> we have 15 people hired and working on the project
Honest question: What are these people actually doing? I haven't seen new features since a long time, but Thunderbird seems to have reorganized one year ago (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/), so they probably plan something big, like a rewrite of the software?
I've noticed that many of the linux repos are not up to date. If you're using those, you probably need to install it directly from the website to get the latest version and see the updates.
The major features that have come out lately that I've noticed are first-party calendar integration and first-party GPG support. There was a calendar integration but I always found it to be a bit funny and hard to get working all of the way. I never had problems with Enigmail, however.
Both features work much more solidly as an included part of Thunderbird. There are other, smaller features that have come in like having e-mail addresses in the To/CC/BCC lines be places into ovals to show them as a distinct, drag-able element.
The Thunderbird codebase is old and is full of a ton of features, transforming it in a way that is true to its past and moves towards a better future is going to take time but it is coming along. Sure, some of the major features were available as plug-ins but they're much more solid now that they're built-in.
There are many things planned, especially moving to "web based technologies" for the client as a longer term initiative. The roadmap also has some work on JMAP support, which I hope picks up on mail servers too. One thing I'd love to see, which probably won't be on the roadmap, is native integration with Exchange and Exchange calendaring. I know there are some extensions for this, but none of those have actually worked well for me.
This is not a SaaS; this is an application built and distributed to more than 20 million people on their own machines, with different hardware, operating systems, installed software, different filesystems, upgrades, behind firewalls or weird networking, interacting with email providers and their particularities...
Well, at first I thought the same. But honestly I don't really care if features are being added as long as they don't break too much. A few years, ago I switched to Thunderbird from Kmail because the KDE people constantly managed to break Kmail.
I still use KDE as a desktop environment and while I think Kmail looks better, Thunderbird just works so much better (e.g. faster, better RSS integration, better search results) that I am quite happy that I switched.
Since thunderbird tracks the firefox codebase and firefox moved to webextensions that broke a lot of thunderbird extensions too. They mitigated the fallout.
E.g. the virtual identities extension now is a first party feature.
I'm using the beta version and the changes are actually useful and, relatively, plenty.
The one thing I'm currently looking forward the most is multi-process support, planned for Thunderbird 91, IIRC; It should relieve the hangs I sometimes get (having >50 GiB mails locally has its tolls, but oh well LKML, QEMU, ... archives and such are just nice to have around for me).
I still use Claws Mail because I have never been able to figure out how to set Thunderbird to display emails with a consistent font size.
I've changed the advanced settings and set a minimum font size, and it has no effect. You can zoom in when you're looking at an email, but the results are inconsistent from email to email.
With Claws Mail I get the same font size every time.
If anyone knows how to set this up properly, I'd give Thunderbird a try again.
What I want most out of Thunderbird is a self hostable web application that I can run on my own servers, and access as TLS1.3 in a browser, as a modern webmail app as competition for Rainloop and Roundcube.
I realize this would probably require a complete re-write.
The closest I can do to that now is a much more cumbersome solution involving something like a bare bones xfce4 desktop environment, the Linux thunderbird client, and VNC-over-SSH or apache guacamole.
I used Thunderbird as a work email client around 2012-2013 era. It was decent, but a little sluggish for my taste. I attributed it to my weak office PC at the time.
Thinking they've done some interesting updates since then, I tried it again recently, in February 2021.
I was disappointed to find a sluggish client with worse UI than it had 8 years ago, defeating the entire purpose of having a desktop email client on a powerful machine. Maybe it was some default settings or whatnot, but I didn't feel like digging around to fix it and there was no advantage in using it over the default Gmail web client. RAM usage was not light either. It all seemed like some weird poor UI wrapper around an Electron instance that just loads the Gmail client.
I ended up going back to Opera Mail - a lightweight desktop email client from 2016, that unfortunately isn't getting updated anymore.
Not sure what the use case is for that type of software anymore. It didn't feel like a real desktop client.
1. Why is there no Thunderbird for Android? It's the only project that I trust with my emails on my phone.
2. What do Android users use as an email client on their phones?
I current cannot access email on my phone. Maybe it is better this way, security wise. But if Thunderbird was available for Android I might consider using it.
