OS and Software > Mozilla Software > [Thunderbird] Why the love for Thunderbird?

reply to goalieskates

Re: [Thunderbird] Why the love for Thunderbird?

reply to PhoenixDown
Well, before hearing about Thunderbird i was using outlook for configuring my accounts. It was quite easy to handle outlook, but when i heard about thunderbird i was just amazed, i was eager to use it. For few days i was not much familiar, but using it many times now i feel that there is no alternative for thunderbird. Its just amazing.

reply to PhoenixDown

reply to PhoenixDown
I will say for this filtering feature, the outlook is much good and one can understand and access it very easily. Though i like thunderbird, but for this outlook is much easier.

reply to PhoenixDown
I don't necessarily "love" Thunderbird, but I use it. I don't even remember why I switched.

Tim

reply to PhoenixDown
I just got a new blackberry.. I was told the only thing I can sync the blackberry's contacts and address book were with Outlook. Being a long time Thunderbird - Lightning user, I decided I may as well use my old copy of Outlook 2002.

Although it had NO issues in syncing, for some reason I Kept having to re-input my email passwords every time I closed Outlook... See here >>> »[Outlook] Why can't the passwords keep? In Outlook that is? As you can see, this is a "self created" issue that M$ created in an obvious "ploy" to get you to spend more of your cold hard earned cash on "updates"..

After asking around and thinking about it, I re-imaged my computer back to the point I didn't install Outlook (can you believe when I installed Outlook something mucked up and I couldn't get Windows Updates anymore!) and went back to Thunderbird. I now use the "Google Provider" and "Google-Zindus" contact sync for Google extensions, combined with the Google Sync for Blackberry. That's good enough for me. I can't sync tasks and memos. Who cares? I never really use them anyway. I am also investigating Yahoo's abilities and if I can pull it off with Yahoo and Thunderbird, may try that. Any's better than being coerced into spending $100 plus on a useless bloated piece of sh*t with no ability to add and remove extensions and slows down everything. The junk mail controls from Thunderbird work, and best of all, my $100 isn't in Ballmer's pocket; it's in mine.. If I stay with Google, that's fine too... I think if Thunderbird took itself JUST a little more seriously and created some more syncing extensions that would be greater, but anything's better than Microsoft...
--
I'm proud to be a troublemaker! America was founded by "troublemakers"!

reply to PhoenixDown
For me, the MAIN feature that I like about Thunderbird is portability.. Having my mail profile on a zip-drive, I can access and save mail on any platform I want.. Windows, Solaris, linux, or any other OS / environment I want.

I can't do that with Outlook.. Sure I can use imap and go from machine to machine, however with Outlook one is stuck on MS Windows..

reply to PhoenixDown
For me, it does take quite a few AddOns (extensions) to get TB mostly equal with Eudora, which I used since way way back, when not forced to use Outlook as an email client (I have used Outlook, and still do use Outlook, for it's Day Timer functions).

There is much about Tb to like, especially it's user control of configuration through AddOns.

What's not to like: Mainly that while it has achieved far greater stability than a few years ago, here, at least, it still really messes up in two major ways-

1) In at least a few different installs, all were mail is left on servers for extended periods, TB has on more than a few occasions, seen fit , on it's own, to download tons of messages for a second, and/or third, and/or more times.

2) TB mangles Email message folders (renaming them with numbers). Perhaps these occurrences are actually caused by server issues, but it never happened in many years of using Eudora the same way, and is a huge waist of time to clean up (there may even by an extension to help clean it up).

These have been the far greatest problem I have had with TB. Below are things that may or may not matter to a potential user:

3) Filters: Have yet to find a way in a single filter to set mix "And" along with "OR" Rules.

4) Have yet to find a way to get a "Print Preview" from within a Message. You have to close ("Save") it each time.

5) Anyone know how to send a message from with-in the message itself? Haven't found it, or an extension to allow
it.

6) I think this is QuickText extension's doing (an otherwise great time saver!), but just in case you are thinking of using it: TB's GUI is compressed at the TO: and Subject: field areas, making it difficult to read. The view of the Subject Field becomes garbled when Attachments are added (the message itself is fine).

9) The New Message Received Icon in the QuickLaunch area remains active, until selecting the account the message was received in, for some messages filtered to Local Folders, even after the message itself is read (there may be a filter/setting combo to eliminate this annoyance).

