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Mozilla Thunderbird Reaches 1.0 464
An anonymous reader writes "Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 is now available for download on Mozilla's FTP server." Here is
the press release announcing the release. Virtual folders and RSS integration, coupled with the recent hype surrounding Firefox, might give this sucker some serious momentum.
Release Notes (Score:5, Informative)
Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:3, Interesting)
Coincidentally, I decided to switch to firefox+thunderbird (or, failing that, firefox+mozillamail) just last night. And they seem nice and all, but it's infuriatingly stupid that
I understand and appreciate that, unlike Windows, there's no standard *nix API for these sorts of things. But it looks like
Re:Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:3, Insightful)
That way your irc:// links will work, your mailto: links...
For someone who depends on all the pieces with complete integration, what's wrong with just using the suite?
(yes, I know someone will spout some B.S. about bloat. They use the Gecko base people! Odds are Mozilla will use *less* memory since the libraries are more likely to be shared while you just might have different Thunderbird/Firebird versions.
Re:Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, no. It's not BS.
I don't know what Gecko is. I don't care. I shouldn't have to.
What I do know is that Mozilla takes 10+ seconds to start up on my Linux box, and has fewer extensions and whatnot that I can find. For some of our debug-mode product builds, I have to quit Mozilla to free up enough swap space.
Firefox loads in a blink, and never needs to go away.
I'm not asking for complete integration. I know that there's going to be some duplication, e.g., now I have to enter my master password
Re:Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm using gnome, so to do that all I needed to do was to go in Application --> Desktop Preferences --> Advanced --> Preferred Applications
And there, I set my default browser and my default mail client!
Re:Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Still no call-out to a browser? (Score:4, Informative)
To get Firefox to open the Thunderbird (or any other) email client when clicking on a "mailto" link, do the following steps:
1. Enter the address "about:config" in the Firefox address-bar. This will allow you to set new preferences.
2. Right-click somewhere on the window and select "New" --> "String".
3. In the window that pops up, enter:
network.protocol-handler.app.mailto
as the name of the preference.
4. Hit OK and then enter the path to your thunderbird executable in the next window. For me it is
To get Firefox to open when you click on links in Thunderbird, a similar process is followed.
Since thunderbird doesn't have an easy way to use about:config, you need to edit the preferences file with a text editor.
1. Close Thunderbird first as it will overwrite any configuration changes when it exits.
2. Open the Thunderbird "prefs.js" file located in you home directory, probably named something like:
3. Add the following three lines to the prefs.js file:
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox");
--Adam
Re:Release Notes (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Release Notes (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree it is kind of irritating when every dot release of every major OSS project is announced though.
Re:Release Notes (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I don't get how exactly this stuff is news. It's getting tiresome already. I wouldn't mind if it was once a year or something "Thunderbird 2.0 is now out", but it's every week or so and its brutal (Thunderbird 1.0.1b is out!).
Well, you could always do what the rest of us do when we come across a story on the Slashdot home page that doesn't really interest us:
Scroll down a few lines and proceed to the next one.
Give it a shot, you'll be amazed how well it works.
Re:Why won't they add a calendar? (Score:5, Informative)
Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Insightful)
An e-mail program doesn't need a calendar any more than a web browser does. Nor does it need one any more than a file sharing program does.
If you want a calendar program, get a calendar program.
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:4, Funny)
work = work / meetings ???
Thus the amount of work you do is inversely proportional to the number of meetings you have
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Informative)
It has the advantage of being similar enough to outlook that most non-technical users are comfortable making the switch.
It's not perfect, but it looks like they are taking it in the right direction, and it is actively being improved.
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because people with slightly more sophisticated scheduling needs than yours find it useful, for example, to easily be able to e-mail deatails of appointments and so on to other people. The integration between an email client and calendar can help to facilitate this.
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Interesting)
You're right. My schedule isn't sophisticated enough to need someone else to build additional bloat into my e-mail program.
Re:Why ADD a calendar?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, there are other solutions, but the lack of calendaring in TB is keeping it from hitting a Firefox-like lovefest. It may not be an issue for you, but it is for others.
Integrated groupware/calendar is whats needed to compete with Outlook. Period. Not everyone is a savvy php programmer with servers and an organization to control.
Re:Why won't they add a calendar? (Score:5, Insightful)
The buzz word is not "email client" but "personal information manager". Of course, these are two different things. The later requires the former, but not the other way around.
