Comments for Thunderbird 2.0 To Launch This Week - Interview with Scott MacGregor, Lead Engineer

Thunderbird 2.0 To Launch This Week - Interview with Scott MacGregor, Lead Engineer

2007-04-05T02:51:06Z

By the end of this week, the Thunderbird 2.0 Release Candidate will be launched. Thunderbird is Mozilla's open source desktop email client, similar to Microsoft Outlook in features. However with the 2.0 release, Thunderbird takes on more Web functionality from the Firefox browser (more on that below). Thunderbird is cross-platform and it works on Mac, Linux, Windows - including support for Vista in 2.0. It was originally released Spring 2003 and now has just under 10 million users.

The 2.0 Release Candidate will be the final 'test' version before the full public launch of Thunderbird 2.0 by end of April. I spoke to Scott MacGregor, Lead Thunderbird Engineer, about the 2.0 version and what new features it has.

The 2.0 version of Thunderbird signals the first major upgrade since v1.5 was released in January 2006. There are a number of new Web features in 2.0, which is why we're covering it here on Read/WriteWeb. The main changes from 1.5 to 2.0 are message tagging (similar to Web tagging, as in del.icio.us or Flickr), new webmail integration with Gmail and Apple .mac, folder views and message alerts.

]]> New Features

Scott said that Thunderbird's main goal is to address information overload for users. To that end, 2.0 has beefed up security and there are more customization options (i.e. add-ons, as with Firefox). It has also introduced the following email organization improvements:

Message tagging and improved search
Advanced folder views
Message alerts
Integration with Gmail and .Mac

Image: piratis

The tagging works similar to Gmail's labels, meaning you can tag each email with any number of keywords.

The Advanced Folder Views enable you to just display your favorite folders -with a toggle UI for easy management. For example you could choose to see only folders with unread messages.

The Message History Navigation is a concept taken from the browser - there are now 'back' and 'forward' buttons to view the history of an email. In relation to this, I asked Scott if there is a conversation view for email threads - as in Gmail, where incoming emails are added to previous emails in the same conversation (rather than a new email displaying each time someone replies). Scott said no, but they do have a threaded view.

Message Alerts is also new - meaning that every time a mail arrives in your inbox, an alert displays (if selected). I asked if this could be filtered - e.g. say I only want to get an alert when one of the R/WW authors emails me? Scott said that while you can't filter at that level, you can filter alerts via the usual email filters (i.e. by making certain emails skip the inbox).

The upgraded search allows you to 'find as you type' - another concept taken from Firefox. With Thunderbird 2, you can search across accounts (inbox, rss feeds, news etc). Also you can save your searches.

Thunderbird 2 has web mail integration (i.e. account setup support) for Gmail and .mac. Support for other Web Mail services is coming soon. The Web Mail integration probably could be taken further, because all it really does right now is improve the account setup wizard. But it does lessen the need to fiddle with POP settings, SMTP steps etc - so it's a welcome addition.

Add-ons

Probably the most interesting aspect of Thunderbird 2, from a Web technology point of view, is its customization features. As with Firefox, Thunderbird is an open source, flexible platform - allowing developers to create add-ons that extend its functionality. There are currently hundreds of add-ons, including contact managers, VOIP calling, and networking tools. The most popular, according to Scott, are Lightening (bringing calendar into mail), Plaxo (syncs address book, similar to Plaxo for Outlook), and enigmail (encryption).

I asked Scott for an example of an add-on idea that would specifically leverage the new 2.0 features. Scott suggested an add-on to sync tag stores with other apps (e.g. from Flickr into thunderbird, and vice versa). Sounds like an excellent idea, so somebody please 'make it so!' :-)

Scott also mentioned there are lots of add-ons that work across both Thunderbird and Firefox - e.g. FoxyTunes, a music add-on.

Conclusion

After my Gmail connectivity woes a week ago, and in the absence of offline functionality in Gmail, I'm pretty keen to get a desktop archive set up for Gmail. I had been using Outlook, but I'm now going to test out Thunderbird 2 - with its new Web features (tags, improved search, add-ons, etc).

If you are already a loyal Thunderbird user, please comment below on what you most like about it.

Comment from MySchizoBuddy on 2007-04-04

2007-04-05T03:30:11Z

So it doesn't do Live mail so far.
There is HTTPmail plugin for Apple Mail for Live mail support. IS there a similar extension for Thunderbird

Comment from Silus Grok on 2007-04-04

2007-04-05T05:35:09Z

Live mail? Do tell...

