Thunderbird 3.0

[RoyGBiv]

Thunderbird 3.0 has finally been released.



While Mozilla's browser project has undergone steady development, Thunderbird has seemed to lag behind. Once it hit the 2.0 milestone, no major revisions have come along leading some of us who use Firefox's sidekick wondering if the team had all gone out to a permanent lunch.

A few notes:

The most obvious feature addition is tabs for e-mail. This works similarly to the now standard feature in every major web browser and can be used in a number of ways. Since I have multiple e-mail accounts, I've found the most natural of these to be having each account open in its own tab. I can then go back and forth between tabs and open individual folders in that tab or open those in yet another tab if I want. I'm still playing with it to find uses, but that's where I am with it now.

Speaking of multiple accounts, this version of Thunderbird now has something called "Smart Folders." It will organize all your Inbox's across your e-mail accounts into a single Inbox for reading if you want. The folders for those accounts remain to keep everything organized the way you want, but this would allow you to read all your new mail without switching around between them. I, personally, don't think I'll use this, and the feature can be turned off.

Gmail's IMAP now works.

The search function has been greatly improved. You'll notice when you first start up the new version that Thunderbird will spend a lot of time (given my volume of e-mail and usenet archives, about 274 truckloads plus a spare trailer of time) indexing everything. After it's done, the continued indexing of new messages seems mostly invisible. I'll note also that while the indexing was taking place it didn't interfere with anything and that I could read/send/browse my mail at will, but it did put a tax on my CPU while it was working.

Font handling seems much improved in the Linux version.

Almost none of my former extensions currently work except for Engimail, which is the bridge between Thunderbird and GPG. (Interestingly, as you can see in the pic above, the names of some of these extensions that don't work do still appear in the About window and are appended to the client header still.) A few themes have been updated, but not many, and some that claim to be updated aren't. Given the interface makeover, all old themes will need substantial work to function with this version. Most of the extensions I did use aren't killers, but one, the interface between T-Bird and Gmail's calendar will be missed until it is updating, assuming it is. I say "assuming" because it has been so long between T-Bird updates, I wonder how many developers are still paying attention.

Other than that, I've not run into any problems, and this version is noticeably more responsive than its predecessor. That's all for now.

[Old and In the Way]

1. One thing I really, really like about MS Office/Outlook.

I do a lot of project management that I need to keep copies of my e-mail that are specific to each project....Outlook lets me drag into a desktop folder so I don't have to search my inbox or sent messages to find important info relating to these projects. I couldn't do this in Thunderbird or any other client/webmail app I've tried. I'm wonder if this version of T'Bird addresses this feature?

[RoyGBiv]

2. Save As ...

It's not click and drag. It's right-click, then Save As ... and you choose the directory where you want to save it. This works for both the e-mail itself and/or any attachments.

That's always been there, though, so it may not be what you want.

[Old and In the Way]

4. huh.

Never thought about that method. Shoulda asked the question when I was test-driving T-Bird awhile back...

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Hmm

So, wait for it to hit the repo or just stuff it on?
Decisions, decisions...

[RoyGBiv]

7. I decided to stuff it ...

It'll be a few months before it shows up in the Debian/Ubuntu repos, and I didn't want to wait that long. I was impatient to see what this whole tabbed e-mail thing was all about.

As a friend said upon installing it, "It's weeeeeeeeeeeeeird ..."

[madokie]

5. Well tell me where to get it for mint 8 ;-)

:hi:
Thanks for all the help you've given me with linux. I can't see me ever going back to windows now that I have autocad up and running in mint.

[RoyGBiv]

6. I'm still amazed ...

Just based on my casual reading of the forums about AutoCad and Linux, it seems you've managed to do in a relatively short period of time what others, some of whom have been using Linux for a long time, have deemed impossible. We need a "my hat is off to you, sir" smiley. Guess this will have to do. :toast:

I guess this is what patience does for you. :)

Remember that mess with installing Firefox 3.5 using ubuntuzilla awhile back? That works for Thunderbird (and Seamonkey) too.

If you've changed distros around since then, you'll need to install the scripts again. Probably the quickest way for now is to download the .deb and install it:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ubuntuzilla/files/

After they're installed, all you have to do is issue this command:

ubuntuzilla.py -g -a install -p thunderbird

Then answer the questions.

Note the lone "-g" out there by itself. You wouldn't normally use that, however ...

There's a bit of a glitch with adding Thunderbird, and I don't know exactly where it originates. It's a Mozilla key distribution problem of some sort, but I don't know exactly what they did. The long and short of it is that the signature keys were missing from the key server when I downloaded the package, so the automated method of doing this via script broke. It couldn't verify the packages, in other words, so it interpreted them as being bad and refused to install. Well, they weren't. I manually verified them. Still, it was irritating until I figured out what was going on.

That "-g" switch turns off the checking of the gpg verification key so the script completes.

[wildflower]

8. Does it fnally get rid of that "error truncating the inbox" problem?

I.e. the error message that appears when Thunderbird is trying to filter e-mail? I've had this occurring for a while now, and when I looked it up on the Web, it appears a number of users on different platforms and with different Thunderbird versions have had this problem over the years, with no resolution.

[RoyGBiv]

9. I couldn't say ...

I've never had that problem, and I use dozens of filters.

It has introduced a new issue that reminds me somewhat of this, however. I was planning on doing a small write-up of my experiences so far after a few weeks use, but I'll go ahead and say this now.

The indexing system seems to function on an ongoing basis, meaning whenever you get new mail, it is immediately indexed for searches. What this means for those using PGP encryption is that whenever you receive an encrypted e-mail, the indexer will pop-up a dialog box requesting your passphrase, even if you don't have that folder open and no messages selected. This can become quite annoying to people, like me, who receive quite a bit of encrypted mail.

So, as I said, I'm not sure.

[wildflower]

10. Okay, thanks

I may look into it.

[madokie]

11. Finally got around to installing it

I can see I'm going to like it just fine. Thanks for all you do for us here in this forum. You're the greatest. :hi:

Looking back on it all its been quite a journey dropping windows and going with linux and I'm so happy I finally got around to doing it when I did. I simply love the way it all just works, no bullshit no hassles just a good solid operating system.