04/19/2007, 12:00pm, EDT
Thursday, April 19th
Mozilla releases Thunderbird 2
Mozilla today released Thunderbird 2, the latest iteration of its free and open source email client. Thunderbird 2 allows users to easily manage and organize email with tags, advanced folder views, and speedy inbox or message searches. The software also supports customization via add-ons that match individual preferences, according to Mozilla. "Thunderbird 2 has powerful new features and proven security, delivering an improved email experience to users worldwide," said Scott MacGregor of Mozilla. "In Thunderbird 2, we incorporated the proven benefits of tagging to email. Tagging initially gained popularity on blogs, photo and link-sharing sites as an intuitive way to organize online information so users could easily find desired content." Thunderbird 2 is available as a free download for Mac, Linux, and Windows systems in more than 30 languages. The software requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later.
The email application enables users to choose from hundreds of add-ons that optionally integrate professional networking tools, VoIP calling, and shared address books. Thunderbird 2 is built using the same open source development model as Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, which is currently the second most widely-used browser on the market.
New features
Message tagging enables users to organize emails by assigning tags such as 'from mom' or 'weekend projects' to easily track and search for information. A set of default tags offers built-in tagging functionality, but offers support for creating custom tags as well.
Message history provides navigation similar to Web browsing history navigation, allowing users to move backward as well as forward through messages. A find-as-you-type search pane aims to speed up searches within displayed messages alongside a quick search feature, which starts showing results as soon as users begin typing search terms.
Thunderbird 2 also enables users to rerun previously saved searches, and supports integration as well as access to popular Web mail services by entering their usernames and passwords.
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It *still* has no Address Book integration. I have found small freeware and shareware apps developed by one guy that have better Address Book integration. When you read the Mozilla Bugzilla conversation on this you see lots of bickering - which to me exemplifies the main reason why TB is just not ready for prime time.
There are some new features that are just not supported in TB2 on the Mac. Like "new mail alert". There is no excuse for this. None. The Mac and OSX has enough market share for people to start taking it seriously. How hard would it have been to make TB2 a Growl client? Almost every other Mac app is...
But no, they continue to implement features and leave the Mac out.
If I were an ObjC developer I would want to contribute, until I look through the discussions and see how they regularly piss on people trying to help.
I was able to at least change my Reply verbage by creating a User.js file in the profile folder
I'm all ready to leap from Eudora but it seems no one can take care of the features I use daily that Eudora did 10 years ago. In this case, there is not reply with stationery/template. This was asked for as far back as 1999 in the Bugzilla database and Eudora was shown as the example but absolutely no one has picked-up the suggestion and done anything. And this isn't just a Mac thing either. In order to get this fairly low-tech ability even in Apple Mail, I'd have to wait for Leopard.
Other weaknesses: You can only have one mail window open at once. (Apple Mail allows multiple windows but then walks them across the screen on each launch movie example). Attachments are kept internally somehow until you detach them wheras Eudora simply keeps them as Mac files in a folder.
I did a quick glance at features and see nothing about creating "filters" that move mail, as it is received, into separate mailboxes (is their "folder" the equivalent of mailboxes?).
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope
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