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Thunderbird 3

bobpullen
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Thunderbird 3

I notice today that Mozilla have launched Thunderbird 3 to the masses.
I've just downloaded and installed a copy over my home installation and what can I say other than - Yuck!
When you first run the new version you're presented with a 'Migration Assistant' that can also be invoked at a later date from the Help menu.
This allows you to take advantage of some of the new features or keep your existing preferences, basically it asks whether or not you want to:

  • Synchronise all of your IMAP folders so that copies of your messages are downloaded to your machine.
  • Use the 'new toolbar' which apparently has a 'cleaner interface' and 'richer search textbox'.
  • Switch on 'Smart Folders' that consolidates *all* the email residing in the inbox of each account you have setup into one centralised folder.

.
After playing with some of these options I ended up switching them *all* off. Not a good start really. In fact the only benefit I can see here is the tab-integration (you can open messages in tabs as opposed to new windows).
Some other observations:

  • Extensions not compatible (to be expected really).
  • Had to download all of my newsgroup messages again and 'forgot' which posts I'd read etc. (at least I think this happened although this isn't the primary machine I use for reading Usenet posts).
  • The new icons are awful and visually the interface is far less appealing.
  • 'Forgot' what columns I had chosen to display in the message list pane.
  • The headers for each email has its own 'reply', 'forward' buttons etc. and depending on the length of the sender address these can easily overlap in vertical mode and make things look messy.
  • It seems sluggish (running Windows 7 x64) although that might be because it's currently in the process of indexing thousands of messages and RSS articles!
  • There's no filter drop down available for the toolbar that lets you filter messages by 'attachment', 'read/unread status' etc.

I was about to revert back to Thunderbird 2 (if that's possible) when I stumbled across two extensions that have gone part way into restoring the GUI I was used to with Thunderbird 2. For the benefit of others, you can find links to these two add-ons in the forum post here.
I guess things might grow on me but my first impressions aren't great.
Spent far too much time trying to restore things to how they were after installing so now I'm off to do something worthwhile ...

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

25 REPLIES 25
csogilvie
Grafter
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

I can't say I agree with you on all points, I much prefer V3 to V2...  although maybe it's just the fact that I've been using it for a lot longer.
The only one thing I've had issues with is the fact it never seems to finish indexing anything, and keeps indexing and indexing and indexing my folders.
I also don't see it being sluggish on either of my Windows 7 x64 installs or on my Mac.
bobpullen
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Re: Thunderbird 3

I notice some of the shortcuts I used to use have changed too, in particular the 'mark all as read' one although it has been made simpler. I'm sure the 'date' column filter behaviour has changed aswell. Before the 'up' arrow next to the column title would order emails with the newest being at the top, now it's the 'down' arrow that does this!
No idea what the indexing is playing at but it's currently at about 2000 of 17000 messages of a *single* RSS feed and progressing at the rate of about 2 a second!

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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Gus
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Re: Thunderbird 3

Can't resist but Thunderbirds are not Go!
Anyway Opera all the way for me
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csogilvie
Grafter
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

There are no decent mail clients to be honest.. they all have features that I like, but I can't find one that does EVERYTHING I want Sad
Strat
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Re: Thunderbird 3

Cue Colin to write one. Wink Smiley
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bobpullen
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Re: Thunderbird 3

Quote from: cso
There are no decent mail clients to be honest.. they all have features that I like, but I can't find one that does EVERYTHING I want Sad

Thuinderbird 2 was coming close for me, the only thing it didn't do that I wanted it to was to display emails across multiple lines in the message list pane a là Outlook.
Edit: BTW, does anyone know if there is a relatively simple way to revert back to Thunderbird 2 whilst retaining my settings?

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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csogilvie
Grafter
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

Take a backup, download Thunderbird 2 (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/2.0.0.23/win32/en-GB/) and install....
Probably - I haven't tested it.
Denzil
Grafter
Posts: 1,733
Registered: ‎31-07-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

I use TB2, which is fine except it is rather slow with IMAP when talking to the server at work. I'd love to try TB3, as it is supposed to be better in that respect, but I also use Lightning, and that doesn't work with TB3 yet  >:(.
MrC
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Registered: ‎17-07-2008

Re: Thunderbird 3

Quote from: Denzil
but I also use Lightning, and that doesn't work with TB3 yet  >:(.

This is a major gotcha for me as well and I wish Mozilla had carried out their original intention to merge Lightning into TB3. No Lightning; no trying out TB3 Sad
Ben_Brown
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Re: Thunderbird 3

Quote from: cso
There are no decent mail clients to be honest..

GMail Smiley
I installed Thunderbird 3 yesterday and I have to say I prefer it to 2. I don't use any extensions so no issues with them, and it all seems to be a bit snappier than V2.
bobpullen
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Re: Thunderbird 3

I'd had enough by the end of yesterday. Something about Thunderbird 3 doesn't like my account setup because it was still indexing away and sluggish as hell by mid-evening. Something I wouldn't expect on a quad core x64 machine with 4GB of RAM!
Anyway, I'm back to using Thunderbird 2 after uninstalling, deleting all my profiles and reinstalling. All is now well again Smiley

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

csogilvie
Grafter
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

Quote from: Ben
GMail Smiley

Still not decent, and still lacks some of the things I get in mutt that I can't find elsewhere Sad
Chris
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Re: Thunderbird 3

Thunderbird 3 is working well for me so far, I've got it set up as I like ad it finished indexing all my 1000's of emails within an hour.
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
artmo
Aspiring Champion
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Registered: ‎12-08-2007

Re: Thunderbird 3

Just downloaded Thunderbird 3.  What is the indexing you mention?