‘Book Mystique Review - Thunderbird Version 3.0 Email Client
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
by Charles W. Moore
Mozilla released the Thunderbird 3 final last week, refreshing the Open Source email client with among other things a new browser-style tabbed user interface. I’m a big fan of tabs in browsers, so I was eager to find out how successfully they would translate into the email client environment.
Thunderbird is a fully modern email client originally based on the old Mozilla suite browser’s Mail module, which in turn derived from ancient Netscape Communicator’s Messenger module.
Being a consummate fan of the old Qualcomm Eudora email client, I never really paid a whole lot of attention to Thunderbird until recently, but when Qualcomm decided there was no serious money to be made in email application development and terminated Classic Eudora, they exercised exemplary corporate citizenship in handing off the rights to the Eudora name and future development to Mozilla.org, which is developing a “new” Open Source Eudora, currently at the version 8 beta level, which is really a clone of Thun derbird with a Eudora appearance skin and some Eudora functionality grafted in.
When i switched to an Intel Mac last winter, I discovered that Eudora 6.2.4, which had not been a particularly happy camper under OS 10.5 Leopard even on Power PC Macs, was even less happy on my new MacBook so I ended up switching to Eudora 8, and discovered that I liked the Thunderbird way of doing things a lot better than I had anticipated.
I also discovered that one can switch back and forth between Eudora 8 and Thunderbird itself with seamless non-hassle, since Open Source Eudora accesses the Thunderbird Folder for settings, archives, and contact info.
And recently I determined that at this stage of the game, there are advantages to just using Thunderbird rather than a Eudora 8 beta, the new tabbed interface in T-Bird 3 being a major one. I like tabs in my email client too, especially with browsers that incorporate a three-pane user interface model familiar to users of OS X Mail and Outlook Express, et al.,
With T-Bird 3, double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs are saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
Aside from the tabbed interface, new stuff in Thunderbird 3 includes:
Redesigned Mail Toolbar
Thunderbird 3’s Mail Toolbar has been redesigned to include the new Global Search bar. Buttons such as reply, forward, delete, junk are part of each email message.
You can also add those buttons back to the main toolbar if you prefer by customizing the toolbar, which has been simplified and “de-cluttered” in default configuration.
Smart Folders
The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is enabled by default.
New Message Summary View
Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
Column Headings
The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
Attachment Reminder
Previously available as an add on in Thunderbird 2, Attachment Reminder is built into T-Bird 3, automatically scanning your email messages to detect any mention of file attachments. When it finds them the program will remind you to attach if you have forgotten to (has happened to me more times than I like to admit)
Message Archiving
¥ By Clicking the Archive button or the ‘A’ key you can now move mail from your inbox or other folders into the new Archive folder system. a blog entry by Mozilla.org’s David Ascher during beta development noted that Version 3”s new Archive feature is straightforwardly borrowed from Gmail’s, relying on the program’s search capability to find messages, although you can also still use the standard “file in a folder” method, and while the projected new fast global search isn’t implemented yet, even the old cross-folder search mechanism has been improved. Personally, I’m still more inclined to use the excellent “Move” command carried over from T-Bird 2 to dispatch messages to the appropriate archive folder.
New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.
New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
When typing in the Global Search field, Thunderbird autocompletes against your address book. You have the option of searching everywhere or filtering against different parts of the email such as by subject or by sender.
Activity Manager
Records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place, informing the user how processes such as message moves, copies and deletes, and IMAP auto-syncing are progressing with more context than just a single progress bar.
New Add-ons Manager
The new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins.
Improved One-click Address Book Address Book
If someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends’ birthdays. You can also add a photo for contacts in your address book.
Improved Gmail Integration
Better recognition and integration of Gmail’s special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.
Spotlight Integration
For Mac users, Thunderbird 3 is now integrated with Spotlight, can import from Mail.app, read your OS X address book, and use Growl for new mail alerts.
Faster Message Loading for IMAP
I’m not an IMAP user, but Mozilla.org says Thunderbird will now download IMAP messages by default in the background allowing for faster message loading, and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis or for all folders in an account.
New Mail Account Setup Wizard
The new Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts
• Thunderbird’s security and privacy measures ensure that your communications and identity remain safe.
Cutting Out the Junk
• Thunderbird’s popular junk mail tools have been updated to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird’s leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird “learns” and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider’s spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.
Robust Privacy
• Thunderbird 3 offers support for user privacy and remote image protection. To ensure a user’s privacy, Thunderbird 3 automatically blocks remote images in email messages.
Phishing Protection
• Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.
Automated Update
• Thunderbird’s update system checks to see if you’re running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 40 different languages.
Thunderbird 3 is fast (at least on Intel-based Macs), reasonably easy to configure, has proved very stable and reliable, and has the welcome virtues of being both Open Source and one of the most sophisticated email clients available
Thunderbird handles HTML mail competently, lets you keep pages turned off until you want them to load, has sensible protocols for dealing with suspected spam, a new search engine in version 3, and allows the user to specify manual checks of individual mail accounts, which is huge for me with 22 accounts configured.
Less commendable are Thunderbird’s somewhat obtuse cc and bcc configuration, and less-than straightforward handling of multiple accounts — particularly SMTP server assignment. Another thing that bugs me is that you can’t select all in a message and get the address and subject line info along with the body text in Thunderbird and Eudora 8 like you could in classic Eudora, which makes frequent copy and paste tasks take literally twice as long. Those angularities can be worked around, but they’re frustrating for old Eudora hands accustomed to that program’s tractable and convenient flexibility.
However, I’m now acclimatized, and finding Thunderbird 3 a smooth performer, with no bugginess encountered so far. Thunderbird 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.5 engine and incorporates some major “under-the-hood” re-architecting to enhance performance, stability, web compatibility, code simplification, and sustainability.
In summary, after using Thunderbird (and Eudora 8) for some nine months now, I’ve become very comfortable with it, and version 3 makes the Thunderbird experience even better. IN terms of a rating, I’ll give Thunderbird 3.0 4 out of 5 without equivocation.
Note that Thunderbird 3 no longer supports versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000 (e.g. Windows 95, 98, ME and NT) and Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4 Tiger. Linux requirements have also changed. Do ensure that compatibility mode for unsupported Windows platforms is disabled for the Thunderbird executable in Windows.
Thunderbird 3 is Open Source freeware.
For more information, and to download:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0/releasenotes/
Note: Letters to PowerBook Mystique Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.
Opinions expressed in postings to PowerBook Mystique MailBag are owned by the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or PowerBook Central management.
If you would prefer that your message not appear in PowerBook Mystique Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published.
CM