Just as Firefox is a lean, mean, browsing machine, Thunderbird should be a lean, mean, email reading machine. If you want a calendar, then get something else.
Icons (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Icons (Score:5, Interesting)
That would (I think) clear up some valuable window real-estate for those of us with multiple email accounts.
Redirect (was Re:Icons (Score:3, Interesting)
This is utterly essential for anyone working in support, as you constantly get mail which needs to
Memory Footprint (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:2, Informative)
No extensions/themes, at all. I'll admit I haven't re-created my profile since
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:2)
The RSS/newsgroup functionality of Thunderbird is great, but the memory footprint is huge.
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:5, Interesting)
Outlook was taking 30 seconds or more to open a folder, which was one of the reasons I dropped it for Thunderbird several months ago.
Ironically, Outlook Express never had this kind of problem.
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:3, Interesting)
(Frickin' two minute thingy completely infuriates me. Hey, Slashbots, some of us can think fast enough to write more than once good comment every two minutes. I suggest one minute (and 15 seconds for writing a comment, because quick witty responses don't always take 20 seconds. I'm really sick of "Slow down, cowboy." Wake up, CowboyNeal, et al, I'm not the usual mouth-
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:3, Insightful)
This can be avoided by making multiple PST files.
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:3, Informative)
This is wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
There is an extension that adds it back to Firefox (Thunderbird evenetually), but there are some side effects.
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:2)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Memory Footprint (Score:2)
Any other choice? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2, Funny)
Pirated Outlook.
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
Are you simply too lazy? (Score:2)
J.
Re:Are you simply too lazy? (Score:3, Insightful)
This will work for a while until we reach the point where new knowledge cannot be "Googled" because the prospect for new content for Google has been sabatouged by people who reply with "Google for it" to every question.
Get it?
Re:Any other choice? (Score:5, Funny)
Telnet
Re:Any other choice? (Score:5, Informative)
Pine isn't open source (Score:3, Informative)
I use Pine. I love it as an IMAP client (and of the cross-platform email clients, it is, with Mulberry (which I also use), still one of the top two IMAP clients out there). But it isn't open source. PC-Pine (the native port to win32) is a completely closed source product. It is available gratis (which is more than I can say for Mulberry), but without source. Furthermore, the Pine license for the *nix code is restrictive enough that many c
Re:Any other choice? (Score:3, Informative)
For example, we had to disable STARTTLS IMAP extension because an older release of Eudora was sending STARTSSL. Yes, yo
Sorry, I should have said "Graphical" (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2, Insightful)
If it's a matter of $$$, there are lots of good freeware email clients out there.
If you're really someone who does things "in the spirit of libre software", you wouldn't be using Windows in the first place.
So there are tons of them... check out freshmeat.net or nonags.com to see some.
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
No, really. It sucks less than all the others.
Really.
Re:Any other choice? (Score:2)
Re:Any other choice? (Score:3)
But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:2, Interesting)
Remember, it's in "Application Data" and not "Local Settings\Application Data", and also please note all these directories for hidden for some stupid reason.
I'd be happy if I could just specify where the data is stored like most apps (even Microsoft ones).
Don't get me wrong, I love using Thunderbird and switched from Outlook shortly after I realized how deeply flawe
Re:But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:2)
Re:But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:5, Informative)
Use the Profile Manager to specify where you want your data stored. I've kept my mail in the My Documents folder since forever.
Using Profile Manager to move store location (Score:2)
Do you still have to create a dummy set-up in the default place before you can do this? In previous versions, it seemed to be necessary, and then you created a new profile with the data store wherever you wanted it, but it was always counter-intuitive for users and a pain for those of us hackers who wanted to shift things around until we worked out what it was doing There must be an easier way...
Re:But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:2)
I realize that. So where are the "backup" and "restore" features? I use robocopy from the appropriate directory, but it would be nice if this were implemented in the app. When I reinstalled after replacing a harddrive, I had to find the data store, copy it, and after I reinstalled Thunderbird, copy that directory back in and pray it would actually work.
Fortunately it did, but this is not user-friendly by any definition.
