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New Thunderbird Releases and New Thunderbird Staff
- jboogie77 9y agoDiehard thunderbird fan. Using it on OSX and Windows. Glad to see it still being updated.
- mintplant 9y agoI'm so glad for some news about Thunderbird's future. A conglomeration of little annoyances made me go hunting for an alternative client earlier in the year, and I just couldn't find one that would really replace it for me. If any of the team are reading, I hope the search interface is on the radar for when the project is on stable footing again. That's Thunderbird's main area of weakness in my opinion.
- tombrossman 9y agoI find recent emails with Thunderbird's search pretty reliably, but for indexing a large archive of emails I can definitely recommend Recoll. I have it run a scan daily as a cronjob and it finds absolutely everything. http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/ http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/
- taneq 9y agoSearch would be fine (for my needs at least) if they'd just (add an option to) do one thing: Skip that stupid search tab and go straight to "open email as list". I don't want full email text sorted by "relevance" (whatever that means for a search on a couple of keywords). I want a list of email threads that match. This is pretty much the only fly in my Thunderbird ointment. Otherwise it's been a great client for years and I look forward to using it for years more.
- coderdude 9y agoI use thunderbird because it works on the 3 OSs I use but it's actually crappy as far as an email client goes and seems to stop working correctly or quickly once you've accumulated a few tens of thousands of emails stored locally. Hopefully they'll address the issues I've had.
- cs702 9y agoI see no information about integration with calendar and contacts web apps. Did I somehow miss it?
- addicted 9y agoThat's achieved with the Lightning add-on, I believe. I'd like to see Thunderbird focus on separating their mail handling engine from the UI aspects. Much like how the Chrome V8 engine can be used by a variety of projects, it would be nice if a separate open source project could take the Thunderbird engine, and experiment with their own UI. It would also allow the adoption of newer replacements for IMAP. My hope would be that it could also lead to the replacement of proprietary messaging networks such as Slack, Discourse, etc., with something based on the newer open email format.
- Illniyar 9y agoI thought thunderbird was in pure maintenance mode and practically abandoned. Has something changed? Is this a maintenance release or is thunderbird starting to be a viable client again?
- hendersoon 9y agohttps://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/ https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-fu... Basically, they're still under the Mozilla umbrella for legal and fiscal reasons, but all development and operations are completely separate from Mozilla and Firefox. Thunderbird has always been and continues to be a viable email client-- it just hasn't seen any meaningful development for a heck of a long time. It still _works_. Anyway, hopefully this means development will pick up. It's kinda amazing that it doesn't have multirow views yet.
- ttoinou 9y agomultirow views What do you mean ?
- hendersoon 9y agohttps://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213945 "Reported: 15 years ago" That bug epitomizes how Thunderbird development has stalled for a very, very, very long time.
- netmare 9y agoHas it stalled, though? Perhaps they don't see it as a worthwhile feature to focus on. I'm OK with that, even though I'd love to see it implemented. Firefox, OTOH, finally resolved a much more trivial issue 17 years after it was first reported (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92737) and I'd hardly call that project stalled.
- 9y ago
- pkd 9y agoOh my god. Thank you for this great news. I was almost resigned to see Thunderbird being sunset. It's an amazing client and will only become better by utilising the progress made by Firefox.
- jseliger 9y agoI've been using Apple's Mail.app for a long time, but it's nice to see Thunderbird as a real alternative to it or Outlook.
- wpietri 9y agoAgreed! I just donated cash money, as I'd hate for it to go away.
- kevinchen 9y agoConsider setting up a small monthly donation, as this helps nonprofits plan better and be more sustainable
- discreditable 9y agoI'm pretty thrilled as well. I upgraded Thunderbird to 58beta and it is pretty nice. The visual refresh is welcome and it feels like TB maybe has benefited from some of Firefox's under-the-hood improvements since 52.
- wallacoloo 9y agoIs the new Thunderbird compatible with Microsoft's Exchange email service? If memory serves, I think that was what forced me to switch to the Evolution Mail client (which uses "Exchange Web Services") since my workplace uses Exchange. With regard to the Photon UI, I'm weary of the calendar button being in the application header like that. It's just not where I would look for it, and I don't see what's different between it and the other buttons that would merit some of them being in the header and some of them not. Either way, I'm happy that Thunderbird isn't dead. Even version 52 has some nice features that I couldn't find in other clients.
- cbcoutinho 9y agoThat's my only constraint as well, and last time I checked ews wasn't supported
- hendersoon 9y agoNot natively, but you can sync exchange email through IMAP which works fine. Contacts and calendaring come through addons that do work with OWA.
- semi-extrinsic 9y agoYou can do EWS very well through a plugin called ExQuilla. You have to pay some small fee for a license, but you can try it for free. Otherwise, you can go through DavMail, but it's more of a hassle.
