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Mozilla The Internet

Thunderbird 0.7 Released 383

Posted by michael from the freshmeat dept.
aeinome writes "Right on the heels of the release of Firefox 0.9 comes the official release of Thunderbird 0.7. Updates are similar to Firefox's, with new extension and theme managers and slight increases in speed. Be sure to read the release notes for the complete list of new features, and then download it from the Thunderbird homepage."
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Thunderbird 0.7 Released More

Thunderbird 0.7 Released

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  • yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jjeffries ( 17675 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:19PM (#9447637)
    will it win critical acclaim?

  • Thunderbird Rocks. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:21PM (#9447657)
    I have been using Thunderbird for quite sometime now. It is EXCELLENT. The spam filter works well after you train it.

    • Re:Thunderbird Rocks. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Araxen ( 561411 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:35PM (#9447767)
      Aye, the spam filter sets this email client above all the rest.

    • Re:Thunderbird Rocks. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by darien ( 180561 ) <{darien} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:52PM (#9447885)
      I disagree entirely. I used to use Outlook, with SpamBayes [sourceforge.net] as my spam filter. The Thunderbird spam filter is far, far less effective. I have a suspicion it doesn't read email headers or something. All I can say for sure is that after training SpamBayes for two weeks I used to get maybe one email a week in my "suspected spam" folder. Then I moved to TB's built-in spam filter, and since then I get more like three spams a day delivered straight to my inbox. Not good. If this new version doesn't fix that I'm just going to go back to SpamBayes, even though I'll have to run it as a separate process.
      • That just means it has more spam to train from! :)

        In all seriousness though, I agree. I believe mscott actually changed the algorithm the bayesian filter uses in the 0.6 release. I've noticed more spamming getting through the filters from the 0.6 release and onward. Not sure exactly what was improved. Before 0.6, hardly any spam got through the filters.

        However it doesn't mention that anything was changed regarding the filters in .7, so more of the same I guess.
        • Doh. I just noticed the release notes mention something about "minor changes to the junk mail system"
        • Your exactly right. Before 0.6 almost nothing got through and there were almost never false positives. Now there are 4 or 5 spams that have been getting through every day. I just reset the training data and am going to spend the next week or so retraining the filters. Hopefully that will do the trick.

          Believe it or not, I am forced to use Outlook 2003 at the office and it actually does a better job than Thunderbird has been doing since the 0.6 release. Hopefully the developers see the error of their ways an

    • Re:Thunderbird Rocks. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by mlmitton ( 610008 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:27PM (#9448086)
      I've been using Thunderbird on Linux (Fedora) since .3 and I love it. However, when I upgraded to .7 from .6, it didn't import all of my mail, account information, and preferences. In all of my previous upgrades, all of these things imported on their own. Did they change the folder where these things get stored? How do you import them?

  • Great (Score:4, Informative)

    by $calar ( 590356 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:22PM (#9447661) Journal
    This is great for my parents' computer because they are still using Windows. But I really like Evolution better on the Linux side of things. Thunderbird is very good overall and I recommend it to all existing users of Outlook and Outlook Express. Get out now while you can!

  • Fedora? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rleibman ( 622895 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:25PM (#9447686) Homepage
    Same questions as for firefox, when can we expect it in the Fedora updates?
    • It's probably on Fedora.us already. They're pretty good about that. If it's not, get the spec file, change the headers around, and build the RPM yourself. I'm sure you wouldn't be the only one to appreciate that.

  • Still Room for Improvement (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:26PM (#9447700)
    I used Outlook for a long time before getting fed up with it, and now I'm going through the same thing with Thunderbird. In fact, I still can't seem to switch between HTML and plaintext email composition without changing my overall composition preferences, which is buried at least four or five clicks away from the composition window.

    I'm not sure if it's a config design issue as much as it is a familiarity issue. I dumped Outlook because of its history with security, and Outlook 2002's poor compatibility with Windows XP. Thunderbird is better in some ways, but it definitely has its downsides, not the least of which is the painful configuration of multiple accounts and general preferences.