Comment from Grant R on 2007-04-04

2007-04-05T05:49:26Z

I would also like to see MS Live mail support in Thunderbird. I'm currently using the not-so-cheap Outlook Connector and would love to kiss it good bye.

Comment from Michael Vu on 2007-04-04

2007-04-05T06:26:23Z

I used to rely on Thunderbird heavily, but switched to 100% Gmail about 2 years ago.

I think I might give it a try again...

Comment from Buzz on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T07:25:32Z

Thunderbird is great for e-mail, but it is seriously lacking in PIM functionality. I have tried to switch to Thunderbird a couple of times, but I just cannot live without an integrated calender and a proper address book like Outlook has.
Lightning is nice, but not a serious alternative to Outlook. Using Plaxo to manage my contacts? You have got to be joking!

I'm sorry, but how much I would like to use Thunderbird next to Firefox, it still has a long, long way to go to catch up with Outlook.

Comment from Anne Helmond on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T08:23:45Z

I started using Thunderbird years ago just because "it wasn't Outlook." It has grown on me, not because it has different or better features than Outlook but because it's quick, clean and efficient.
I stopped using Lightning, to integrate a calender, because it blocked half of my mailfolders (I have a lot of them) so I'm curious if there are any improvements with that.
I am really looking forward to the Gmail integration.

Comment from Conor O'Neill on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T08:39:34Z

I've used TB since the first early alphas but some aspects are still very crude.

I haven't been able to get it to stop showing the new mail notification when incoming mail is filtered, marked as read and sent to an archive folder. Trivial but very annoying.

I also recently wanted to create a small mailing list to BCC our beta testers. Exported name/address from MySQL to CSV and imported successfully into TB. Then I was stuck since there is no way of bulk adding addresses from address book to a mail list in TB. Adding them one by one kinda defeats the purpose of a list! Ended up doing a bizarre TB export to LDIF, import to Evolution and creating a mailing list there. I know I know, I should use a CRM tool.

I do find it odd that good old Kiwi Pegasus had features like that ten years ago that TB still doesn't have. I saw that David Harris nearly ceased development on Pegasus recently. I think with a UI revamp (but same features) Pegasus could easily give TB a run for its money.

I'm also not convinced by the new tagging feature. Feels like a square peg in a round hole. Are the tags held on the client or server for IMAP?

Having said all that, it's been my email app of choice for several years now and I'll probably be sticking with it unless I go the GMAIL route with fetchmail backup to my mail server here.

Comment from Eric on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T15:50:16Z

I am always hesitant to reccomend microsoft products in beta, but checkout the livemail desktop client. Its as if they picked up where outlook expresss left off. Its actually a decent program.

Comment from Ericson Smith on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T16:11:44Z

I'm sure that many people still need to use desktop email clients for some reason... (Exchange functionality maybe?)

I was a loyal thunderbird user on all the 3 major platforms, but switched to Gmail 100% since they added the functionality to read POP emails from other accounts.

I salivating over Thunderbird, but my problem with traditional email clients now, is that if your desktop crashes, you lose all your settings and any mail stored locally. Even if you use IMAP you still have to go through setting up the filters, accounts etc, etc all over again.

For me to try Thunderbird now, would involve setting up several accounts (around 5 in my case).

The only thing missing in Gmail is the ability to convert an email into a Task, and to have a decent task list derived therefrom.

I welcome my Gmail overlords.

Comment from Adam Lipkin on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T17:29:06Z

As a Mac user, I can say what I liked least about Tbird 1: The lack of support for Command-N for new messages (doubly annoying since it does support control-N on the MS side). One stupid little design flaw that completely undermined one of the most common and accepted new document standards in Mac application. There were lots of little UI things that I could overlook (and which themes could fix), but this was a deal-breaker. I do hope that the 2.0 version takes care of it (or opens up the ability for users to configure it on their own).

Comment from varun on 2007-04-05

2007-04-05T18:37:28Z

As a gmail user, i download all my mails to my PC or lappie ... but also also use webmail/gmail app mobile mail to send mail.

Its so frustrating when these mails are downloaded to the inbox as new mails.

any one else facing this problem ?

Comment from Pat on 2007-04-06

2007-04-06T15:24:11Z

varun: I create a filter to move all messages from myself into my sent box in Thunderbird. That solves the problem of outgoing mail in my inbox for me.

