DarqFlare Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 In an effort to figure out what programs would be best for me to use, I'm considering using Thunderbird for my email client... I need to know what exactly it offers though, and what some of the wonderful TCH community has to say about it... I only have one problem so far, however... I hear that Thunderbird cannot do Notes", Tasks, or a Calendar as MS Outlook can... Is this true? Because I actually use those features... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayman Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Some of the features I like in Thunderbird: 1) Spam filters work wonders, it just takes a couple of weeks/months of training (depends on the amounts of spam you receive), and then it'll do a great job detecting spam. 2) Privacy options, like not loading remote images, or showing all emails as plain text. 3) You can configure it to leave large messages on server if you use POP3, to avoid downloading large messages, later you can decide whether to download or delete the message depending on the sender/subject... 4) Great search and filtering options. 5) Better integration with the greatest browser out there, Firefox 6) A wide variety of extensions and themes. 7) Free and Open Source (which means faster updates and patches). ... And a lot more, these are only a few things I can think of now. For calendar and notes, check out Mozilla Sunbird: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I dont like it because it is not a four seater anymore. That and I didnt like the fact that last time I used it that it created seperate folders/inboxes for each account I had set up, where in Outlook I can set up as many accounts and filter them to whatever folder I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schussat Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Thunderbird doesn't do the notes and calendar that Outlook can do. On the other hand, it does email quite well. I really like it, and use it with IMAP on several PCs. Rob, although it creates a lot of default folders, I think you can delete all the folders that you don't (want to) use. I use it to filter around a bunch of stuff and really like the flexibility to redirect saved mail and sent-mail to anywhere, as well as other filtering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Well, I didnt like how it made; Account1 - Inbox - Blah - Blah - Etc.. Account2 - Inbox - Blah - You - Get - The - Point And my Outlook is; Inbox - whatever - more - another - folder 20 accounts filtered to any folder or to just one inbox if I like. Maybe this has changed or I didnt know how to modify it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arvind Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 For notes calendar etc. check out the Sunbird project http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html There's also a project called Lightining that is working on integrating Thunderbird with Sunbird to make it more like Outlook: http://news.com.com/Mozillas+Lightning+to+strike+Outlook/2100-7344_3-5501618.html I personally have no use for a calendar so Thunderbird fits my needs perfectly. I find it to be much faster, slimmer and safer than Outlook or OE. If you are heavily dependant on the notes/tasks etc. you may find it lacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charle97 Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 set all accounts to use the global inbox. 20 accounts filtered to any folder or to just one inbox if I like. Maybe this has changed or I didnt know how to modify it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 20 accounts filtered to any folder or to just one inbox if I like. Maybe this has changed or I didnt know how to modify it. As charle97 said, set it to use global inbox. But this was the main reason I switched to Thunderbird to keep my accounts separated. I don't like mixing my personal mail with my work mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Fine, but they still need to bring the rear seats back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Don Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 Fine, but they still need to bring the rear seats back. And the Camaro and Firebird too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medici Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 First off, Thunderbird is an email client, not a full-featured organizer a la Microsoft Outlook. I've been using Thunderbird for about 6 months now for my personal email, and can tell you the following pros and cons: Pros Quicker and smaller than Outlook. Excellent Basian-based junk email filtering Excellent sorting and filtering capabilities Nice look and feel Easy to configure and reliable Good notification features Works on-line and off-line Themes, Skins, Plug-ins and Extensions available Free/Open Source Software Good security (image/html blocking w/override and trusted sender recognition) Cons E-mail only - there is an address book, but no calendar or task list Address book not recognized by 3rd-party apps (i.e., Fax, Word) Potential compatibility issues with antivirus software Note: A calendar is coming. Check out Sunbird, an iCal-based F/OSS calendar from Mozilla.org. On the antivirus software issue: AFAIK, no antivirus software specifically works with or understands Thunderbird. As a result, it is possible for you to a.) download an email containing a virus to your inbox, then b.) have your antivirus detect the virus when its written to disk, and c.) have the antivirus quarantine or delete your inbox file, causing you to lose all the other messages in that file. I believe this happened to me once, but I didn't have anything important in my inbox at the time, and it hasn't happened in three months, so I didn't spend any time investigating further. I also haven't heard of anyone else experiencing this issue. So it might have been something else. On the multiple mailbox issue: As you add new email accounts you can determine whether you want them to go into the global folders or into separate folders. I do both: I have accounts on several different systems that I aggregate into one set of global folders, and then speciality accounts for less trusted needs that go into their own, separate folders. -- Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 AFAIK, no antivirus software specifically works with or understands Thunderbird. As a result, it is possible for you to a.) download an email containing a virus to your inbox, then b.) have your antivirus detect the virus when its written to disk, and c.) have the antivirus quarantine or delete your inbox file, causing you to lose all the other messages in that file. I believe this happened to me once, but I didn't have anything important in my inbox at the time, and it hasn't happened in three months, so I didn't spend any time investigating further. I also haven't heard of anyone else experiencing this issue. So it might have been something else. What are you saying here? I use both EZAntivirus and AVG with Thunderbird. My virus software captures virus email while being downloaded. The only thing I can really complain about with Thunderbird is not being able to insert a signature into a message if you had no signature set up for it. With Outlook Express you could set up multiple signatures to be used for any account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayman Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 Cons E-mail only - there is an address book, but no calendar or task list ... There is an address book integrated into Thunderbird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gacain Posted February 17, 2005 Share Posted February 17, 2005 Greetings, I started using Thunderbird several months ago at home, as I usually 'guinea-pig' software I'm considering installing on user's machines at the office. Based on my experience I'm in the process of migrating my users to Thunderbird (from OE) because it's cost effective, has more and better address book options, is a lot more secure and deals with attachments better. (I've never used Outlook as we don't utilize an Exchange server). I spend less time solving my user's email problems now. My users who have Thunderbird seem pretty happy with it - certainly none of them miss OE. My average user doesn't seem to notice any real difference, and from my perspective, that's a GOOD thing. The only problems I have with it in the office occur when I miss something in configuring it - there are a LOT more configuration options with it than with OE, and their access is not quite as intuitive. I also use the Sunbird calendar. Sunbird is available as either an extension to Thunderbird or as a stand-alone executable. It works pretty well for sharing information through webDAV, which I have set up on our intranet (Apache) server. It does not have notes but does have a task list, which I use for both purposes. Sunbird is a relativly young project, and there are still some bugs, but it's growing quickly enough and has become useable enough that I've been installing that at the office for some users as well. Hope this is helpful. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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