    Firefox and Thunderbird are incredible aps but Thunderbird especially has a lot of room for improvement. When Thunderbird can piece together split usenet files and handle Y-EN/C then it will probably truly have arived for many of us. After that you need to out-exchange exchange :) and realize email is a centeral pda application and to that end we need scheduling, adress books that sync with our newtons, and help us manage our lives. Indeed, do Thunderbird right and you can really shake up the world because there's a real hunger and need for an ultra powerful email/usenet/scheduler/contact/pda manager.
    • in outlook 2003, i have my composition settings set to always convert to plaintext. at the top of each email it converts, it has a little notify pane that tells me it's converted from html. if i click that, it forms a dropdown from where i can select "convert back to HTML."

      might be time to give it another look?

      i too switched to thunderbird for a while. that is, up until it started folding in on itself. one day i'd load it up, and it had decided to duplicate every email in my store. a week later, it c
    • Write an Y-EN/C extension then.

    • Re:Still Room for Improvement (Score:5, Informative)

      by psylent ( 638032 ) <psylent.natural@mailshell@com> on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:45PM (#9447841)
      "In fact, I still can't seem to switch between HTML and plaintext email composition without changing my overall composition preferences, which is buried at least four or five clicks away from the composition window."

      Doesn't [shift]-Write work for you?

      • Re:Still Room for Improvement (Score:5, Interesting)

        by cheekyboy ( 598084 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:49PM (#9448233) Homepage Journal
        WHY ISNT this info in the TOOLTIP for the write button?

        Its little things like that , that really make a great app, proper hints that are usefull, and inteligent software.

        No one has the time to read 100 pages of docs.

        Dont know if .7 does this, but when you customize your toolbar, you should have the option of adding ANY MENU command into a button!!!!! That is of such usefull and obvious importance.

      • I think their plan is eventually to have a little drop down menu next to each of "write", "reply", "forward" etc, that lets you choose text or html. Or maybe I'm getting that confused with inline versus attachment forwarding.

        What I really want, though, is to be able to switch a message mid composition from one format to another. Because sometimes you need a little finesse, sometimes you need a lot.
        • the dropdown the grandparent wants exists in outlook 2003 already. it's right next to the "options" dropdown. it's a list box with HTML, Rich Text, and Plain Text options.

          as for your request, are you asking to be able to have only a portion of an email be html or do you want to be able to turn a while email into html in the middle of typing it? this dropdown will do the latter.

      • Re:Still Room for Improvement (Score:4, Insightful)

        by rjhall ( 80887 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:00PM (#9448651)
        Well, that does work for me.
        But I ctrl-m to compose a message, and ctrl-shift-m doesn't do what you would (or, at least, *I* would) expect.

    • In fact, I still can't seem to switch between HTML and plaintext email composition without changing my overall composition preferences, which is buried at least four or five clicks away from the composition window.

      I'm not using the new version, but i can't even figure out how to change 'my overall composition preferences'. Is there some way i can set it to ALWAYS, BY DEFAULT, use plain text? Because it always uses HTML until i tell it not to for me. :/

      Or has this been fixed (if applicable) in the new

  • So advanced... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MSBob ( 307239 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:27PM (#9447706)
    yet still without multipart MIME support in newsgroups. Sorry guys but if you want your news client to have any sort of market share better make sure it is more porn friendly!

  • What's the word? Thunderbird! (Score:5, Funny)

    by daeley ( 126313 ) * on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:29PM (#9447719) Homepage
    17.5% alcohol by volume, baby [bumwine.com]!

    Er, wait, you're talking about email, huh?

    Never mind, then, carry on... [hic!]

  • Mozilla (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sandman1971 ( 516283 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:29PM (#9447724) Homepage Journal
    My question is.... When will Firefox and Thunderbird be packaged together in a new full blown Mozilla release? Can't seem to find any info on the website regarding it.