Comment from Thomas on 2007-04-07

2007-04-08T03:30:41Z

Most of the aspects people tend to complain about TB can be easily addressed through third party's plugins or extensions. For example, one could use portable thunderbird and make a backup so that if the computer crashes all the settings and/or mail are safe. I don't see how Outlook's contact manager is any better than Thunderbird built in contact manager. If someone is serious about contact managers he/she should look at a hosted LDAP server. The whole issue of an integrated calendar is one that has been debated a lot, just look at the forums in sunbird, lightning (all Mozilla projects). At the end of the day it seems to be more of a philosophical issue than an operational one. Some people like TB for its limited size and efficiency, integrating a calendar, to-do, etc. a la Outlook would defy this aspect. Having said that, sunbird/lightning are still in a very crude stage. At the end of the day TB is completely free and open source: we should all keep that in mind when comapring it with other commercial clients!

Comment from Jakub Kaplan on 2007-04-15

2007-04-15T13:53:48Z

I have been a very loyal user of Thunderbird 2.0 for about a year and a half.

What I love most on Thunderbird is its cleanliness and effectivity. I changed to it from Outlook, because Outlook to me seemed very bloated and almost unusable. I want to have every aspect of my e-mail activity under control and this was such a hard task with Outlook, where is Thunderbird makes it much, much easier.

However, what I would really like to see as a feature in e-mail world in future, would be a full synchronization of desktop-based client with a webmail - something similar to what Newsgator is doing with RSS. This can be achived now only at a limited level and I think as mobility continues to grow, the need for such synchronization will be felt more and more, and I hope that my e-mail provider will be one of the first to react to it.

Comment from Abhishek on 2007-04-16

2007-04-16T13:35:22Z

Thunderbird is fast. It is simple to use. The interface does not change with different versions. It's free. What more does a user want? It replaced Netscape Communicator on all the computers at my house.

Comment from Andreas on 2007-04-20

2007-04-20T09:28:06Z

I switched from Outlook 2003 to Thunderbird 2.0 today and I must say : It is really great! The version 2.0 is very nice and do not miss a single piece of outlook.

Comment from Don L on 2007-04-21

2007-04-22T00:15:21Z

HELP! I upgraded from 1.5 to 2.o on windows and now the application won't load??? Someone HELP! I don't normally see issues like this but I would not recommend upgrading till you see if this is common place...

Comment from NikH on 2007-04-28

2007-04-28T10:23:48Z

I like that Thunderbird mostly works - there are many little UI quirks but after getting used to them it's ok.

I need:
- Bugfixes
- Better search

I would like that it was smarter about offline/online mails WRT exchange and iMap.

One glaring but is that if I do a full search over all mails on my system - which are all locally cached - it takes forever because TB somehow searches on the servers?! When I then go into offline mode, and repeat the search, it's lightning fast.

The whole point of a client app is having a local copy of all your email. I prefer the GMail interface, but I travel a lot and there are many occasions where I am not online but still would like to use email.

A few times over the last years, TB has lost all my locally cached mail and I had to download over 500MB of email from the servers _again_. It's still infinitely more useful than Outlook but that's more because Outlook sucks so much.

Comment from rico on 2007-04-30

2007-04-30T18:05:12Z

i like 2.0, but the customizations i make to the toolbar are lost when i close the program. i tries starting it in safe mode to make the changes, but it doesn't help. you don't get the offer to save changes upon exit, like you do when you open firefox in safe mode. any ideas?

Comment from ken on 2007-05-01

2007-05-01T11:31:50Z

Hi I got a new computer and installed thunder bird 2.0 but now I can't receive mail, but I can send it how do I fix this problem/////////////I liked the 1.5 it was A good program ,now I can't get this one working ( please help ) very upset Ken

Comment from Mark on 2007-05-19

2007-05-20T01:20:43Z

How can I move the contents of the Inbox from one computer
to another within the same email program, Mozilla Thunderbird.
Thanks, Mark

Comment from Sandesh Rokade on 2007-05-28

2007-05-28T11:55:17Z

Hi Thomas et al,
Just wondering how could I create "email groups" from the individual email addresses I have in my address book. With TB I have to manually add the addresses in the "email group" I have created. with outlook express, we can select multiple addresses from address book, right-click, and create a group. Just wondering if anyone has any idea on how to easily create email groups in Thunder Bird (TB). If you know of any extension/plungin..that will also be useful.
Many thanks for your help.
Regards
Sandesh.
Call me on skype: us.sandesh
or on hotmail: sandeshr