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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, December 12, 2005

Thunderbird: 1.5 and Beyond

XYZ Computing:

With the recent release of Firefox 1.5, many people are eagerly awaiting the new version of its email client counterpart, Thunderbird. Thunderbird 1.5 is slated to be officially released in January 2006 and its Release Candidate 1 had been available for a few weeks now. The enormously effective Spread FireFox campaign has sparked interest in Thunderbird and has had a positive effect on its growth, so this is an important step for Mozilla and its supporters.

Almost anyone who has used Thunderbird lately will tell you that its developers have done a good job with the program. For most people, whether they are using Linux, a OS X, or Windows, Thunderbird does a very good job with quickly and easily retrieving mail. The program has often been derided because it lacks the scheduling feature of Lotus Notes and Microsoft's Outlook (Mozilla's lackluster Sunbird handles this) but its cross-platform performance is admirable and it has some very good extensions. Its email filters and adaptive junk mail controls are both more than passable and are easy to work with. Whether or not it passes the "enterprise test" has been argued over considerably, but the fact remains that it is a very good choice for single users and the SOHO environment.

This is a good overview of Thunderbird 1.5. I used the RC1 version during my recent trip to Seattle and it seems to work nicely. But though I had no problem moving to and then sticking with Firefox, I can't seem to wrap my head around Thunderbird. Part of it is calendaring, yes. But it's not just that. Microsoft Outlook, though I alternatively love and hate it, is still the email/PIM application to beat, and the Office 2003 version is simply stellar. Then, we've got Outlook 12 coming, which is even better. So it's kind of a tough thing to do. In short, I think Firefox is demonstrably better than IE. But that isn't the case with Thunderbird. It's very good. But it's not "great" and it's certainly not "the best."

[ Posted at 2:58 PM | Permalink ]