Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 5

Posted by samzenpus on from the fly-little-bird dept.

supersloshy writes "Mozilla has released the latest version of Thunderbird, their popular email client, now in sync with their new rapid-release versioning system. Among the new features are the new add-ons manager from Firefox 4, revised account creation, faster response times, the ability to load plugins in RSS feeds and over 390 platform fixes. For more information, read the release notes"

22 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Who uses Thunderbird? by Warlord88 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can someone give me a good reason to use Thunderbird or any other mail client. I haven't felt the need for it ever since gmail arrived. I can access it from any machine, mobile or tablet. Attachments are becoming easier, yadda yadda. I genuinely trying to figure out when I would want to use a mail client. Maybe in an office environment where I would not like to forward emails to gmail?

    1. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by BZ · · Score: 5, Informative

      gmail's offline capabilities are still pretty poor, for one thing. Support for S/MIME isn't quite there yet (though there are browser extensions that try to do it). Latencies are way higher than a local mail client, at least for me. The "conversation" model it uses is not something everyone likes.

      Gmail doesn't have NNTP support. Gmail doesn't try to remind you when you forget an to attach an attachment that you mention in the mail. Gmail sticks you with a crappy editing widget for your mail (granted, Thunderbird's is not much better).

      Most importantly, not using gmail means Google doesn't have access to your mail. This is something some people actually care about, even if you don't. And not just for "office" mails.

    2. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by Steauengeglase · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Backups and Liability. I don't think I'm the only person who has lost random messages in Gmail. Also, call me old, but there is some stuff you just don't want sitting on a Gmail account or I should say, there is some stuff that your clients would think about suing you if they knew your employees were just forwarding it off to their Gmail accounts.

    3. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by jbeaupre · · Score: 4, Informative

      There's probably not a great reason. But there are a few differences that make it worthwhile to some people. The big thing to remember is Gmail and Thunderbird are not mutually exclusive. I use Gmail through Thunderbird and through a web interface.

      Reasons Thunderbird might be useful to some people vs web based Gmail:
      Interface preference. Neither is superior, but some folks prefer Thunderbird.
      Multiple accounts. Thunderbird lets you manage multiple accounts with multiple providers easily.
      Plugins. I can only think of one: openPGP. And most people can live without it.
      Search. Believe it or not, Thunderbird gives you better control of search than Gmail
      Offline. Thunderbird lets you mess with your email while you are offline.

      So my advice is to give Thunderbird a try, don't expect to be blown away, but who knows, you might like it.

      --
      The world is made by those who show up for the job.
    4. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Can someone give me a good reason to use Thunderbird or any other mail client. I haven't felt the need for it ever since gmail arrived.

      Because we don't want to give all our email to Google?

    5. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by TechnoFrood · · Score: 2

      Gmail doesn't try to remind you when you forget an to attach an attachment that you mention in the mail.

      Sorry to be picky, but Gmail does do that now and has for a while I believe (although may have only been an optional Labs feature until recently).

    6. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by numbski · · Score: 2

      I will likely run my own mail server until the day I die or the technology becomes obsolete. It's my mail, hands off.

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

    7. Re:Who uses Thunderbird? by vux984 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Thunderbird is free.
      Gmail is "free".

      Thunderbird also handles receiving mail from multiple accounts better in my opinion. Yes gmail has all kinds of features to do this, but i like COMPLETELY separate inboxes for some stuff; and stuff like multiple-imap account support is better in thunderbird.

      Thunderbird is an application. Gmail is a web application.Its a good web app, but its still feels like a webapp. Its window handling in particular is REALLY annoying compared to a native app.

  2. Re:But let me guess by plunderscratch · · Score: 2

    It's simply a satirisation of release cycles, no complaint!

    --
    Guns don't kill people! Admins do!
  3. Re:Version jump? by MrEricSir · · Score: 2

    Nope! Thunderbird pulled a Winamp and skipped version 4 altogether.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  4. Too Many Updates by Normal+Dan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems like every time I look at my computer something else is asking to be updated. Flash, Java, Adobe, Firefox, Windows itself, etc. Can we just knock it off already and update once every 6 months or so? That would be nice.

    Also, get off my lawn.

    --
    A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
    1. Re:Too Many Updates by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. We want to make sure the malware/virus attack vector is as large as possible.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Too Many Updates by vlm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It seems like every time I look at my computer something else is asking to be updated. Flash, Java, Adobe, Firefox, Windows itself, etc. Can we just knock it off already and update once every 6 months or so? That would be nice..

