, rocks, although it will undoubtedly piss off those who hate non-native interfaces.
Why doesn't TB offer something like SpamBayes: Good Mail, Maybe Spam, Spam. I tried TB a few months ago and don't like the idea of having to check dozens of spam messages to make sure a good e-mail didn't end up in there
:).
Dude, I've used TB for year or two now, and get a few thousand spams a week on my work account - couldn't live without Tbird. TB's spam filter trains rapidly like within a day or so it seems, and is very accurate. My account would be unusable without it.
I have a work copy of Outlook 2003, which looked neat, but tried it for a few days with SpamBayes (well, I think it was spam bayes), and... I hated it. It took longer to train than TB, and I don't know about you, but I don't trust MS with freaking anything when it comes to security. Especially not my personal and professional emails.
Though see my sig for a humorous bug/feature of tbird
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
First we had KDE and its KOffice , Konsole , KCalc , etc then we had Google and its Gmail , Froogle , Gbrowser , etc Now we have Firefox with Thunderbird , etc ....
Hmm
Before you know it you will have MS Windows with MS Office and MS Halo and MS Internet Explorer , and ... ohh.
It's been quite a while since they did an update. I was starting to get worried.
Can somebody please write an address book which syncs with a MySQL (or whatever) database.
In this way small businesses will be able to use TB as their email client and have shared contacts. We can then easily integrate the data with other apps using MySQL
I know that this is what LDAP is for but it's too difficult to integrate.
I would be prepared to sponsor/contribute towards this...
As a helpdesk techie, I think Thunderbird is going to have a rougher ride than Firefox.
The problem strangely enough, is that Outlook Express was so much worse than Internet Explorer. IE isn't a great browser, but for most people until this last set of security flaws (Infection via Jpg? Yeah, that's tied too bloody close), it's "Good Enuff" - they could work around it. the only other browsers out their had fanbases, but weren't so head and shoulders above to be worth dealing with. I never cared for netscape, didn't like the packaging of mozilla, and didn't wan't to pay for opera - So I tweaked IE's security and stayed with the one that was "Good Enuff".
So when Firefox came to maturity just as the last set of flaws finally did things even my ultra paranoid security settings (Never had an adware get through) couldn't compensate for, people were primed to leave en masse. And it's great - I can tweak it, it's portable, and it does stand head and shoulders over IE.
Outlook express on the other hand never was "Good Enuff", for anything besides simple Email. It's really only used by people that have never bothered to try anything else. Pine and Elm have more capabilities. Everybody else moved, and has gotten to using something else that *is* good enough, and doesn't have the security holes IE had to jolt them. I have fifty+ filters I'd have to port from Eudora, others use Pegasus, or elm, webmail, or whatever.
So the people who wanted to move, have. The people who haven't moved yet aren't just waiting on Thunderbird the way I was waiting for a browser I *liked*.
So it's not going to hit OE as hard as Firefox hit IE.
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
I have to forward it to an account where I can use Outlook, or launch a web browser and use SquirrelMail to open the IMAP folder and read the message. I had to install a plug-in to SquirrelMail to read MS-TNEF email. If the Thunderbird team doesn't want to put it into the default installation, they could at least develop an MS-TNEF extension/plug-in for Thunderbird.
This issue is the one that prevents me (and others) from abandoning Outlook altogether and switching to Thunderbird. Yes, I know there are some programs available that will interpret MS-TNEF. But, that requires a lot of manual effort and makes it difficult to convince the typical business user to use Thunderbird.
A single button sync after you set your sync prefs thru the file - offline - download/sync menu.
.7 release which would bomb after a few days, but the .8 moox build has gone 60+ days w/o a hiccup. (had to reboot after ultravnc rc11 uninstall...ah, well)
.3 and above have been very good, if not excellent mail clients, but I'd like to have the news reader ripped out, or emulate agent/free agent, other wise I couldn't care less if TB had a news reader.
Seriously, once set, I usually don't change it, but it is rather annoying to traverse the menu when a single click on a button could be done.
Of course why would I sync "often"?
I leave my mail client at work on all the time and when at home, a sync will bring up mail that's been filtered.