Re:Standards vs. usability (Score:4, Informative)
It's not the Thunderbird team's fault that you are incapable of using windows properly. You can use either the user manager to set your profile path, or you can edit the registry key ProfileImagePath. Either way you can change your profile directory from C:\Documents and Settings\profile (hardly five levels deep) to something else. Unfortunately, while mozilla chooses your application settings directory based on your profile path, the profile's prefs.js will have to be manipulated to reflect the new absolute path to your data because prefs files do not reference environment variables.
Microsoft provides a way to move your profile to another location. It is somewhat esoteric, but you chose to use windows, and should not be blaming the mozilla team for your inadequacies, or its.
With that said, it certainly would be nice to get a tool to move user profiles, especially unregistered ones. It is something I deal with at work on a regular basis.
Re:But will it let me backup my mail store? (Score:5, Informative)
MOOX optimized versions? (Score:4, Interesting)
MOOX optimized versions [www.moox.ws]
NOTE: This is a third party / unofficial build.
Re:MOOX optimized versions? (Score:2)
optimizing a mail client is pointless (Score:5, Informative)
[siiigh]. Considering much of what a mail client does is either disk or display, and not very repetitive, processor-specific optimizations will do little to no good. Even search functions are largely disk constrained if the mailbox is big enough that search time becomes an issue on any modern system.
If it was a Pi calculator, or a game (in which a miniscule difference in per-frame loop time makes a huge difference in frame rate) I could see the point, but this is just silly
Re:MOOX optimized versions? (Score:3, Interesting)
Just how much horsepower could an e-mail app need?
CCK please (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:CCK please (Score:3, Informative)
It says "Automated deployment of Firefox with extensions, themes, and pre-configuration"
God bless!
Re:CCK please (Score:2)
Ignore my comment above, I didn't read closely enough.
Have you tried editing the default profile? I do that with Firefox at school so I don't need to redo my settings for every computer.
extensions (Score:4, Interesting)
I lose either way. This time I'm going to wait instead of upgrading from
Re:extensions (Score:4, Informative)
Re:extensions (Score:3, Informative)
Re:extensions (Score:2)
Torrent (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.youngerpants.com/thunderbird.torrent [youngerpants.com]
Re:Torrent (Score:2)
Re:Torrent (Score:2)
I'm just a karma whore
In Other News (Score:5, Funny)
"My business has been cut ten fold by this communist software" say veteran spammer Ima A Shole. "I don't know how anyone expects to have free web sites if they don't let independent businessmen like me advertise porn and \/|@gr.r.r.a."
Huh? (Score:3, Funny)
Ba ding.
T-Bird is missing "Combine and Decode" (Score:3, Interesting)
Most Newsgroups require that a posted message be no larger than a certain size so to post large files, like mp3's, you must split them appart into several seperate posts. Without the Combine and Decode functionality you cannot put the pieces back together again.
Granted, Usenet Newsgorups have not gained as much popularity as the rest of the internet but it would still be nice to have. And until this feature is added to T-Bird, then Usenet users like myself will still be forced to use OE. Basically, why run two e-mail clients? It's not a good idea for the average user, so they are going to stick with OE.
Re:T-Bird is missing "Combine and Decode" (Score:3, Informative)
There's a whole class of applications called "newsgroup readers" that might be of some interest to you. I can easily name five freeware ones for Windows off the top of my head. I'll leave it as an excerise to the poster to see if he can find some on his own.
OE is a singuarly bad newsgroup program. Newsgroup functionality is the worst aspect of that program. Do yourself a
Nice, but still not enough to make me switch (Score:4, Informative)
I use Pegasus Mail (pmail.com). For all the nice features in Thunderbird, it still seems to me that Pegasus has much more powerful filtering rules. And, at least for my uses, has more features aimed at people who maintain multiple e-mail addresses.
Pegasus is free, but not open source. I urge people to compare it to Thunderbird. I've used it since 1996 and have never found a mailer I like better.
- Greg
"Find" is painful to use (Score:4, Interesting)
I select the subject of interest. Instead of having a "enter selection for find" command, I have to copy and paste. Fine. However, if the Find dialog is already up, when I hit ctrl-F, the text in the Find dialog isn't selected; I have to select the text, then paste my subject into the box.
Then I click the Find button. It finds the text and shows it to me at the very bottom of the window. This is so annoying that it's nearly beyond belief. I have to scroll down a bunch to see any context whatsoever.
So, my request for two enhancements:
OK, so go ahead and flame me for a) not just fixing the application myself, and b) not trying to figure out how to file my own bugs.