8) For messages that fit my filter selection, Eudora used to announce the contents of the From and Subject fields. Saved time in knowing when certain mail arrived.

As for AdOns/Extenstions to check out, here's my current list (a just recently added Adblock Plus as a test, though it's most probably not needed for my use):

Enabled Extensions: [38]

• [Un]read 0.5 - Quick [View All/Unread] switcher


• Adblock Plus 1.0.1 - Ads were yesterday!


• addressContext 0.8.1 - An extension to add addressbook-related options to the context menu


• Allow HTML Temp 2.0.1 - Allow temporarily HTML in a selected message


• ConfigDate 0.6.1 - Configure the 'Date' column and displayed date in message header


• Contacts Sidebar 0.7.1 - Displays the address books in a sidebar in the 3-pane-window.


• Correct Identity 1.3.1 - Allows you to configure the identity that will be chosen upon composing mail.


• Delete Junk Context Menu 0.3.2.1 - Adds 'Delete Mail Marked as Junk' to folders' right click menu!


• Display Mail User Agent 1.6.3 - Displays the mail program with which the selected mail was written


• DownThemAll! 1.0.3 - The mass downloader for Firefox.


• Extension Manager Extended 2.8 - Use the extension manager to view the id and the folder of an extension.


• Folderpane Tools 0.0.5.1 - Allows for customization of the folder pane such as rearranging accounts and choosing a startup folder.


• header scroll extension 0.3.2 - Adds a scrollbar to the extended all header view


• Headers Toggle 0.5.2.2 - Adds toggling headers from keyboard functionality.


• Identity Select 1.0 - This extension allows you to choose the identity of your new email from a popup menu directly from the Write button. This feature behaves in a similar manner as the Get Mail pulldown menu. In addition, the default behavior of the Write button is now context sensitive! The new message will automatically assume the default identity of the account that owns the currently selected folder. Please note that the global Inbox is not owned by any account and the default behavior of the Write button is unaffected when any subfolder of the global Inbox is selected.


• Launchy 4.2.0 - Open links and mailto's with external applications like Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Outlook etc


• MagicSLR 2.0 - Improved functions to get and send messages


• Maximize Message Pane 0.9.100 - Maximize the message pane by collapsing the thread pane and the folder pane.


• MR Tech Local Install 5.3.2.3 - Local Install power tools for all users. (en-US)


• NestedQuote Remover 0.8.2 - Remove nested quotes when replying to a mail.


• No New Window on Double Click 0.2.3 - Prevents Thunderbird from opening a new main window.


• Open Long Url 0.2.3 - Adds an option to your File menu to allow you to open long, multiline, urls.


• PrintingTools 0.2.6 - Correct the layout of email printing


• QuickFolders 0.9.9.5 - Bookmark your favorite mail folders in Thunderbird.


• Quicktext 0.9.9.9 - Adds a toolbar with unlimited number of text to quickly insert. It's also possible to use varibles like [[TO=firstname]]. With settings for everything.


• Show InOut 0.5.10 - Adds columns to ThreadPane indicating if a mail is incoming or outgoing


• Signature Switch 1.6.2 - Switch the signature on/off or choose a new one from your predefined set.


• Simple Search-For Extension 0.6.080815 - Implements a context menu's "Search for" item, like in Firefox.


• Talkback 2.0.0.9 - Sends information about program crashes to Mozilla.


• TB Reset Quote Header Extension 0.3.1 - You can now modify the look of the quote header on replies.


• Tiny Menu 1.4.9 - Replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup.


• Toolbar Buttons 0.6.0.4 - Adds toolbar buttons.


• Update Notifier 0.1.5.4 - Notifies you when updates are available for your extensions and themes.


• URL Link 2.02.3 - Allow navigation to broken/unlinked URLs


• WebMail 1.3.2 - Lets Thunderbird access web mail


• WebMail - Hotmail 1.2.22 - Hotmail component for Web-Mail extension


• XNote 2.1.0 - Add Post-It to your mails


• Xpunge 0.3 - Empties the Trash folder and compacts folders in multiple Thunderbird accounts.

• Thunderbird (default)

my only issue is with the lightning calendar extension I can't move the calendar to the left hand side of the screen under the folders. I used to be able do to that with the "more layouts for thunderbird" extension, but that isn't compatible anymore.