Works well for me, save for the
Minor note: TB
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I especially like the new icon set ;>
The current version of Enigmail, 0.89.0, is not supported in Thunderbird 1.0RC1, so I had to roll back to Thunderbird 0.9 so I could use my GnuPG encryption. Hopefully the guys at mozdev.org see this soon for the upcomign release of Thunderbird 1.0.
I like Firefox 1.0 so much that I've been putting it on my client's computers to spread the love... Maybe I should secretly replace their Outlook as well?
Why on EARTH was the parent mod'ed INFORMATIVE?! Where's the "CLUELESS" mod when you need it?
/. readers wouldn't hesitate to install Linux or dive into that arcane art of a command line interface - which requires an intimate knowledge of the directory structure.
.txt or .eml format. Pretty straightforward. And for that matter, you can simply open the email store files in any text editor. Again, this is really a no-brainer for any /. reader.
>In Outlook Express, the location of the mail is hidden.
This is a pretty lame gripe, since most
C'mon already. It's THIS SIMPLE: Tools:Options:Maintenance:Store Folder, and OE helpfully tells you where it's stored. One simple setting change in OE, and your email will be stored in My Documents/Email, like mine is. Not that hard, is it? Now, whenever I go on a trip, I just burn a CD with the contents of that one folder. And if I need to move my email to another PC with OE, I just overwrite that other computer's store folder, and Voila, there's all my email. The only legit gripe would be that something is by default stored in the normally hidden Application Data folder, but that's hardly MS-specific; many apps do that.
>Further you can't export your mail to any easilly accesible format.
Oh? How about "Save As..." to a
Geez, save the complaints for something that is REALLY arcane or hard to handle. This just doesn't qualify.
--Brandon / Split Infinity Music
Hi.
/. login)
Since the introduction of RSS into Thunderbird, it has not worked on my mac (running Mac OS 10.3.X).
Under Tools->Accounts->News&Blogs->manage subscriptions->add it only says: "http://slashdot.org/index.rss is not a valid RSS feed."
Does anyone experience the same problem, or is there anyone successfully using Thunderbird/Mac for RSS reading?
Thanks.
Your Anonymous Cow (too lazy to get a
Any word on that?
How come I cannot export filters from one installation of Thunderbird to another? Thats a gimme.
I've been using TB as my primary email client for some time now and would like to comment on your spam issues. Just for the sake of context I use five different email accounts and receive over 1000 spams per month on average. However I have never used SpamBayes so I am not in a position to make a direct comparison.
1. Training: For the initial training I waiting until a rather large number of spam messages had accumulated in the trash, then selected all of them and chose Message->Mark->As Junk. This, of course, works best if the folder is local. Following that I chose several large folders of personal correspondance (both from and to) and chose Message->Mark->As Not Junk. Judging by your comments it seems possible that you have not found these two menu items but rather have been relying on the junk toggle column in the main message list.
2. False-positives/false-negatives: I have a little trouble reconciling "I do have to check my 'Possible Spam' folder every few days and see what's in there." with "...and don't like the idea of having to check dozens of spam messages to make sure a good e-mail didn't end up in there.". There must be some distinction with SpamBayes that is lost on me. Be that as it may, I have found that operating a mostly-trained system is relatively headache free. TB is set to move suspect messages (i.e. "Possible Spam") into a Junk folder locally that is common to all five accounts. Every few days I scan the list of suspect spams for false-positives. Since my eyes are sensitive to the exceptions the misses are easy to spot and fix with the junk status toggle. False-negatives are even easier since there are rarely more than one or two per day and they are naturally left in the inbox.
I currently have over 3,700 spams sitting in my trash folder at the moment. I suppose that I could generate a training.dat file with info on those messages to which anyone could add their own non-spam data (which is important to reduce false-positives).
The difference that you mentioned between "Maybe Spam" and "Spam" is a bit shaky since I imagine that it's only a matter of liklihood. You should still keep an eye on the Spam folder for false-positives.
Regards
I like to set up my own filters to help deal with the spam, along with using the adaptive filters. A lot of the spam I get share the same subject matter and keywords. I wish the manual filters were improved a bit so I could make more effective filters.