      You'd like Debian Stable.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  5. OK, and what is new? by mseeger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    After having read the release notes, the improvement to the ordinary user still remains unclear. Sounds more like a patch than a new version...

    The greatest change seems to be the gecko engine. But anyone who sends me HTML mail gets a reprimand anyway. Does anyone really uses HTML in emails? I mean seriously? I get and read about 100 mails per day and write 30-50. Percentage of HTML mail is, once you throw out the marketing spam, well below 1%.

    What i really miss from Thunderbird is a better search interface. I want search terms like "from contains dummy.com and body contains upgrade and to is not me". For more complex searches, i currently create virtual folders (based on one search result) and then search within that folder. But even this method has its limits.

    I have most of my emails (now 18 years) archived. Saved my ass on at least half a dozen occasions. But this means 12.000 mails archived per year (much less in 1993, but always growing). So searching becomes the main problem now.

    CU, Martin

  6. Re:Version jump? by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Because it uses the same Gecko version as Firefox, they opted to skip a version in the numbering system. It wouldn't have been as obnoxious had they not also skipped Firefox 4.1 in favor of Firefox 5.0.

  7. "releasing" doesn't really sound right by Luckyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think at this point, it's more of a "projectile vomited" rather then "released". Or at least it describes both the desirability of the stuff being excreted and the speed.

    When it comes to email, reliability and functionality is FAR more important then any new features. Losing important/mission critical plug-ins to version crap can impact your real life in a vastly negative way.

    Oh well, there's always outlook. Can't believe I'd actually consider moving back to MS software on email. But if Mozilla is hell-bent to ensure that I don't want to use plug-ins because they will be killed every month for several days if I'm lucky, and never released on time if not (finnish dictionary add-on, I'm looking at you), then I might as well go back to outlook.

    At least it has proper spell checking in languages I need for my daily functioning.

    1. Re:"releasing" doesn't really sound right by starwed · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying you don't have reasons for considering switching back, but your post is incoherent to the point that I haven't the slightest idea what they are.

  8. Re:The release notes didn't mention one thing by Skuto · · Score: 2

    If you have font issues, please note Microsoft just released a hotfix that improves font rendering:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545698

    You might also want to look at:
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=667989

  9. The new account setup continues to suck by Kargan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It won't let you create an account (even for testing purposes) using servers and settings that it can't "probe".

    Working at a tech support firm as I do, the new account wizard that was implemented with TB3 is an absolute nightmare for users. I like TB better than MS mail clients in general, but they make us and our users' lives far more difficult than need be.

    Do away with the "autoconfiguration" crap and just let people specify what they want, or at least make it optional to have TB "autodetect" everything, for cripes' sake. What's wrong with letting the end-user configure an account using any settings they want?

    --
    Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
  10. Still using 2.0.0.24 by grolschie · · Score: 2

    I never liked Thunderbird 3.x. Thunderbird 2.x is just what I want.

    1. Re:Still using 2.0.0.24 by raju1kabir · · Score: 2

      Same here. WTF is the point of using tabs for email? If I want multiple messages open, it's BECAUSE I WANT TO SEE THEM AT THE SAME TIME. The whole thing felt like using webmail, the avoidance of which is exactly why I was using a desktop email client in the first place.

      Still on 2.0.0.24 and apparently I'll still be on it for a long time â" especially since a commenter above said that the "redirect" plugin no longer works in 5.0. Why on earth they are so rabidly resistant to adding that basic feature I'll never understand.

      --
      "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
  11. Outlook still not so good by dbIII · · Score: 2

    While the new MS Outlook is miles ahead of the clunky virus vectors of the past it still has a few nasty quirks that make it a pain for the user and waste everybodies time. The worst IMHO is very unreliable secure authentication with mail servers which makes it unsuitable for staff that travel. Even the iPhone gets it right but under the same circumstances MS Outlook randomly fails when it's trying to send email. I had to get external MS Outlook users to connect via a VPN and get their machine to pretend to be on a LAN and use email insecurely before they could send email more than 5 out of 6 times.
    While MS Outlook is well presented there are plenty of internal flaws like the above which you just will not find in any other released email client and would be considered unacceptable elsewhere - it's a highly polished turd.