Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 6th Jul 2012 22:42 UTC
Mozilla has announced it's ceasing development on Thunderbird; one more version will be released, and it'll be security updates from then on. "Most Thunderbird users seem happy with the basic email feature set. In parallel, we have seen the rising popularity of Web-based forms of communications representing email alternatives to a desktop solution. Given this, focusing on stability for Thunderbird and driving innovation through other offerings seems a natural choice." Makes sense - I mean, there's only so much you can do with something that needs to send and receive mail, and I can't imagine Thunderbird having a lot of users. Strange, almost Microsoftian obtuse announcement, by the way.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-10-02
Member since:2006-02-25
Member since:2005-07-08
Same here, my family got used to Eudora, then Thunderbird. There doesn't seem to be any way to move them to Gmail as they are like "But i can't read my e-mail if internet goes out!"
And they are right.
What will they do if Google decides to terminate their account?
Or if they e-mail account gets hacked?
People place too much thrust of private data in hands of strangers.
Member since:2005-08-18
I wonder how I am going to explain why she doesn't need it...
Why would you have to do that? It's not like Thunderbird will blip out of existence. I'm going to guess that the features it has now is pretty much all your mom will need for quite some time when it comes to reading and sending email.
Member since:2005-10-02
An email client also has a more fixed feature set than a browser. The problems with Thunderbird is less about features and more about implementing different backends for these features. Unlike browsers which need to be cumbersome reimplementations of wholesale operating systems - preferably with flash and silverlight in use everywhere :p
Member since:2007-09-23
And as noted above me, there are some benefits of having a desktop email client like having a single UI for several different email providers.
I've seen this argument in almost any discussion about desktop vs web mail.
But it doesn't hold any water. I have ALL my emails (three gmail accounts, two Namecheap domains, two GoDaddy domains and my university mail) all hooked up to my gmail account. I can select in a simple drop down which account I want to send as.
So why do people keep mentioning this? Is it because they are not aware of this functionality in web based email (at least Gmail, not sure if other such as Yahoo! or Hotmail can do this, maybe someone could fill me in on that) or is it because desktop clients do it some other, more magical, way?
Member since:2005-08-26
Gmail, while nice, is not the end all solution to the problem. Many folks don't use Gmail and as far as I know no other free email provider offers that functionality. Further more, most businesses aren't going to be keen on company related email being pushed through peoples personal Gmail (or any other free mail provider) accounts. In addition, many people still use their ISP provided email accounts. Not everyone has a Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail/etc account. That's just the way of the world.
I personally hate web based email for anything other than checking my email on a foreign device. I also don't really like thunderbird for anything other than its awesome IMAP support so I guess in the end I don't care as long as there is a decent desktop client around to use.
Member since:2005-10-02
Member since:2012-05-17
I will reply to you as your mother (no pun intended):
Will I be able to access an attached file if the router is for whatever reason "dead"?
I mean, if someone phone me asking for information I have in a PDF in a e-mail, will I be able to give that information tough my Internet connection is down?
Features
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
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Member since:
2008-02-10
My mother is one of the Thunderbird users. I did a wise decision by already moving her stuff to Google Mail but she was obsessed with using desktop email client. I wonder how I am going to explain why she doesn't need it...
I've already tried several times... I guess some people just need a desktop client for the sake of having a desktop client to sort the functionality some how. It makes it easier for them to understand "that www" is behind this icon and your "electronic mail" is behind that icon. :-)
...
And as noted above me, there are some benefits of having a desktop email client like having a single UI for several different email providers. I can agree that it makes it easier for people to manage their mail too. Anyone who has used current Hotmail webmail service knows how bad the Hotmail's UI is compared to any other webmail provider out there. Not to mention Yahoo. :-D
Edited 2012-07-06 23:08 UTC