It is annoying to have to create a separate filter rule for each word I want to filter. There should be a way to have one rule look for a list of keywords. There should also be a case-insensitive mode.
A lot of spammers will put spaces or symbols between the letters in a keyword to trick filters. It would be nice if the filter could strip out extra characters before checking for matches.
Lastly, many spammers misspell words likely to be filtered, so it would be great if the filter could use the spell checker to find close word matches.
SproutWorks Software Design
Last time I checked, Tbird it was completely inappropriate for work because there was a button that revealed your e-mail login passwords. You clicked this button and had to click past an "are you sure message" (or something like that) then it showed a chart with your login names and unmasked passwords. Has this been fixed or AT LEAST set up so it requires a "master password" to use it? When I'm using Linux--I like Ximian evolution. Tbird is not a real Outlook competitor, but Ximian is. Now Ximian belongs to Novell and I'm not sure if it's still free. I know there is a project at Mozilla to develop a calendar (I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be groupware)that will work with Firefox and Tbird and bring Tbird more in line with the sort of things Outlook can do.
"The default themes have both been updated with new and improved artwork as well."
As opposed to updating the themese with old and broken artwork?
it burns, it burns!!
TB seems to be lacking some features most other serious e-mail clienst have. One of the things that affect me is the non-functional attachment handling. I want all my attachments to be saved into a specific directory. TB doesn't do this. It has the settings that from what I gather SHOULD do that, but those don't work. Alternatively, it doesn't allow me to select a whole bunch of messages and then do a "save to.." either...
Until basic issues like those are fixed, I doubt TB will be even remotely close to FF' popularity.
No I haven't. Do you know anybody who has?
evil is as evil does
Mozilla does have an official calendar extension that works with either Firefox or Thunderbird, and it allows for shared calendars (either via a secure mod_dav setup, or via a highly-insecure FTP setup). I choose FTP, but then, the worst that would happen if someone were to stumble across my calendar would be that they'd know my work schedule and other such mundane info.
Using the FTP method, the calendar works like this. I add / edit something on my calendar, hit ok to confirm it, it then uploads a copy of the calendar to my server. When either my ol' lady or I open our calendar, it downloads the fresh calendar from the server. I instantly see any changes she made, she instantly sees any I made, and they're always in sync. Also, I could hand out the FTP info to anyone, and they'd have the same adding / editing options (I'd imagine piracy nuts / businesses would want something a wee bit more secure, but this works for me).
That signature issue in particular is a good indicator, I think, of the general reason why Thunderbird (and Mozilla Mail before it) never really "spread like wildfire". I'm not sure what somebody was thinking. I mean, come on. You have to create some kind of text file outside of Mozilla with Notepad or something, save it somewhere (no default location), and then go in to the preferences and browse to the location of that text file that you somehow figured out how to create. And you can only have that one text file, so only one signature unless you go through that process again. And it's either there or it isn't.
The whole process is totally nonsensical to your average user. Other email clients will just let you choose a signature to insert from a list. That's the kind of thing people like. Thunderbird and Mozilla Mail have just been kind of rough in spots until now. Built in mail filtering not withstanding, it just hasn't had anything special to pull people away from Eudora, OE, Pegasus or Opera Mail.
And yes, we are talking about the average Windows user here, the 95% of the population that this software is supposedly being marketed to. In that world there are a lot of users who do not know how to create a simple plain text file with Notepad.
On Mac OS X the case for TB is pretty hopeless. Apple Mail integrates with the rest of the OS like clockwork and is a hell of a lot prettier. I'm actually kind of surprised to see Thunderbird getting to 1.0 so fast. In my opinion it still needs a lot of usability enhancements and beautifying to really compete with other email clients the way Firefox can compete on level ground with all the other browsers. Maybe a miracle has happened since 0.9, but I doubt it.
Of course I'll still be forcing my users to use it anyway, since it's a hell of a lot better than OE on Windows.
"Mozilla.org has quietly released Thunderbird 1.0 RC1" How is it "quiet" if its been /.ed?