    • Re:Mozilla (Score:5, Informative)

      by neverkevin ( 601884 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:34PM (#9447759) Homepage
      From the FireFox FAQ:

      What's happening with the Firefox development?

      Firefox will be used as the default browser in Mozilla. The current Mozilla suite will be replaced by stand-alone applications.

      Link [texturizer.net]
    • The point of these apps is that they're SMALL and designed to do ONE THING ONLY (browse the web or check your email) so they're not bloated.

      If you want firefox and thunderbird in one app, then use mozilla. :)

      I like it this way.
    • Forget that I would be happy if the two could could work together in both directions firefox thunderbird.

      That is the only reason why I still use mozilla at home.

      I *LIKE* having my mailer and browser integrated....at least to the point when I click on a link in thunderbird I get firefox to come up.

      Steve

  • Speed? (Score:5, Informative)

    by skinfitz ( 564041 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:34PM (#9447761) Journal
    *slight* increase in speed? I saw that Firefox allegedly had a "3% increase" - Bollocks! - it's CRAP LOADS faster than the old version! If TBird has a similar speed increase I'm looking forward to it.

    • Re:Speed? (Score:2, Informative)

      by CeleronXL ( 726844 )
      The 3% speed incrase was just the result of one speed fix. There were also many other speed fixes/optimizations that took place, even though they only reported on one.

  • Compared to web-based e-mails? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by line.at.infinity ( 707997 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:51PM (#9447879) Homepage Journal
    In the past I've used First Class Client, pine, and currently I'm satisfied with web-based e-mail. What's the benefit of using mail clients such as Thunderbird or Outlook over web-based e-mail? For my web-based e-mail I get

    * no ads
    * at least 1 GB per mail account
    * spam filtering
    * impossible to download infected attachments
    * etc

    I also edited the .forward file for my pine account so I can read those e-mails on my web mail account.

    • Threaded messaging (Score:5, Informative)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot@keir[ ]ad.org ['ste' in gap]> on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:03PM (#9447954)
      Anyone who uses email frequently cannot live without threaded messaging once exposed to it. This and this alone will keep me off of webmail forever (sure, you *could* thread in webmail, but it would either result in many trips back / forth to the server to expand / collapse the threads, or it would need fancy JS and DHTML magic which I have never seen in a webmail app.).

      I access my email solely through IMAP, and while I *do* occasionally use my webmail access while away from the desk, it is far from my first choice.

      Other things client side email can give you
      - Better spam filtering than webmail, since you can run your own and fine tune it
      - Don't have to worry about your email account suddenly being terminated due to the whim of a company
      - Privacy issues
      - Infinite GB per email account (in theory)
      - Better integration with your desktop calendar and addressbook
      - Ability to easily sync with your PDA / Cell phone
      - Ability to click "mailto:" in your web browser and have it work
      etc...
    • Compared to FirstClass..... sure.

      Having a sane net-admin is always nice. Honestly, when I saw the First Class client, I was somewhat impressed by it. That is, until I saw the mess that the server is. Anybody willing to use FirstClass is completely nuts. Why use it when you can choose between Exchange or simple open-source POP3?

  • Warning to Mac OS X users (Score:4, Informative)

    by gwoodrow ( 753388 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @07:56PM (#9447910)
    So, it could just be that I'm a moron, but I thought I'd share anyway.

    Virtually every program I use in Mac OS X Panther allows me to overwrite an old program with the newer version without screwing up any of the settings. Thunderbird, however, screwed up big time. It copied perfectly, and opened smoothly, but it did NOT keep any of my settings. I'm having to go through and reconfigure all my email accounts and settings from scratch. I like thunderbird, but this little feature is a big enough pain in the ass that I may have to stick with Mail just so I don't have to worry about wasting time with this again. Proceed with caution, Mac users.