- phillc73 9y agoI recently paid for Hiri[1], which very smoothly connected with my corporate Exchange server. I haven't used it extensively yet, but the interface is interesting and they seem to be trying to do something different with email. [1] https://www.hiri.com https://www.hiri.com
- nblavoie 9y agoSounds great. The problem, when I play the video on their website and I close it while it's still playing, I continue to hear the video's sound.
- Derbasti 9y agoFinally! I hope they start moving forward again. How about, once all the maintenance is done, - Exchange support - Native Calendar with Exchange and CalDAV support - Native Contacts with Exchange and CardDAV support (I'm currently using Evolution, and it mostly works. But elegant or polished it is not.)
- nkkollaw 9y agoWOW, I used to use Thunderbird until around 2010 when I moved to more modern clients, it's so sad to see that they're still stuck in 2010 in terms of design.
- pfranz 9y agoWhat's an example of modern client design? Looking at the "visual refresh" it looked like modern Outlook to me. But, even then, the layout for all the basic desktop email clients (Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird) haven't really changed since the mid-90s. I feel like most of the audience moved to webmail or phone clients--not another desktop client. I'm probably part of a very small group, but I don't really care for the visual updates (I feel like the average user gets lost with new UI, anyway). I want a tool that can handle a very large amount of email, snappy and quality search, and I do appreciate some of the little "smart" features (reminding to add attachments, delayed/undoable send, calendar integration suggestions). All of those things seem to be smaller bullet points on the product page, each with a lot of work behind them.
- nkkollaw 9y agoGoogle Inbox would be an example, but there are so many and they all work similarly. Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by type (promotions, spam, important, finance, family, etc.), and fewer buttons and options. Modern design looks nice, and it makes buttons for more common actions more prominent: new message is huge, reply is big, add label very small, etc., while in Thunderbird there are 10 times more buttons, and they're all the same size. It just needs a lot of work. I'm not a designer, so I can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong, but those I mentioned are the things that I notice and that I would start from. As for Google Inbox specifically, it gets rid of all spam and hardly ever gets it wrong. It also encourages you to get rid of useless emails thanks to grouping done well and a few related features, which made me achieve inbox zero for the first time.
- ryukafalz 9y ago>Modern features are snoozing messages, automatic grouping of emails by type (promotions, spam, important, finance, family, etc.) Does any client other than Inbox have these?
- sigjuice 9y agoPlease have some sort of ACME support for automatically doing S/MIME.
- pjmlp 9y agoThanks for all the work, it is my favourite email client since Netscape days. Guess it is time to renew my donation.
- freedomben 9y agoSincerely thank you for being so generous and supporting open source. It benefits us all
- u801e 9y agoI thought that Thunderbird (along with Firefox) was based on the Mozilla application suite which itself was open sourced from the code that Netscape wrote for their browser, mail and news client, and html composer/editor aka Netscape Communicator. I still use Firefox as my main browser, and Thunderbird as my mail and news client and have been using their earlier incarnations since the Netscape days.
- dboreham 9y agoYes. Thunderbird is a descendent of Netscape Messenger.
- nerflad 9y agoWow, just last night I was thinking about how Thunderbird is getting so long in the tooth. It's still my favorite email client. Happy to see this update!
- sebastian 9y agoThanks for not letting Thunderbird die. In my opinion it's still the best and most customizable opensource email client and there is just not a viable replacement. Most of the open source email clients I have tested require you to run a local webserver and access the mail using a web browser with very limited features. All I want/need is a desktop app that can be customized to work similar to Gmail, pulls and deletes emails from remote SMTP/IMAP servers and allows me to create backups locally. Thunderbird gives me that.
- busterarm 9y agoI've found Mutt, Alpine, Sup and Notmuch all to be very good, depending on your needs.
- Maarius 9y agohttps://www.postbox-inc.com/ https://www.postbox-inc.com/ is also a nice alternative (and mostly compatible to Thunderbird - at least when I migrated)
- tmikaeld 9y agoIt seems really good, but it's not open source.
- sebastian 9y agoEven though Mutt, Alpine, Sup and Notmuch might work great for some people they seem to be accessible only from a terminal, emacs, etc and very text heavy. As much as I love spending time on the terminal, I prefer a GUI app for my email. Postbox unfortunately doesn't support Linux, besides that while I don't mind paying licences for great software, it doesn't look like Postbox is fully opensource [1]. [1] https://www.postbox-inc.com/coveredcode https://www.postbox-inc.com/coveredcode
- nine_k 9y agoBTW what makes you prefer GUI over text almost-GUI? My experience with email is that it's 99% text. I use gmail because of the labels (no, folders are inadequate), full-text search, and the fact that it runs in browser which I keep always open anyway. I wish there was a comparable open-source solution.
