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Thunderbird 1.0 RC1 Released

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the mail-call dept.

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."

27 of 460 comments (clear)

  1. Popularity by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Popularity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Any serious usenet junkie will tell you TB won't cut it-- same with OE, though. I like pan. ;)

    2. Re:Popularity by oneeyedelf1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Outlook has so many more features then thunderbird. Since I dont use outlook I will give my mom's answer when she looked at thunderbird for her office. Can I use it to schedule the presentation rooms? Can I use it to sync? With email filters pretty much grabbing all the outlook viruses anyways, most buisness shouldnt be too concerned running outlook. Firefox was different it has MORE features and protects in ways that just arent too realistic on win2k in an office enviroment. When employees go home, generally they like to keep the same stuff. Besides most users stupid enough to get a virus with outlook will get a virus with thunderbird, so there's no real reason to get people to switch.

    3. Re:Popularity by secolactico · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I like pan. ;)

      I like pan, too, tho I'm partial to xnews. Too bad it (xnews) looks like crap under wine.

      --
      No sig
    4. Re:Popularity by EvilStein · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've itched about this before as well - Thunderbird very well could blow away Outlook in many organizations, but the CALENDAR *SUCKS* - Sorry, Sunbird sucks more ass than anything that has even sucked ass before. The last time I tried it, it was incapable of recognizing its own calendar files, instead they were opening as plain old text in Mozilla.

      Here's my idea: Ditch flippin Chatzilla. Put a lot of effort towards the calendar.

      The Calendar is one of the big reasons (that I have found) that people stick with Microsoft Outlook.

      It doesn't even have to be the whiz-bang calendar like Outlook has, but it'd be nice if it would actually work worth a crap.

  2. Handling in Linux? by thephotoman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Handling in Linux? by Vireo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My question is somewhat related... can you open a link in a new tab in FF by middle-clicking in TB? And in general, from a user point of view, are FF and TB as tightly integrated as Mozilla Mail and Mozilla-the-browser?

    2. Re:Handling in Linux? by MMMDI · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Open links from other applications in:
      [x] A new tab in the most recent window

      ...takes care of the first problem. Never used Mozilla Mail or Mozilla-the-browser, so can't compare... but the integration between FF/TB is pretty good. Optional buttons in FF that show how many new messages are in TB is one of the nicer things.

  3. Im surprised by OAB_X · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  4. Thunderbird is missing something by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Thunderbird is missing something by Oscar_Wilde · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No spell check suggester

      And on systems that have spell checking ability built into every GUI element that can contain text (Cocoa apps on OS X at least but I'm sure there are others) there is still no spell checking.

      It just doesn't feel right on a mac when text boxes don't let you spell check things. Perhaps this kind of thing will be more common when the rest of the software world catches up ;-)

  5. Desired Features by SlashdotOgre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  6. A couple of things: by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Interesting
    1. The importing process seems to only have a wizard to import from other email programs. I would like to have the option to point to a directory or file of email to be imported.

    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
  7. What's keeping me from switching from Outlook - TB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  8. Why Mail and News? by fred911 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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?

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    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
    1. Re:Why Mail and News? by EzInKy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

      The same as I consider editing, compiling, and debugging as one integrated development task I see browsing, reading email, instant messaging, and news reading as one integrated web communications task, that is why I'm sticking with Mozilla as long as I can. It's just plain convenient not to have to launch five applications to do related chores.

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  9. KMail by Helios1182 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  10. Re:What's keeping me from switching from Outlook - by boomgopher · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  11. Re:Gmail by hawaiian717 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    GMail provides specific directions for setting up POP access for many different mail clients, including Thunderbird:

    # Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Windows)
    # Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Mac)
    # Outlook 2003
    # Entourage 2004
    # Entourage X
    # Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Sponsored & Paid Mode)
    # Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Light Mode)
    # Netscape Mail 7.x
    # Netscape Mail 6.2
    # Netscape Mail 4.5, 4.6, or 4.7
    # Apple Mail
    # Mozilla 1.7
    # Thunderbird 0.x

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    End of Line.
  12. Thunderbird still doesn't support MS-TNEF by ptbarnett · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I know that MS-TNEF is generated by a lame Outlook. But, I get a lot of email from corporate clients that I wouldn't be able to read (either partially or entirely), and it's not appropriate for me to tell them it's their problem.

    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.

    1. Re:Thunderbird still doesn't support MS-TNEF by rduke15 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can sure understand that you don't want to bother your correspondents with stuff they wouldn't understand anyway.

      But this MS-TNEF shit most probably comes to you through their Exchange server, where I think the problem can be fixed globally.

      Try sending a mail to their administrator about it, or to postmaster@their-domain. He probably didn't reall want the users to send out TNEF mails and will be glad to fix it when he hears about the problem. As an admin for a few small businesses, I would definitely like to be notified if my clients start sending out TNEF, and would quickly fix it. It actuall did hapen a couple of times. Unfortunately, I can't remember for sure if I could fix it on the server or had to fix it on the client machine, but I think it was somewhere in Exchange.

  13. RSS feeds on Mac OS X?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Hi.
    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 /. login)

  14. Close, but so sigar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

  15. POP3 by ilithiiri · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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
  16. Localisation by david.given · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I use Thunderbird at home. I think it's great. I do think kmail is better, and I use that at work, but Thunderbird is still damn good.

    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.

  17. Ximian Connector by Danathar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would it be possible to integrate Ximian exchange connector into thunderbird? That would be a feature that I'm sure MANY people would like.

  18. Re:Reasons to use Outlook Express by Pxtl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Speaking of which, Thunderbird's IMAP support, while pretty, has one idiotic fault: there's no built-in way to purge deleted email messages. If you do manual purges with the purge button extension, you can't use the "move to deleted items folder" mode.

    The "move to deleted items folder" doesn't actually remove the deleted messages from the inbox, just flags them as deleted. This sucks if your IMAP system is ever accessed from anywhere else (which is the whole freaking point of IMAP) because when you log in, you find that all the junk-email and deleted items are still sitting flagged right in your inbox.

    This is a serious pisser.