    • Re:Warning to Mac OS X users (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:20PM (#9448041)
      Actually they decided to change the default location of account files. Breifly, you need to find ../Thunderbird/profiles.ini. Open it and either change the path to point to your old files (Profiles/defult/XXX.slt something like that), or copy the files in xxxx.slt into the new Thunderbird directory.

      Head over to the Thunderbird Support forum on www.mozillazine.org for a better explanation.

      • Link it up... (Score:3, Informative)

        by DA_MAN_DA_MYTH ( 182037 )
        And here's that link! [mozillazine.org]

        Yeah I almost flipped a lid that I lost my mail and didn't bother to back up Thunderbird. Then I realized I'm an idiot, and the application doesn't store my user info.
    • Same thing happened to me. The solution, while an easy fix, should have been elegantly handled by Thunderbird instead. Hopefully we can see this in place before v.0.8 is released.

    • I guess I was one of the lucky ones. Here's what I got when I tried to download it:

      The requested URL /pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/0.7/thunderb ird-0.7-macosx.dmg.gz was not found on this server.

      Slashdotted? Or taken offline for repairs?

  • app refuses to start ? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I am sorry to rain on the parade and I will start my (anonymous) rant with kudos for the Mozilla developers.

    Having said that, I just tried to upgrade my existing Thunderbird installation and I get an error that refuses to go away till I kill the fricking Thunderbird instance. Yes, clean profile, yadda,yadda,yadda.. I know all about it. The reality that the Mozilla developers steadfastly seem to deny is this.. (in bold text, since I am somewhat annoyed).

    Though you say that your products are not release re

    • Re:app refuses to start ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Snoopy77 ( 229731 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:50PM (#9448913) Homepage
      Though you say that your products are not release ready, people actually USE them as if they were.

      And who's fault is this? They tell you that their product is not release ready yet you use it as if it is. Are they suppose to magically make it release ready just because you use it as such?

      Surely you knew what you were getting yourself into when you switched to a sub 1.0 program. It was a decision you made so don't blame the developers for your poorly thought out choice.

      BTW you promised to start your rant with kudos for the Mozilla developers but I don't see you praising them at all.
  • I'm an OS 10.3 user and use Mail.app which comes with OS X.

    I've used an older build of thunderbird before and it was okay but honestly I wasn't terribly impressed with it. I just use standard POP3 for all my accounts...is there any compelling reason why I should use it on OS X instead of Mail.app?

    I can see how it would be preferable over Outlook on Windows with all the viruses going around and the general bloat/suckiness of MS crapware but does it do anything that Apple's Mail doesn't? I'm not trolling or

    • The stupid drawer, and the fact that delete does not work correctly in the mail view.

      I have used mail.app because there was nothing really better on osx, and the mail app is pretty good. But it has now been regulated away. I much prefer the three-pane view over the drawer view, which for mail seems just kinda clunky. Drawers are good, if they are not OPEN all the time.

      Actually strike that, I think drawers are a bad UI concept.

      And the fact that the list widget doesn't work properly just drives me craz

  • Warning to Upgraders (Score:3, Insightful)

    by fupeg ( 653970 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:11PM (#9448000)
    From the release notes:
    Upgraders: DO NOT install Mozilla Thunderbird into a directory containing program files from a previous version. Overwriting files from a previous release WILL cause problems.
    They have an installer and yet they have this problem? How amateur is this? If this is the case, then the installer should delete the old directory or better yet, delete the files that are not overwritten and cause problems. I love Thunderbird, but this is pretty weak.
    • Both Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 and Mozilla Firefox 0.9 are considered "Technology Previews" as clearly indicated in their release notes and both state you should uninstall any previous versions before installing a new version. The Firefox 0.9 notes state that upgrading will be fixed in a future release. As well, installers for technology previews are generally considered unofficial preview installers since the upgrading issues involving the installer are not considered important until they have a stable relea

  • so is it better than Eudora from 1995 yet? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:13PM (#9448005)
    Can Thunderbird finally display progress from separate mail accounts at the same time? Maybe something more than "Downloading 1 of 629" ? Something that indicates how much time is left?
  • The one feature that's kept me from switching is that it tries to create a new set of folders for every email address. I want all my addresses tied to one set of rules/folders.