I have this really funny quote that I like to put here. Unfortunately, there's this really annoying thing called a char
I've been using TB since earlier (pre 0.6) versions, and done well by it. Upgrading hasn't nuked my inbox at any time or such things. One of the versions had an issue wherein it lost email folders for some reason, but upgrading to a more recent version fixed that up.
All-in-all, TB is a great email program. I've currently looking at seeing whether the linux and windows versions can both use the same inbox file... if so that gives it an even bigger advantage than most clients in our multi-OS (networked mail directory) environment.
Is there then an equivilent groupware application for linux/windows?
Personally I've found that many of the functions that groupware software performs are easily replaced by web-applications. Yes, you could install a program with a user manager, room scheduling, etc etc etc... or you could make it accessible anywhere via an https webpage with secure login (and there are lots of different PHP/other projects that fill the groupware functions).
Still, in regards to groupware software, what else is there in the OS world - or is it generally replaced by web-based apps?
Wouldn't it be nice to have this as an option in firefox (or maybe it is already and just not easily found)?
Simply have an option for "mail handler," with options to select common/installer apps including TB and/or the default system handler, or type in your own command-line.
Did they manage to solve the POP3 problem that's preventing me to fully use Thunderbird? If no-one knows what I'm talking about, there are many cases in which Thunderbird just "hangs" while receiving messages from POP3 servers, like "Receiving message 1 of 10...". No solutions found 'til now.. I think it's a stopper.. I had to fwd all my e-mails to gmail in order to have a "central repository" for the e-mail.. Sigh.. Please solve it! ;)
If anyone can hear me, slap some sense into me But you turn your head, and I end up talking to myself
I made the switch to Thunderbird a while ago because Outlook Express kept locking up on me for unknown reasons. (That's right, not because of security issues - my OE was locked down tight. And yes, this would be on the Win32 platform.)
:P
However, I found many issues with Thunderbird which have convinced me that although Thunderbird has more options and probably more long-term viability, it is not the better e-mail client for the average user.
I'll list some of the issues I found in 2 weeks' time, just in regular use, below.
And yes, don't worry, I'll go waste* an hour or two of my time perusing a giant bugzilla database to see if there's any previous report of the issues I encountered. Wouldn't want anybody just reporting it and have some sort of moderator just label it a dupe, after all. Even though they are probably able to tell, from memory, whether it is a dupe or not, and I have to spend a serious amount of time to find out
( I moderate a private Bugzilla, so I do know the issues involved. )
* waste, depending on whether the issues get addressed. I'll happily concede if a majority of users believe that how I think things should work is not the right way.
1. Mail Filters not applied to Local Folders on incoming mail.
Problem: When fetching mail, the Mail Filters specified for the Local Folders group is not run automatically.
Solution: Tools > Run Message Filters... manually
Expected: Mail to be filtered automatically, dur.
2. Headers area does not scroll
Problem: When dealing with an e-mail with a lot of headers, viewing all headers causes the header area to be sufficiently large to extend outside of the screen, and there is no scrollbar to scroll down!
Solution: View > Message Source (Ctrl+U) manually
Expected: I'd expect a scrollbar where scrolling is required for proper operation.
3. Message filters have no quick summary preview
Problem: There is no quick way to see what a specific message filter does.
Solution: Double-click the message filter or choose Edit... to see the full details
Expected: See Outlook Express's Mail Rules dialog.
( yes, OE's mail rules ruleset is much more limited, but its user-friendliness is much better )
4. Cannot rename with change-of-caps only
Problem: When renaming a folder, say, 'test' to, say, 'Test', the warning about a folder with that name already existing pops up.
Solution: Rename to something else first, e.g. 'Test dammit', then rename to proper target, g.g. 'Test'.
Expected: I'd expect to just be able to change the case of a folder without it thinking I'm making 2 folders of the same name.
5. Save dialog uses an internal variable, rather than the actual filename field, causing issues.
Problem:
Step1: Save an e-mail to a file called 'test'
Step2: Start saving an e-mail to a file called 'test', but rather than hitting the Save button select the previous 'test' file and rename it (hit F2) to 'test2'
Step3: Hit the save button
Watch as Thunderbird complains how the file 'test2' already exists. Now check the filename field.. still reads 'test', right ? So it shouldn't try saving to 'test2'
Solution: Go to filename field, add a character, backspace it, then hit Save.
