Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?

Subject: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: artbrooks
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 05:30 PM

I'm very happy with Firefox 2.0 as a browser, vs. either Netscape or (gasp!) IE. Before I change from Outlook Express to Thunderbird I'd like to get some opinions from those who have made this or similar changes. Is the changeover itself relatively seamless? Does the Address Book move over without trouble? Does T-Bird have significant advantages for the non-poweruser?

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: mrdux
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 06:37 PM

i migrated our office computers (a dozen of them, and not a power-user in the bunch) to t-bird about a year ago, and the move was quite painless. i've been pleased with t-bird: simple, pretty quick, and it does everything i've ever asked to to do. more importantly, no one has brought me an e-mail complaint since the the changeover, which, in this office, is remarkable.

good luck.

michael

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 06:51 PM

Thunderbird itself is quite nice. I used it for a couple months when I had to have my usual PC in the shop and could no longer get to Eudora.

I did not try to go about moving the address book.

I just did a search on this: "OE to Thunderbird" address book"
and found http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t11583-importing-oe-address-book.html ...which says it's pretty straightforward.

(Note...Eudora, which currently has a few more features than either OE of T-Bird, plans to become open-source freeware soon....that might be an option)

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 07:42 PM

Wish I could remember why I couldn't use Eudora anymore. I still miss it. BUT, I love T-bird and have had no problems with it. Been using it for several years now.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:01 PM

It has a few annoying habits, but far fewer than Outlook Express (from which I was able to move my email archive with no difficulty). I don't know about address books; I don't use them. Nobody who uses OE should keep an address book that's recognisable as such.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:03 PM

Eudora has been the most likeable mail app, and I don't want to change. Availability on Linux will hurry up my transition away from Windoze. Or a functionally equivalent app.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: open mike
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:11 PM

yes yes yes...firefox and thunderbird
very compatible...and good to be
independent from micro shit
to a certain extent.
i have never used
outlook as i heard
that it was a virus
magnet.

the mozilla products
have served me well for
years. only drawback was
when i was building a web
page using a template that did
not recognize firefox. and had to
find a way to upload pix thru IE.

i was a former eudora user, too and
found the transition easy. esp. the
payment requirement which is no longer~good luck.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:44 PM

I also use Thunderbird--I actually regularly use three different programs at home, each one set up to handle a different email address (though these programs can manage more than one email account, I just haven't bothered to move it all around). I use Pegasus, a very powerful program but it is so big and does so many things that when you get ready to do some new setup with it it can be a little intimidating. Eudora is the one I use on my most frequently used account. I love it, though it takes my firewall/security software a little longer to "approve" posts sent via Eudora than the other programs. I use the sponsored full-strength version.

Thunderbird is a very nice program. One I used to really like, but like Kat, can't remember why I had to stop using it, was Netscapes's mail program.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: JennyO
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 09:50 PM

I use Firefox and Thunderbird on Linux.

I can't talk too knowledgeably on the ease of transfer from Outlook Express, since my son did it for me - only the results. It has several features that make it better, and a couple which I find a bit annoying - mainly to do with composing emails using rich text. I sent out notices regularly which I like to "dress up" a bit. If anything's a real bother I can always compose it in Open Office anyway, so it's not a major concern.

I also noticed that when transferring my address book from OE, all the single addresses transferred okay, but the groups didn't. The name of the group was there but the folder was empty. I think at the time my son didn't know a way round that either. It just meant I had to rebuild my groups from the single addresses.

I do like some of the view options and search features - makes it easy to find an email by putting in a keyword, and I've been able to train it pretty well to recognise junk, which it automatically sends to the junk folder. Occasionally it might get it wrong - mainly when the spammers have changed their style and it doesn't recognise it yet, but actually I don't ever seem to get that much spam anyway.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 10:10 PM

Address book into T-bird from Eudora was easy-peasy

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: artbrooks
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 11:13 PM

OK - I did it. Everything seems to be working well, except it seems that I have to ask for new messages. How do I set it to search for and download new messages automatically?

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 11:35 PM

Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings -> check the box for "check for new messages at startup.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Celtaddict
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 12:11 AM

I just this evening switched from IE to Firefox and Thunderbird, under the urging and instruction of my computer security expert brother, halfway across the country. It was remarkably painless and the address book transferred in seconds. JennyO, I do prefer to use color and fonts too, and embed photos as well as attach, but can still do that if I want to by signing onto the account through its own page (gmail, AOL, earthlink). My husband also missed the 'recently deleted' mail button, and he can use it ditto. (Note: if he deletes something using Thunderbird, he cannot retrieve it from 'recently deleted' by signing on via the AOL page.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: artbrooks
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 08:43 AM

Thanks, SRS. I checked "autonatically download new messages" and I think that should do what I want.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:31 AM

Hmm, hmm, there's a thought. I don't use OE, I use Outlook, and I have gigabytes and gigabytes of old pst files with emails, addressbooks, and even the attachments (mostly Word files and Excel files) to the emails.

Can I import those into Thunderbird?

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:42 AM

One thing I do miss about Outlook is I loved using the free stationary I got for it. I did it a few times in T-bird, but never can remember how I found it. Anyone else use it in T-bird? And, how? Tks!

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:45 AM

The only problem I've had is that some Outlook addicted customers use the default settings, that send attachments as a file called "winmail.dat" which Thunderbird can't open. This exercised me for a while until I found the free program called Fentun, that can extract the contents of these so I can view them in the usual way.

There is also an intelligent spam filter built-in to Thunderbird, which is supposed to be very good. I don't use it though, as I get rid of the spam before downloading the mail, using Mailwasher.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:54 AM

Art, I now forget why I do it this way, but when I set up this computer with the email programs I set it up to retrieve email at startup, but I then let it sit stay on the server until I click the button to check for new email. I was experiencing some kind of hang up or over-zealous Internet Security thing when I had it set to check for new mail every so many minutes. Or maybe I was trying to get the email to stop interrupting something else I was doing. I don't remember. But it works fine so I haven't changed it back.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:56 AM

Surely a DAT file is for OE, not Outlook?

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 10:59 AM

Oh - Fentun says it runs in Linux, Win 95, and there is a version for Win 3.1.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:10 AM

It certainly works in W2000, as that's what I'm running this week. Outlook or OE- is there a difference? I thought one was the other's baby brother.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:32 AM

Outlook is a BIG program that is a total package for mail, scheduling, managing business contacts...etc. Not everyone has need for all that...(and besides, there are, as usual, better ones)

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 06:20 PM

Outlook stores its files as *.pst files. OE don't.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 09:05 PM

I have been using TBird for about 3 years - I think it is better than outlook 2003

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 07:24 AM

Yeh, High Woodsie - will it read pst files?

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:31 AM

I switched from Outlook (not OE) without any problems. Although I have set up junk mail filters and asked it to deal with it automatically, I still have to run junk mail filters manually - I guess I must have something wrong there. I also get T-Bird to download new messages automatically every few minutes without any probs.

Subject: RE: Tech: Thunderbird for Mail?
From: GUEST,Uncle Jaque in Maine
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 01:21 PM

TB is my default mail server. It was an easy transition from the old Netscape, which we used on our W-98 box but which is no more.

   They recently updated TB to V. 1.0.7, so if you havn't updated it recently, check it out.

Every now and then, especially when composing / editing a "FWD", it gets a little weird (we're on Win XP) - but so far nothing serious. The SPAM filter seems to work pretty well once you get the hang of it.