[kwlug-disc] Does anyone want to take over Thunderbird?

[Andrew Kohlsmith (mailing lists account)]

> On Dec 1, 2015, at 12:02 PM, Jason Locklin <locklin.jason at gmail.com> wrote:
> The writing's been on the wall for Thunderbird for a long time. It's a
> shame, though, as I've tried several other clients many times and always
> came back to Thunderbird. I absolutely detest webmail -you lose so much
> in the trade-off for not having to spend 5 minutes configuring a client.
> That 5 minutes, though, seems to mean that email clients are becoming
> extraordinarily niche. Even people who like to tinker seem to be
> switching to self-hosted webmail rather than using clients.

I too detest webmail. I also detest “not mine” email services, which is why the last time I’ve ever had to change my email address is when I registered mixdown.ca 15 years ago. Vertical integration is where it’s at. :-)

Back on topic though… yes, I have not found a GOOD email client. When I ran Linux on the desktop I used kmail. On Windows I used Thunderbird for a while but it was suffering the same hideous bloat that Firefox has suffered. Outlook sucks the least, but it’s still awful. I did try a couple closed-source email clients that ran on Linux but they seemed to fail for lack of support and likely lack of audience. On a mac (my current desktop) it’s the built in mail client which is passable. I’ve started using pine/mutt a number of times as the idea of text-only email appeals to me, but it just doesn’t seem to scratch the itch.

I briefly used Squirrelmail just as a “zomg I need email and am not at my computer” kind of use case, but it was always kind of blah. I wish there were an OSS email client that worked well on the three major platforms and perhaps even a mobile version but it’s a very hard thing to do right. 

And to drive the point about “hosted by others” email being crap… gmail has been having an awful lot of trouble lately with my phone. Their IMAP gateway seems to be flakey. If gmail can’t even do it right, how can I trust anyone else to do it right?

-A.


> 
> On 01/12/15 11:28 AM, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
>> 
>> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/12/thunderbird-a-tax-on-firefox-development-and-mozilla-wants-to-drop-it/#p3
>> 
>> In short, Mozilla wants to unload Thunderbird so its devs can
>> concentrate on Firefox.
>> 
>> I found this a tad upsetting as I used Thunderbird as a replacement for
>> Outlook on my Windows machine, and I find Thunderbird to be a very good
>> Linux mail reader.  I also have the Enigmail addon in Thunderbird for my
>> encrypted stuff.  I also have the necessary addons to get Thunderbird to
>> manage my Google calendar.
>> 
>> Conversely, I recently decided to switch from Chrome to Firefox and to
>> be honest, I'm not impressed with Firefox.  Buggy stuff, especially when
>> dealing with Google pages.
>> 
>> And, as the article states, Mozilla hasn't been developing actively for
>> Thunderbird other than security fixes.  Which really doesn't bother me
>> too much as I like the program the way it is.
>> 
>> http://alternativeto.net/software/mozilla-thunderbird/ shows Thunderbird
>> as being way out in the lead for user preference for mail clients.
>> 
>> What is everyone here using for mail/calendar/encrypted mail/etc., these
>> days?  Is there a better alternative to Thunderbird that's cross-platform?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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