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."

Comments

Popularity

[fembots]

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?

Re:Popularity

[skids]

The geek fanbase for thunderbird is smaller, so it gets less free publicity.

You can't really live without a graphical web browser (well, at least without impairing access to a lot of stuff), but the same isn't true of email. There are a number af very good text-mode mail readers, and most people I know prefer something like PINE, and really dread the day when you can't live without a graphical email reader.

So far we've done a fair job of beating back the perpetually looming encroachment of non-plain-text email. (There's even an ASCII ribbon campaign :-)

Re:Popularity

[pcmanjon]

"and most people I know prefer something like PINE"

Wow, and I'm still using the GNU ``mail`` command. I didn't know they had an ncurses based mail client yet.

Re:Popularity

[AstroDrabb]

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?

Why would you compare MS Outlook, a groupware application, to an email application? A better comparison would be MS Outlook Express to Thunderbird. MS Outlook Express cannot schedule the presentation rooms either. Thunderbird is far better then OE and has far better default security.

For office type groupware, MS Outlook is currently the best product out there. But for a typical _home_ user email program, Thunderbird is very good and much better then MS Outlook Express IMO.

Re:Popularity

[EvilStein]

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.

Re:Popularity

[Swaffs]

I think much moreso than text-mode mail readers is that many people use only webmail. I know a lot of people who don't realize they can get an email address through their ISP, but have hotmail addresses because that's what they know. Also, many use gmail or their ISP's webmail option since its so portable.

Re:Popularity

[Metteyya]

Wow, and I'm still using the GNU ``mail`` command. I didn't know they had an ncurses based mail client yet.

You must be using Debian Stable, don't you?

i read my mail

[Anonymous Coward]

using my OS, emacs

Thunderbird is missing something

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Thunderbird is missing something

[gavinjolly]

I have recently moved a client Off thunderbird due to issues. Refer here http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=1710 10 for my post to the Tunderbird forums. Here is the summary of the issues from my message for those too lazy to click on the link

• No spell check suggester
• Limited signatures - Only one per account and no way to insert during editing a message. A pain for us who use signatures as an Autotext/proforma facility.
• Searching for emails - In OE and other mail clients when the list is sorted by Sender clicking M will take you to the first M entry.
• Formatting HTML emails - You cannot select HTML text and then set to the same text size from the formatting toolbar, you must go through the menu (Format > Size > Medium)

I still use it myself as a preference.

Re:Handling in Linux?

[SlashdotOgre]

Under Gnome, clicking a mailto: link in firefox launches the default mail program you select under Preferred Applications in gnome-control-center. If Thunderbird is your default mail client, it will launch that.

Desired Features

[SlashdotOgre]

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?

Re:Gmail

[cetan]

with gmail providing pop3 access, you /could/ integrate the two :)

But really, I use both. gmail has taken over "web" duty from my old yahoo account and thunderbird controls mail from my domains.

A couple of things:

[lawpoop]

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.

Re:A couple of things:

[jeffehobbs]

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?

Saved Search Folders is exactly, precisely what you want, and it's in Thunderbird right now. It's an insanely great feature.

~jeff

Re:A couple of things:

[jeffehobbs]

Then it sounds like you're a candidate for "Grouped by Sort", which is a dumb name for a cool feature:

1) sort your mail by sender.

2) hit "G". Now all your mail is arranged in little collapsed subgroups depending on the sender/email address.

This doesn't use folders per se, so I agree that it's not exactly, precisely what you want, but the end result is similar.

~jeff

promoting Thunderbird is a timing thing

[bersl2]

1. Someone complains about Outlook Express on USENET or in a forum.
2. ???
3. Profit!---er... Download!

KMail

[Helios1182]

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.

Re:Multiple identities/accounts

[John_Booty]

Problem with Thunderbird is that I never liked the way it handled multiple-acounts.

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to, but I have a feeling you didn't like the way the mail was split up, with one "Inbox" per account? A lot of people didn't like that.

Well, the good news is that you now have a choice. 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.

Personally, I like having separate Inboxes for each mail account, because I have many mail accounts and each one has a pretty specific purpose. One for spam, one for friends, several for business/website-related purposes, etc. But apparently the majority of users want a global Inbox, and the developers listened. Pretty cool if you ask me. :)

Re:Why Mail and News?

[znark]

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.

E-mail and news (and offline dial-up BBS messaging of the old days) are all sides of the same coin, communication-wise:

• You have paragraphs of text.
• You have quoting.
• You have signatures.
• You need to have a message editor.
• You usually have a need to archive important messages into folders of your own choosing.
• Most often you would like to keep a record of what you have yourself written.
• You need some search facilities.
• There must be a way to see a list of new messages, and an option to thread them into coherent discussions.

A well-written news message is the same as a well-written e-mail message. The line between the two further blurs when you subscribe to mailing lists. Why use (and learn) two different interfaces and programs for handling what is essentially the same form of communication?

-- znark

Re:What's keeping me from switching from Outlook -

[boomgopher]

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 :).

Thunderbird still doesn't support MS-TNEF

[ptbarnett]

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.

Re:Reasons to use Outlook Express

[Khazunga]

Right click on folder, click "Compact this folder". It's idiotic, but TB is following the spec to the letter. Blame the spec.