Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 ReleasedWednesday October 15th, 2003The third release of Mozilla Thunderbird, the standalone mail and newsgroups client, is now available. Thunderbird 0.3 features better attachment handling, performance improvements (particularly for IMAP users), support for placing your signature above the quoted message text if you prefer to top-post, and a new POP account option to remove read messages from the server after x days. Mozilla Thunderbird is based on Mozilla 1.5 and can be downloaded from the Thunderbird 0.3 directory on ftp.mozilla.org. The Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 Release Notes have more details and mozilla.org's new Thunderbird page contains more general information about the program. I hope the lack of comments here doesn't reflect on Tb's (un?)popularity. It's finally made sigs usable, and it's a pretty good everyday mail client. Keep up the good work. No, I think the main reason is (just guessing) that 89% or more of 'Mozilla' users don't use a mail client regularily (mostly webmail users). So for most users, Mozilla 1.5 and FB 0.7 are more substancial releases to talk about and try out. As an example, I've been using TB since 0.1pre, and am excited to see 0.3 out. But I haven't rushed to download 0.3 today like I have the suite and FB :). I will eventually upgrade it, but what I'm getting at is for some odd reason a browser is a bit more fun to mess around with and to check out the new features :) But to those who do use TB, we greatly appreciate Scott's work. That may well be so. I do think Tb should be pushed harder. Perhaps it doesn't have certain corporate features (synching, etc), but it's something that people may be more willing to switch to. There are a few websites I use that Fb still cannot handle, but there's no email Tb has failed on. I don't think anywhere near that many people use webmail, especially more technically-advanced folk who tend to be Mozilla users. Sure, a lot do, but 90%? I think most Mozilla users don't use Mozilla for mail, but use another program such as Outlook or Outlook Express (or indeed those webmail options). If it was a case of switching from Mozilla mail to Thunderbird then more people would switch, but generally people aren't using either. Here are some reasons why people aren't as willing to switch to TB as they are FB: * Mail is much, much more critical. If a web page doesn't load who cares? If a mail program trashes my mailstore I really, really do care. Using a 0.3 web browser is a lot less risky than using a 0.3 mail program. * Company users may have extra features (such as integrated calendar and group scheduling) that they require in their corporate email system, such as Outlook. If you switch to another mail program on your own (rather than everyone switching), you'll lose those features. * TB is not as universally good a mail client as Mozilla is a universally good browser. For example, Mozilla/FB lacks very few IE features that anyone cares about. On the other hand, Mozilla's mail/TB lack several Outlook Express features. * Browsers have a lightweight interface - most of the interface is in the web page itself. In mail programs however, the program provides the interface. This means switching program is more effort as you have to learn a new interface. * TB is named after an infectious disease. :> Personally, I don't intend to try TB unless they add the missing features that kept me from using Mozilla's mail program before - they're not features everyone will need, but unless it supports them, I don't personally really want to switch from Outlook Express. I've already set up OE to be secure (including not displaying html email) and I already use SpamAssassin on the server to deal with spam, so the two main advantages of TB mail aren't reasons for me to switch. --sam I'm actually still using Mozilla Mail and holding off on switching to Thunderbird. There's not any concrete reason why except for the fact that Mozilla Mail works well for me and (especially with a 0.3 version number) I'm scared that it would be a step backwards in stability and reliability. Having said all that, I'll be looking closely at this release, mainly because of the promised IMAP speed improvements. One of my biggest gripes with Mozilla Mail is that my many large (multi-thousand message) IMAP folders take forever to open, and I can't do anything (mail-related) in the meantime without interrupting that process and having to start over. Question for people who've switched from Mozilla Mail to Thunderbird - is it fully as stable and as featureful? Any gotchas that I should watch out for? Should I take the plunge? Seems like Thunderbird is not covered as much 'media wise' as Firebird and the suite. But it is just as an excelent product as the other too. And desirves much praise. Scott, you are the main person to thank for Thunderbird! Thank you! Your effort is most appreciated, and you have done a WONDERFUL job! Here's to Thunderbird Future! ( and congrats on the new look for the Thunderbird product page (if that was you) ) http://www.mozilla.org/website-beta/thunderbird/ I'm one happy chowchow. Thanks for the great work! Glad to see the attachment bug squashed. i belive both thunderbird and firebird have finally matured enough for the switch from the mozilla suite. the by far biggest problem concerning switching is importing the old mail accounts, adress book and so on. for some reason thunderbird offers to import from every kind of program but mozilla/thunderbird settings and accounts, making the switch rather hard. these options should obviously exist, so that people can make the switch easier or use it to backup accounts for later import. i found the adressbook was a matter of just replacing the abook.map file. accounts were harder though. my solution was to create new similar accounts, and then overwrite the newly created and empty files; 'draft', 'inbox', 'sent' and so on with the old ones, which seems to work very well. 0.3 does seem like a very good and stable release so far. however, handling import of mozilla/thunderbird settings really should be improved and incorporated into the program. /stone Thanks for the information on how to transfer mail from mozilla to thunderbird. I can add a modification