Expected: I expect whatever application to save the file under the filename I actually specify in the filename field - and not what it has stored in some variable.
Note: ThunderBird isn't the only application to have this issue. Is it the use of a particular file dialog handling API ?
6. Mail imported from OE excludes 'read/unread' flag.
Problem: Mail imported from OE is all unread. Solution: Means you have to go mark all of them read, and then compare with OE side-by-side to mark unread that which was actually unread.
Expected: I would've expected the read/unread status to have come across properly.
7. There's no 'Stop processing any more rules/filters' option in Mail Filters.
Problem:
Filter A: [Message subject] contains [hello] move to
Thunderbird is an awesome email program - I gave up Outlook for it a long time ago and have never been happier!
Firefox kicks some ass too - I was fairly critical of Mozilla products for a while, but I've been using firefox and thunderbird on all my platforms for the past year and couldn't be happier!
Mozilla, my new favorite open-source project!
It's a release candidate, not a release.
...because you never know exactly what's been changed.
When I've upgrade TB/FF, sometimes I find a new feature has been added which I like; but I always find the theme has changed and something I do like or use in the GUI has changed, moved or gone.
--
Toby
I'm currently a Mozilla Mail user, and the one thing that I want is an indexed message search. I have about 500mb of mail from the past 4 years, and trying to find old messages in my Mozilla client are a pain, and very, very slow.
My interim hack is to upload everything to Gmail, and search for it from there. I'd much rather keep the mail locally (for security reasons), but I can't find a search client that works for me.
I'm eagerly awaiting Google Desktop's support for Linux and mbox formats..
Anybody have any other suggestions?
I still use Mozilla Mail (it's largely the same as TB) but there are a few serious issues that keep me unhappy:
- frequently fills in addresses wrong (bug 93453)
- searching body text is extremely slow (no indexing) and you can't make it faster by pre-filtering on subject (bug 154867)
- can't delete attachments from received mail (bug 2920)
- can't copy the name from displayed addresses (bug 232021)
- can't paste images into mail (bug 47838) although this is supposedly fixed in TB itself.
These bother me on a regular basis. Seeing something like "saved searches" go in while these much more basic things remain unfixed makes me wonder if there is anyone seriously working on TB/Moz mail. (I am trying to learn how to develop Mozilla - so far got a working build - but most of these are quite involved).
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
I don't suppose this version makes it possible to turn the damned coloured quote bars down each side of a reply to an e-mail/newsgroup posting off, does it ?
The extension I used to do this before doesn't work with 1.0PR.
Can Thunderbird filter your 'copies to self' yet? This is one very important feature if you are sending a lot of mail ...
"If you think the problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it." --- Arthur Kasspe
Thats all we hear with Mozilla - "new version - bug fixes". Jesus christ , how long have they been developing this now? Isn't it about time they got rid of any bugs relating to the core engine??
The reason I use outlook express is because there is a nonfree utililty (Express archiver) that archives all my messages, including attachments, in text/html format.
:).
I have no way to get my messages out of Thunderbird without having to manually save each one. If thunderbird came with the ability of outlook express + exress archiver (to archive emails in a text/html format) I'd switch over in an instant
I first looked at the download directory and thought I saw a bunch of Orcs...
There's just one thing I don't know how to do: Thunderbird displays all dates in the bizarre M/D/Y format. Is there any way I can persuade it do display them in either D/M/Y, which is more common in this country, or in Y/M/D, which is the preferred format everywhere? There seem to be no localisation options.
Welcome to Slashdot, Mitchell!
Im using TB on a daily basis and i consider it very good BUT i think its memory usage is a bit too heavy: 35-60MB on my windows machine. I used for years Pegasus Mail that, if i remember well, consumed 12-15MB of memory.
My PC has 512 of RAM so i have not so many problems using it, but i think i'll use another client on a 128MB RAM PC.
