Mass Migration/Bughunt For Thunderbird Tuesday 208
maggeth writes "mozillaZine is spreading the word of a plan to have a mass migration of users from other email clients on this coming Tuesday in order to find any remaining bugs in the migration process. 'Bring your Outlook, Eudora, Mozilla, Outlook Express, and Communicator e-mail clients with you and join us on IRC for a day of testing the Thunderbird migration features. The goal is to get as many testing migrations performed on as many clients and as many operating systems as possible and to discuss and record all the problems in Bugzilla.' Read the full article for more details and for the IRC location."
Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:1)
Re:Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:5, Interesting)
Why is there not a way to import Thunderbird mailboxes? You can try moving the profile by hand, and in doing so get a completely unusable email client.
I would like to "Export to archive", and giving the options for archive email folders [option to skip junk], address book, pop/smtp settings, Signatures, all to a *single*
This file should be importanble cross platofrm by all Thunderbird clients.
All it would take would be a single xml file to "describe" the contents of the tar file, where you have most [cross platform bits] of your profile directory.
Re:Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:2)
Re:Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:2)
That would be ideal for me too, since I mainly use Firefox on Solaris at work, and sometimes on a Windows box where I can mount my Solaris home dir via Samba.
Re:Migrated from Mozilla to Thunderbird... (Score:2)
In thunderbird, Tools > Account Settings > Server Settings (for each account) > Local Settings
Change that value to the share/e
P.S. (Score:2, Interesting)
n.b. I have nothing to gain from all of this, I'm just handing out information.
It'll fail (Score:5, Interesting)
To lazy to jump through the hoops of bugzilla.
Re:It'll fail (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, I like the look of Evolution better, shiny buttons..
On windows, been using thunderbird since it came out. (Netscape->Mozilla->Thunderbird) Been pretty easy, except that one time I told thunderbird to delete that profile I wasnt using. DOH!
Re:It'll fail (Score:2, Insightful)
As in, all HTML email is broken on the import, just because some jackass(es) think this "isn't their problem." If it's not Thunderbirds' problem, whose problem is it? You expect a normal user to download a PHP or Perl script to fix the broken import process? Yeah, right. People with this attitude (it's not that rare) in open source projects should be told thanks for their contributions, but your efforts are no lo
Re:It'll fail (Score:4, Informative)
Fix was chcked in near 2004-07-16 - any nightly / milestone after that should work (excluding the security updates; that's from different code)
Re:It'll fail (Score:2)
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3157 [mozilla.org]
(Clicking the link won't work from
Re:It'll fail (Score:2)
That's a pretty stupid idea. Do you know anything about how (and why) open source development works? People code because they like it. If somebody doesn't feel like coding something, you're suggesting that the Mozilla project should make them unwelcome, and not accept the code they DO feel like writing?
If you want something done
Re:It'll fail (Score:2)
That's kindof unrelated to accepting or not accepting their code.
Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Sort of like Woodstock, except without all the kick-ass music, sex, drugs and alcohol. Hmm...never mind.
Continual thought process in Doom3: "Where is the bad-guy going to pop up next? bullets be damned, I'm running out of clean shorts!"
Re:Hmm... (Score:2, Funny)
KFG
Back up your messages! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Back up your messages! (Score:5, Informative)
Wow, that is a great way to get a +3 informative.
Let me try:
Before you try to check for new messages, make sure that you are connected to the internet.
Re:Back up your messages! (Score:2)
wanders off muttering about stupid users
Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:4, Interesting)
I love Firefox, though! Great browser. Small, fast, etc., etc. Thunderbird just needs some more work before it's really there, IMO.
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:2)
Its a windows (so might not work for you) yenc proxy. Works like a charm for me and its free!!
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:2)
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:2)
Anyway the parent is right. Thunderbird makes a lousy newsreader and its filtering capabilities downright stink. I know they are currently targeting the home user who does nothing but send and receive email but it really needs to offer more if its ever going to become popular among business users and especiall
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:2)
For the record, there are other things that people take pictures of than naked girls and boys, or naked girls and boys. Or naked girls and girls, or naked boys and boys. You get the idea.
The long and short of it is that YEnc is the
Re:Too slow and no YEnc! (Score:2, Informative)
Thunderbird on TheOpenCD (Score:5, Interesting)
Haphazard? (Score:2)
Somewhere at a car company...
Engineer 1 - "Hey, our new car may burst into flames if people try to drive it."
Engineer 2 - "I know... let's get as many people to drive it as possible so we can see what the problem is!"
It's time to play... (Score:5, Funny)
Today's example comes from /. regular Kenshin with the mighty, mighty low ID of 43036! Here he tries to compare a volunteer software bug hunt with yet another deeply flawed automotive analogy. So let's get started and bring in some contestants from our studio audience to play....
FIND! THE! FALLACY!!!! <cue to commercial>
Re:It's time to play... (Score:2)
People don't die if their mail client is buggy.
FALLACY! FOUND!!!!! <applause>
cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:4, Interesting)
As mozilla is a cross platform application, it should be able to work with the same offline e-mails.. lets say stored in a fat32 partition, so we could write to it from linux as from windows.
Any suggestions how to do this?