- znpy 9y agoIt's sad to see Mozilla dropping off Thunderbird to basically a spin-off entity (this seems to be the direction).
- Grollicus 9y agoIf you are using Thunderbird you're propably using Enigmail and might want to check out this new Enigmail vulnerability: https://twitter.com/symbolicsoft/status/943106337617084417 https://twitter.com/symbolicsoft/status/943106337617084417
- bigbugbag 9y agoActually according to usage share, if you are using TB you are probably not using enigmail, but thanks for the warning.
- ausjke 9y agoGreat to see it is alive and kicking. I have been a heavy thunderbird users for years until about half-year ago, I now move/forward all my email to outlook.com instead, so far it works for me well.
- oneplane 9y agoWhile I'm happy they are keeping development up, I'm sad about the 'move to web technologies'. I really like the idea of purpose-built applications in fast languages that compile to efficient native code. I don't really want a webapp, wrapped in a single-app browser, we already have so many of those.
- ibotty 9y agoThunderbird (and Firefox before) were already mostly web apps. XPCom, etc is a (pretty bad) variant of the web technology stack.
- rebelwebmaster 9y agoMore relevant to Firefox than Thunderbird, perhaps, but the advantage to using web technologies for their own front end is that it forces them to eat their own dogfood at least. Given that Mozilla wants the web to win, making sure their platform is well-rounded enough to performantly build their own products on top of seems like a wise strategy. Kind of a vote of no-confidence otherwise.
- bigbugbag 9y agoWhat makes you think mozilla wants the web to win ?
- AndyMcConachie 9y agoThank you Mozilla for continuing to support Thunderbird!!!
- epx 9y agoGreat news, made my day! It is the one usable mail client for Linux.
- NKosmatos 9y agoGreat news!!! Thanks for keeping TB alive for us loyal users. Just yesterday I tried the 58beta and some problems I had with Lightning not loading properly after some restarts, disappeared. The visual refresh with the flat UI was also a nice change. Wish I could contribute...
- dwheeler 9y agoI'm REALLY excited that Thunderbird has more people and releases. I'm hoping that calendar & native Exchange support will be eventually added.
- buovjaga 9y agoIf you love Thunderbird, set it (bug) free! You can help a lot without any C++ knowledge. I wrote about getting started in bug triaging earlier this year: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/65upot/show_some_love_for_thunderbird_by_testing_bugs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/65upot/show_some_lov... Sadly I have not gotten around to guestblogging about my TB testing (done over the course of 3 months).
- gravypod 9y agoI currently use ThuderBird but I'm very sad about the lack of some basic features (grouping email chains?). I wish someone would make an open source replacement to Mailspring's sync engine. I'd switch to that as soon as available. I just don't like the thought of someone having hidden code touching my email. https://github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring https://github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring
- mintplant 9y ago> I currently use ThuderBird but I'm very sad about the lack of some basic features (grouping email chains?). If this means what I think it does, it's provided by the Thunderbird Conversations addon. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/gmail-conversation-view/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/gmail-con...
- lorenzhs 9y agoI use that but it's a bit of a mixed bag. Works pretty well in general but sometimes it's just incredibly slow, or decides to display a portait image with 100% width in a half-height view, spanning half a dozen screenfuls, instead of doing something reasonable like resizing so that both dimensions fit.
- Fnoord 9y agoMailspring is neat. Seems its just SquirrelMail under the hood though plus a web browser to browse the mail? Or was that Nylas N1? I also thought it was open source? I remember back in the days Modest running on Nokia N-series running Maemo. That used a frontend and backend architecture. Why can we not adopt such in the e-mail world? That way, we abstract the data from the clients.
- rcarmo 9y agoAwesome news, given that I still use it on a weekly basis on my Linux laptop. I pinned the apt on Ubuntu to make sure it would stay ‘stable’, will take a look at 58 once it goes out of beta.
- Tharkun 9y agoNot impressed by the visual "refresh". Looks like yet another trip to flatland to me. I wish this design trend would go away already.
- bigbugbag 9y agoMozilla rarely impress with the unnecessary UI changes, but for some reason the make sure to deprive the user of the freedom fo choice by removing the previous UI instead of having an option in preferences to choose the UI the user prefer.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoBecause maintaining two separate GUI frameworks is utterly pointless.
- mariuolo 9y agoI'm sorry, but from the blog article it's not completely clear what this is. I knew a major rewrite was going to be required with Gecko and XUL being abandoned by Mozilla: is this a step in that direction? Or just a stopgap measure while still relying on legacy code?
- bigbugbag 9y agoThunderbird lacks privacy protection features and integration for GTD flow. I'm waiting for caliopen to be ready for public use and I'll switch all the TB install I maintain to caliopen[1]. [1]: https://www.caliopen.org/en/ https://www.caliopen.org/en/