I'm waitin for the future to see (as AFAIK it's planned) the XUL framework separated and TB and FF running over it. Maybe this will lower the memory usage of the TB+FF combo (now it's 35MB + 47MB but maximum usage is reported to 47MB for TB and 72MB for FF)
Also the interface looks a bit less responsive when you load folders with many emails and also when it loads a single email (or you choose to write a new email). I suppose it's due to XUL too.
Sorry for my english
It's true that Outlook can do much more than Thunderbird, and as someone else already pointed out, Outlook Express would be a fairer alternative to compare against.
Still, I prefer Thunderbird even to Outlook, for a simple reason: I don't need those extra features. All I want is a mail client that can:
- read mail effectively (including avoiding HTML bugs, not filtering out genuine
.exes, etc.)
- provide a simple and effective address book
- provide decent mail processing rules
- back up and restore mail without losing data
without zillions of stability and security issues. I switched to Thunderbird after a system failure (caused by an official MS update, in fact) took out my MS-based mail system.I doubt I'm the only one in the world who really doesn't care about scheduling meetings and booking rooms using Outlook. I'd rather just have a simple, effective tool that helps me do my job. Trying to schedule meetings using Outlook is far less efficient than simply e-mailing, picking up the phone or (shock!) walking around and talking to people, IME.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Or better, Mozilla's lack thereof. This is something that has always baffled me; why on earth does Mozilla (or Thunderbird) only display the ACLs in ro mode? It must have the getAcl() (or whatever) command and some stupid little parseAcl() in order to display them. So why, why... again why hasn't anybody whipped up a stinkin' setAcl() function is beyond me.
LDAP write support is another sorely missing feature. Evolution can do it.
These two miserable little features would make TB an instant Winner, no question. And oh yes... vcf support, please!
Mi domando chi à il mandante di tutte le cazzate che faccio - Altan
Would it be possible to integrate Ximian exchange connector into thunderbird? That would be a feature that I'm sure MANY people would like.
Let's announce it to Slashdot. That ought to keep it quiet.
/"\ /
\
X ASCII Ribbon Campaign - Say NO to HTML in email
/ \
Another cause KISS loses to "cute"...
POP3 blocking?
Does anybody knows how to (or if it is possible) import emails from The Bat client ?
I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
One problem I can't solve, once the junk mail is moved to the junk folder I want that message marked "as read". I would rather not see a new mail notification in my task tray unless it is an important message.
It would also cut down on training the program since it would mark the message "as read" and junk with one click.
Yech! Crackers...
I like the idea of a theme-able, CSS-toting IRC client. It makes for interesting possibilities (think JerkCity).
Can't we have both? ^_^
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I switched to Thunderbird from Outlook because of the mail threading feature. I know you can do this in Outlook, but I hate the way it looks, and it wastes lots of space.
Thunderbird is missing sensible browser support, at least under GNU/Linux.
... now there's a novel idea: have the mozilla mail reader default to a mozilla browser).
It defaults to the gnome browser for some reason, and short of hand editing user.js files, doesn't seem to let you define something sensible (like, say, firefox
This is beyond irritating, and I hope they've fixed it for version 1.0.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Thunderbird is the best free email client that I have seen.
My one grip is the buggy editing behaviour, for instance sometimes when you are typing the caret disappears, often the font size reverts back to the default when you don't want it to and also the keyboard navigation doesn't work too well (ctrl -> should behave like ctrl - and move one word)
Hi. I'm new here. What's all this talk about sigs?
Lord forgive me for simply posting a "Mod Parent Up" post, but at this point all I can really do is second everything RedBear just said. 100% beyond my utopia, full stop!!
I am pretty sure what you just said here will make one of my friends day. He was looking for something exactly like this just yesterday. Thank you.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
It's not yet on mozilla.org (or I missed it) but you can read on http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1020 843 :
What's New In 1.0
Significant theme improvements for all platforms.
Migration improvements for Outlook 2003, Eudora and Mozilla Suite users.
Fix for a 0.9 regression on Mac OS X when creating folders with non ascii characters.
Saved Search Folder Improvements (i.e. lots of bug fixes)
Message Grouping Improvements (i.e. lots of bug fixes)
Improved RSS support (i.e. lots of bug fixes)
Improved support for Multiple Identities for an account.