that does not require creating a new account. Go to your local folder in thunderbird in the browser pane on the left and right click to add a new folder, giving it a name appropriate to the e-mail folder you want to import. Then replace the name and name.msf folders with the corresponding files from your mail subfolders from mozilla. Thanks for the information on how to transfer mail from mozilla to thunderbird. I can add a modification that does not require creating a new account. Go to your local folder in thunderbird in the browser pane on the left and right click to add a new folder, giving it a name appropriate to the e-mail folder you want to import. Then replace the name and name.msf folders with the corresponding files from your mail subfolders from mozilla. I am an avid user of Thunderbird, and have been amazed at its power, especially considering its only a .3 release. I believe that the lack of comments do not revolve around the lack of interest but because it is a project that is not as far along as Firebird. Also, as jedbro pointed out, a browser is more fun to play with! :-) With Firebird 0.7 and Thunderbird 0.3 i have now switched for good from Mozilla. I gotta say both are now working awesome, thunderbird feels a little more sluggish than firebird too me for some odd reason but hopefully that will be sorted out as it becomes more mature. Anyway, running the GTK2 and XFT builds of both and both work and look awesome hey, FB 0.7 + TB 0.3 =... FTB 1.0 :) "Thunderbird 0.3 features better attachment handling, performance improvements (particularly for IMAP users), support for placing your signature above the quoted message text if you prefer to top-post, and a new POP account option to remove read messages from the server after x days." So, I'm fine with my attachments & performance (I'm a POP3 user). I'm a bottom-poster, and I remove all my messages as I get them from my POP3 account. Should I upgrade? is it me? or with the release of moz1.5 and TB 0.3 has the option of changing the location of my mailstore been removed. up until now, i've chosen to store my email folders in my data partition, away from my normal profile data. up to Mozilla 1.5 this was a simple option in mail/news prefs for each account. but with the new releases that option seems to have gone. Moz has remembered (from my profile) where the email is, but a fresh install of TB doesn't seem to be able to be told where my mail folders are. i know i could copy the profile for moz into the TB folder, but thats not going to help if/when i wipe everything and start over. it's going to be really annoying if i have to move my email folders back into the depths of my c: does anyone have any ideas? or have i missed something blindingly obvious. Look on the Server Settings page of Account Options, at the bottom. Change the path there to reflect where you have the mail folders for that account. I have switched to TB since 0.2. Considering the excellent stability and good performance (on a P4/2400, Win2K), I was always wondering why it's named 0.3 while it deserves 0.9 at least. The backend is taken from the stable Mozilla 1.5 and the front end has only minor glitches. Congratulations to Scott for all of his efforts. I normally don't do this but this time I really have to complain. Why do you just change the default-behaviour for pop-accounts from leaving the messages on the server to deleting them - and don't mention this in the release notes!? All my messages are now deleted from the server because of this! Ummmm... It is in the release notes. Second item under known issues. "POP accounts no longer leave mail on the server by default. To change this, go to Tools / Account Settings / Server Settings." I wouldn't worry about TB being an 0.3. It's just an arbitrary number. I've been using TB as my primary mail client since it was first switched from being Minotaur, and it has been as stable as can be. It has not crashed once on me, not from the pre-0.1 releases all the way up to 0.3... which is better than I can say for Firebird or Seamonkey during the same time. I have had no data loss with TB either. It's much better than its 0.3 version would suggest. As many others have noted, it comes from a mature code base. I don't miss the features from Outlook Express, because I have never used it (not even when it or its predecessor used to be called Windows Messaging). I have used Netscape for email from the time that I got my first POP3 email account in the mid 90s (was that 3.0 "Gold", if I recall?), and I migrated to Mozilla about the time that 1.0 came out. The first thing I did when I installed XP on this machine was to delete OE, and IE has been relegated to doing only Windows updates (my firewall won't let it contact any IPs not associated with Windows Update). I've never used IE other than that. Thus, my basis of comparison for browsers and email clients is Netscape 4.xx-- and they compare favorably indeed. Frank Thunderbird just got the Thumbs up here as well. Migrated from Mozilla to FireBird + Thunderbird period! Not looking back again. Excellent work guys! Only little ting I kan put my finger on, is that Firebird isn't launched when I click http:// links in Thunderbird. Tis in the release notes....but why oh why would that behavior change? I could see the other way...from removing to keeping. But starting to remove messages? Hi Guys, thought I'd try out Thunderbird. Looks good, liked the easy install, only one problem. How do I conficure IMAP for use with webmail? I have looked at a couple of FAQ sites that assume you're using Mozilla --iI thought they'd be similar, but How to I get my Password into Thunderbird? When I try and connect to my webmail provider the connection times out. I'm guessing that without a password not much will happen. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers VonChilliman Where can I find help to configure tbird for net-scape mail? I am really enjoying Tbird except for the fact I have not figured out net-scape mail or how to change the IM from AIM Can anyone tell me how to access my older Mozilla Email using TB? I tried File/Open. I tried import (not an option). I tried intelligently putting Mozilla Email folders inside of "Local Folders". Nothing worked! Please Help if possible. Thanks, -- JK |