In my own defense, a) I have a day job and a life at night, and b) I started to file some bugs and direction number 1 was "download Mozilla and see if the same bug appears there". I don't use Mozilla, have no interest in it, and don't feel like jumping through hoops to file bugs.
OK, call me cranky. :-)
Happy Holidays!
Looking to switch (Score:3, Interesting)
printing contacts suck: I'll wait (Score:3, Informative)
It's also a pain to enter phone numbers. If you type 555 5551234 and it keeps it like that. It doesn't reformat to (555)555-1234.
Until this is fixed, I wait. (BTW: there are no Contact Extensions for it...)
Palm sync? (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, the exception I just mentioned happens to be Palm sync capabilities. I managed to get an extension downloaded and installed a version or two ago, but the data would only sync once (changes I made later to the Visor's address book wouldn't sync to Thunderbird), and I couldn't get the extension to install properly in later versions. I can't imagine that I'm the only one who wants to sync a PalmOS-based device to Thunderbird, or that I'm the only one who's had this problem. Checking Google has been little help, either...
Again, except for this one problem, Thunderbird works great for me. Is there any idea when I can expect this one annoyance to be fixed? (Or get some confirmation I'm the only one having this issue...)
Maybe I'll Switch (Score:2)
I wonder how I'll get Vi editing in the brave new world of modern GUI mailers. Most likely I'll end up back on Mutt. Virtual folders are nice, though. E-mail clients still have a long way to go, for something we spend so much time using.
Portable Thunderbird 1.0 available already (Score:3, Informative)
RSS integration? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:RSS integration? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, see it as the latter. For me, it seems perfectly reasonable for RSS feeds to appear as folders in my mail client where I already use c
Re:RSS integration? (Score:4, Informative)
Still missing much needed features.. (Score:3, Insightful)
yEnc encoding,
etc.
Still not feature complete (Score:5, Insightful)
Thunderbird is missing too many basic features to allow it to be rolled out to corporate users, or family members, or just about anyone not 100% geek. It still doesn't handle outgoing servers correctly. Filtering is difficult to use, can't deal with IMAP correctly, and sometimes just doesn't work at all.
The spam filtering still needs a lot of work, there needs to be an option to white list the entire set of local (and/or ldap) address books, not just a single one. When people keep separate address books for business and personal contacts, you then have to choose which book to whitelist. There's been a bug in bugzilla for quite a while now on that one.
LDAP incompatibilities, IMAP SSL handling, customisable UI, IPv6 support, the list goes on and on. I would have prefered if the dev team spent a few more months dealing with all the little problems that will keep this entirely out of business rollouts, and fixed the minor bugs which have lingered forever.
Maybe with the 1.0 early beta release, the current dev team will move on, and more capable Open Source volunteers will step up and finish the job. I, like many others, were driven away from the forums and bugzilla because of hostile attitudes and incessant bickering over extremely minor points. We tried to help, but some FLOSS projects aren't as deserving as others.
I haven't been able to convince anyone to switch over to 0.9 from outlook, or even Pine (so you know its got to suck). No major feature requests were addressed between 0.9 and 1.0, this is just a minor incremental release.
Yeah, call me cranky too!
the AC
Re:Still not feature complete (Score:3, Informative)
I agree with the grandparent post, TB is a fine app, but the recent release schedule has been forced, to say the least, it needs more time to mature, and some of the bugs the grandparent mentioned desperately need to be fixed, preferably BEFORE new features are added.
Re:Someone help me out (Score:2)
Re:Someone help me out (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Someone help me out (Score:3, Informative)
First (well, not really FIRST, but anyway) there was Netscape. It included the browser, mail program, html composer and whateevr other goodness in a big monolithic application. Each major function had its own UI, but they were all parts of the same program.
Then, the Netscape team opened up much of its code, and Mozilla was born (I could be wrong; Mozilla might always have eben a codename for Netscape source, even before the OSS release). Like Netscape, Mozilla was a web browser,
Re:Someone help me out (Score:3, Interesting)
Mozilla has, as far as I know, always been the codename for Netscape Navigator. Marc Andreessen worked on a web browser called NCSA Mosaic, and later, Netscape Navigator. Navigator was more powerful/featureful than Mosaic, so it was called Mozilla.
Re:Someone help me out (Score:2)
Re:Contact groups (Score:3, Informative)
Re:isn't the update available supposed to work? (Score:2)