I have been using FairEmail for a month now. It's privacy centric and has loooooots of features. It is ad-free. It does not open stuff that may be used to track you by default. It can do GPG and so much more. It is developped by a single and very responsive developper for now. I liked it so much I bought the premium version to support his work but paid features are quite niche and you won't click on something only to find out that you need the paid version.
https://email.faircode.eu/
I used to use Aqua Mail when I had a slow phone which could not run Gmail that well.
Now a days Gmail app is good enough. If I use third party clients, the email search does not work as good as Gmail. So there really isn't any option.
> Implementing a better vertical layout by exploring the possibility of not using the <tree> XUL element and relying on a highly scalable and equally performant HTML component.
Hey, does that mean we can have two lines per mail in the mail column :) ?
Otherwise, I am not convinced by matrix integration. Unless it's a deep one and creates new scenarios impossible with two standalone applications.
Without question: Thunderbird (short: TB) may or may not be have its problems. But its very secure and last a long time.
I use this Client since 2000 (on Windows) and due to problems with my computer in the beginning, i use it the PortableApp.com Version of TB more than 10 years.
My Mail-Archive (only important mails) is beginning in the year 2000, the whole TB-folder has a size of 1.33 GB.
TL;DR; I use TB and TB Portable over 20 years and have an actual folder size of 1.33 GB. No unsolvable problems in this time. I make heavy use of the RSS-Reader, too.
Therefore i use uBlock Origin for TB.
Can someone recommend a thunderbird alternative on Linux that supports Microsoft Exchanges account? My company uses Exchange without imap. I can connect with apple mail on Mac, but yet need to find a mail client on linux. Thanks!
Thunderbird got mothballed for a few years as Mozilla no longer saw it as a priority so it was only receiving small fixes and patches in the ESR channel. After a long process of pushing from some motivated developers it recently was de-coupled from Mozilla in order to allow it to live or die by it's own communities initiative.
Since it's spin-off it's been developed at breakneck speeds to desperately bring it up to par with modern Firefox (they share back-end technologies) in order to make it's development more sustainable and predictable. Unfortunately this has been a strain on add-on developers like myself. I was maintain the lookout TNEF parsing plugin however due to the pace of the changes and an increase in lack of time I'm now only putting out small fires
There are still multiple bugs involving loss or corruption of email. (the one I've got open in another tab is 13 years old) Why does anyone actually use this program?
Do you know of an email program without bugs? TB has been working well for me for many years, and apparently for a good number of other people as well.
I'm sure it has issues - heck, I've even filed bugs against it personally - but your comment doesn't at all resonate with my experience as a user.
I've used Thunderbird with IMAP for literally at least a decade and have email back to 1998-ish. Haven't lost anything, occasionally had to rebuild Thunderbird's local cache.
Much easier to backup if your email is in one place and running even a local IMAP server is better than storing it in an email client.
[+] [-] ktpsns|5 years ago|reply
Honest question: What are these people actually doing? I haven't seen new features since a long time, but Thunderbird seems to have reorganized one year ago (https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/01/thunderbirds-new-home/), so they probably plan something big, like a rewrite of the software?
[+] [-] ajosh|5 years ago|reply
The major features that have come out lately that I've noticed are first-party calendar integration and first-party GPG support. There was a calendar integration but I always found it to be a bit funny and hard to get working all of the way. I never had problems with Enigmail, however.
Both features work much more solidly as an included part of Thunderbird. There are other, smaller features that have come in like having e-mail addresses in the To/CC/BCC lines be places into ovals to show them as a distinct, drag-able element.
The Thunderbird codebase is old and is full of a ton of features, transforming it in a way that is true to its past and moves towards a better future is going to take time but it is coming along. Sure, some of the major features were available as plug-ins but they're much more solid now that they're built-in.
[+] [-] abdullahkhalids|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newscracker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jugurtha|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arendtio|5 years ago|reply
I still use KDE as a desktop environment and while I think Kmail looks better, Thunderbird just works so much better (e.g. faster, better RSS integration, better search results) that I am quite happy that I switched.
[+] [-] the8472|5 years ago|reply
E.g. the virtual identities extension now is a first party feature.