  • Exhange Server (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Phoinix ( 666047 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:41PM (#9448191)
    Can I use it instead of outlook to connect to the Exchange server at work?

  • Caution with themes! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Trillan ( 597339 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @08:56PM (#9448284) Homepage Journal

    I don't know if it is a general problem or not, but when I've tried to download Thunderbird themes Firefox has attempted to use them, instead of passing them to Thunderbird.

    Not passing them to Thunderbird isn't that big a deal, really. Trying to use them in Firefox is. Installing a Thunderbird theme into Firefox will cause all of Firefox's controls to disappear.

    A little caution is in order.

    • Actually, it seems as though the only theme on the site at the moment (my favorite, Mostly Crystal) is listed as compatible but isn't. So I guess problems with switching themes aren't so bad when there's nothing to switch TO...

  • # Other New Features... New user interface for viewing vCards. New Profile Manager which also supports running from a USB device..... -- Okay folks for a new feature it seems to be very well hidden (and the profile seems to have full paths in it) hints or ideas?? the firefox version works quite well

  • Not sure about 0.7. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dancingmad ( 128588 ) on Wednesday June 16, 2004 @10:08PM (#9448695)
    I've been using Firewhatever since .6 or so (maybe earlier) and I jumped on Thunderbird when it came out. But at school last semester I used webmail. When I came home I reinstalled Thunderbird, .6 and the .7 prerelease and they both stutter on the Inbox screen. I haven't found anymore info on it and it's only in the mail 3 pane view (when viewing an invidiual message it doesn't happen). Anyone know what the deal is?
  • I would like to save my inbox and various folders.
  • Is it possible to reduce the size of the toolbar icons, and remove the text under the icons?

    Is it possible to toggle full headers view on/off as you can in eg. PINE or mutt?

    • Is it possible to reduce the size of the toolbar icons, and remove the text under the icons?

      Sure. Right click on an empty spot in the tool bar and choose Customize. Or, if you prefer, click View->Toolbars->Customize.

      Is it possible to toggle full headers view on/off as you can in eg. PINE or mutt?

      Haven't used PINE or mutt, but it sounds like you want View->Headers->All or View->Headers->Normal.

      • Thanks dude, the toolbar one was obvious enough...

        Actually what I meant by toggle headers was whether there is a key mapping for that. I found the menu item, but in pine/mutt you can just press 'h' when viewing a message to toggle headers on/off.

  • question (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dbc001 ( 541033 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @01:09AM (#9449483)
    is it possible to use thunderbird / firefox and have them share a single set of config files? is there a tutorial anywhere showing how to do this?

  • A moan… (Score:5, Interesting)

    by shic ( 309152 ) on Thursday June 17, 2004 @04:00AM (#9450154)
    I like thunderbird 0.6 and 0.7 looks set to extend my good experiences with 0.6 - however (don't laugh) I'm not ready to give up Outlook just yet. As far as I'm concerned Thunderbird is a better mail client than Outlook in all but one respect.

    I use email as a productivity tool - I send many emails to many people, on many topics - data entry speed is very important to me - and the clarity of my messages is very important to my recipients. I believe I can spell, and that my grammar is good - but this only means I can be sure my message 'hangs-together' when I've proof-read it a couple of times. When I use Word as my editor it corrects my silly typographic errors on the fly and detects and alerts me about many malformed sentences with its famous "wobbly green line" - which I find invaluable. I realise that as a grammar checker Word's is wanting, and that Thunderbird has a spelling checker... but I, for one, find these differences make using Thunderbird less productive than using Outlook.

    Are there any plans to wire in a grammar/style checker?
    Will we ever see an "autocorrect" feature like Word's?

    As silly as these two might sound, IMHO, they are the single biggest barriers to adoption of open source productivity tools.

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