Improved Account Central for Windows and Linux
Improvements to Global Inbox, in particular how we manage filters.
Fix problems creating folders with semicolons or # signs in the name
Stability Improvements
POP3 Filters can now filter messages to IMAP folders
RSS Feeds that require http authentication now work in Thunderbird
Fix an issue on Mac OS X where you could not paste text from Microsoft Word into the compose window
Offline UI is now installed by default for Windows (it already was for Linux and Mac OS X)
New quick search bar for address book and mail compose contacts sidebar.
Deleting a saved search folder now prompts you before it gets deleted.
New end user license agreeement.
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. Bertrand Russel
We use Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition and it does not play well with Thunderbird/Mozilla mail. If you receive an email with a virus, the Autoprotect will quarantine your ENTIRE inbox - NOT just the bad file. I use TB, BTW, so I've just blocked Autoprotect from scanning the TB mail directory.
Some people are like Slinkies - Not good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you push 'em down the stairs.
Beware if you have norton antivirus configured to scan incoming email and remove infected files.
I lost my inbox 1 day ago because norton flagged a virus and removed the inbox.mdf file. I didn't remember having this problem with other software.
For each email account, you can choose whether the mail goes into an account-specific Inbox OR a "global Inbox". So you can have all your mail in one big Inbox, if that's what you like.
Yeah, unless you want to use Thunderbird with your local mail spool (or "movemail" as the code calls it for no reason) -- in which case, you're out of luck: it doesn't use the global inbox (see bugzilla bug 263013) the mail notification sounds don't work (see bug 270186), and in general you get treated like a third-class citizen.
Which is inconvenient, ironic, and a shame, considering the disproportionate number of Thunderbird users who are on Unix-like systems, and thus have local mail delivery as an important (if not THE most important) account.
-- Watch the REAL Jon Katz.
that would be a killer feature.
:-)
if i could do that, i would be over on thunderbird in a new york second.
does this exist?
Is there somethign myterious about hotmail that keeps OSS clients from accessing it? We have samba, but no hotmail interface.
I use TB but most of the peeople i could sell on it have at least 1 hotmail account that they CAN access through O and OE. In some cases it's their only mailbox.
what's the story on hotmail support?
-- D-23994, Muff#2613
They're short bits of text that you can set in your preferences that no one ever cares about. We use them to make people look like jerks when they refer to their sigs and many people have them turned off.
Would you mind emailing me instructions on how to sync the calendar via FTP, even as insecure as it is? That's the only thing keeping me from using Calendar more.
(or respond here if you have karma to burn)
Your bitchy little reply would have had some merit , except that "local settings" and "application data" are hidden folders. By default, n00bs don't have them visible, what with them being set being hidden and all.
Uhhh...Thunderbird stores it's mail in "Application Data", too. Think before you speak.
Well, you can always press CTRL+ALT+C on the junk folder to mark everything as read. Not a fix, but a workaround.
While you're at it, take a look at which post I'm replying to.
Well, obviously my mileage does vary :-)
I have 8 people using sunbird/sunbird-firefox/iCal/phpiCal/RSS since october on 4 files shared using webDAV.
Though I had to write some very simple scripts to fix some line ending quirks (iCal seems to be a little choosy) it works fine, stable and is exactly the right solution in this case.
It's a small non-profit organisation where people with very different computer skills living in different towns have to coordinate.
I planned to install ogo first, but this seemed to be overkill though ogo a very decent product for more complex calendaring and real groupware issues.
And I was wary at first because I already made some bad experiences using mozilla-calendar and ogo together.
But if you just need a little shared calendaring, firefox-sunbird/WebDAV works quite well.
k2r
> Can I use it to schedule the presentation rooms?
d =109 92754
If a simple solution ist what she needs - give the calendar-plugin a try and share a calendar file for every ressource to schedule.
It might not be enough for you/her - or it might be just right.
Have a look at my previous posting on
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131547&ci
k2r
I've been using Tb since 0.6 with an IMAP account. Simply turn on these two options:
"When I delete a message: Move it to the Trash folder"
"Clean up ('Expunge') Inbox on Exit"
When you close Tb or leave the folder, it will purge messages marked as deleted.
"Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."