[+] [-] tlamponi|5 years ago|reply
The one thing I'm currently looking forward the most is multi-process support, planned for Thunderbird 91, IIRC; It should relieve the hangs I sometimes get (having >50 GiB mails locally has its tolls, but oh well LKML, QEMU, ... archives and such are just nice to have around for me).
[+] [-] Black101|5 years ago|reply
at least they are not doing what gmail engineers are doing and changing the interface every few months for no good reason...
[+] [-] wott|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] visiblink|5 years ago|reply
I've changed the advanced settings and set a minimum font size, and it has no effect. You can zoom in when you're looking at an email, but the results are inconsistent from email to email.
With Claws Mail I get the same font size every time.
If anyone knows how to set this up properly, I'd give Thunderbird a try again.
[+] [-] fdgdd|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walrus01|5 years ago|reply
I realize this would probably require a complete re-write.
The closest I can do to that now is a much more cumbersome solution involving something like a bare bones xfce4 desktop environment, the Linux thunderbird client, and VNC-over-SSH or apache guacamole.
[+] [-] ed25519FUUU|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] antisthenes|5 years ago|reply
Thinking they've done some interesting updates since then, I tried it again recently, in February 2021.
I was disappointed to find a sluggish client with worse UI than it had 8 years ago, defeating the entire purpose of having a desktop email client on a powerful machine. Maybe it was some default settings or whatnot, but I didn't feel like digging around to fix it and there was no advantage in using it over the default Gmail web client. RAM usage was not light either. It all seemed like some weird poor UI wrapper around an Electron instance that just loads the Gmail client.
I ended up going back to Opera Mail - a lightweight desktop email client from 2016, that unfortunately isn't getting updated anymore.
Not sure what the use case is for that type of software anymore. It didn't feel like a real desktop client.
[+] [-] neurostimulant|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] needtheaccount|5 years ago|reply
1. Why is there no Thunderbird for Android? It's the only project that I trust with my emails on my phone.
2. What do Android users use as an email client on their phones?
I current cannot access email on my phone. Maybe it is better this way, security wise. But if Thunderbird was available for Android I might consider using it.
[+] [-] cassepipe|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tecleandor|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] infinityplus1|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aidenn0|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tlamponi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jonnax|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thepete2|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnchristopher|5 years ago|reply
Hey, does that mean we can have two lines per mail in the mail column :) ?
Otherwise, I am not convinced by matrix integration. Unless it's a deep one and creates new scenarios impossible with two standalone applications.
[+] [-] dmitriid|5 years ago|reply
Another question is: there's no HTML tree component.
[+] [-] anotherevan|5 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/careers/
[+] [-] asperous|5 years ago|reply
I didn’t see a HR person listed on staff, so it’s probably just easier to use a third party service to handle all of that.
[+] [-] soco|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dblohm7|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galaxyLogic|5 years ago|reply
Does it mean it will be slow? Does it mean it is basically based on Node.js?
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] t00r|5 years ago|reply
I use this Client since 2000 (on Windows) and due to problems with my computer in the beginning, i use it the PortableApp.com Version of TB more than 10 years. My Mail-Archive (only important mails) is beginning in the year 2000, the whole TB-folder has a size of 1.33 GB.
TL;DR; I use TB and TB Portable over 20 years and have an actual folder size of 1.33 GB. No unsolvable problems in this time. I make heavy use of the RSS-Reader, too. Therefore i use uBlock Origin for TB.
[+] [-] greenspam|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tristan957|5 years ago|reply
Did you read the financial report at all?
[+] [-] 908087|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] zucker42|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dugite-code|5 years ago|reply
Since it's spin-off it's been developed at breakneck speeds to desperately bring it up to par with modern Firefox (they share back-end technologies) in order to make it's development more sustainable and predictable. Unfortunately this has been a strain on add-on developers like myself. I was maintain the lookout TNEF parsing plugin however due to the pace of the changes and an increase in lack of time I'm now only putting out small fires
[+] [-] GNU_James|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justin66|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jfk13|5 years ago|reply
I'm sure it has issues - heck, I've even filed bugs against it personally - but your comment doesn't at all resonate with my experience as a user.
[+] [-] rswail|5 years ago|reply
Much easier to backup if your email is in one place and running even a local IMAP server is better than storing it in an email client.