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:2)
If you ISP's mailserver offer IMAP, then you can access the e-mail from both linux/windows since the e-mail is stored on the server. You might run out of space on the server if you get many e-mails and don't delete so often. Several e-mail clients can be configured to download the
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:4, Informative)
Better yet, get yourself a cheap old computer, set it up with linux, a good MTA (exim, postfix, qmail), an imap server, and fetchmail. Use that machine to fetch all of your mail from your ISP, in which case it won't matter if the ISP uses POP3 or IMAP. Then set up your mail clients on your dual-boot box to point to your local mail cache instead of your ISP. You can even setup the mail clients to use the local server to send mail, if you like. There'll be a small delay in receiving mail this way, though you can setup fetchmail to poll more often if you like, but I've never found that to be a problem. Finally, you can also setup a good spam solution like SpamAssassin and solve your spam problems in a single place rather than relying on the varying spam features of your different email clients (assuming they even have spam features, unlike a lot of console-based clients like pine or mutt).
There are more benefits for running your own server like this, too. It doesn't have to function solely as a mail machine. You could install Squid and an ad-killing plugin like AdZapper, and use the box as a web proxy. You could setup NAT and a DHCP server and have yourself an internal network that will support N clients, all with ineternet access, without having to buy a pre-packaged router (and you can do this with a single dialup connection, if you can't get broadband -- I don't know of any consumer routers you can buy that will dial on demand for you). You can firewall your entire internal network from a single point. You could add a wireless access point for cheaper than it would cost to buy a wireless router, plug it into a port on your switch, and have an instant wireless network. Setup samba and have an internal file share network. The sky (and hardware you have available) is the limit!
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:2)
Re:Shared Address Book? (Score:2)
Start at Freshmeat [freshmeat.net] and search for what's available. Or, you could go all out and setup OpenLDAP on your internal network. I don't know if Thunderbird or SquirrelMail can access LDAP directories, but I'd be very surprised if they couldn't. I haven'
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:3, Informative)
Start > Run: thunderbird -ProfileManager (under Windows)
$ thunderbird -ProfileManager (under Linux)
Create a new profile, select a directory for the profile on a FAT partition, then create email accounts, and import email (if any).
Now on the other OS, run Thunderbird with the profile manager again, create a new profile, select the same directory, you are set.
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:4, Informative)
http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/share_mail.html [texturizer.net]
HTH :)
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:2)
I'd mod you guys informative if I weren't posting; I've been looking for a good way to do this for ages. (In fact, a separate FAT32 partition for data exists on my hard drive precisely so when I finally install a serious version of Linux, I can do this sort of thing.)
Unfortunately, AFAICS, the approach on texturizer.net still leaves you with two separate copies of prefs.js, which aren't in sync. Your mail folders might be in the same place, which is certainly a good start, but I suspect some (but not all)
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:3, Informative)
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:2)
Use IMAP (Score:2)
Re:cross platform offline e-mailing (Score:2)
Perhaps if you have a friend with a stable ser
Don't forget to install enigmail too! (Score:5, Informative)
How about from Thunderbird on another HD? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How about from Thunderbird on another HD? (Score:2)
Palm Sync (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Palm Sync (Score:2)
Robbing Peter to pay Paul (Score:2)
Gone and done it. (Score:2)
Remember (Score:2)
However, I'm pretty sure they're wanting to test out the automated importers, which is all a consumer wants to use anyway
As always, remember to backup your emails before beta testing like this.
"mass migration of users " and "join us on IRC" (Score:3, Funny)
Talk about preaching to the converted! And how is this going to work???
Geek - "Get rid of crappy Outlook. Come join us in a mass migration to Thunderbird!"
Marketing Droid - "Err, OK, what do I do?"
Geek - "Just join us on IRC channel #mozmigration on smug.geek.com"
Marketing Droid - "Err, yeah, right"
Talk about Oxymoronic. Of course, I can't RTFA coz it's slashdotted, so ignore the above if I'm missing something.
cLive ;-)
Migration on OS X (Score:2)
Err....what? It can't import vCards from files? Ah. Migration over then for this season.
Bugzilla link here (they don't accept Slashdot as a referrer:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=79709
And yes, that's me at the bottom of the report offering to help out if someone will talk me through the build process on OS X - I get nothing but errors trying to build
Please fix Outlook import (Score:4, Informative)
I second this post (Score:2)
Also, when importing from Outlook it would be nice to be able to integrate, instead of keeping the Outlook Address Book and mail folders separate from the native T-Bird ones. I want migrate and dump Outlook. Why do I need two separate trees within Thunderbird?
Better support for going to and fro would be nice (Score:5, Interesting)
No feature for newer Netscape importing (Score:2)
How about a mozilla updater? (Score:2)
Keep in mind... (Score:2, Interesting)
Until there are options to turn off this text markup and show me the email as it was rece
Re:Keep in mind... (Score:2)
Pine? (Score:2)
I'm half serious on this, actually. At some point I went all "eye candy" and I do most of my work with pretty GUIs and such. And I still have to open pine in a terminal window and it looks weird.
Re:Pine? (Score:2)
I had already finished a relatively brainless and trouble-free "migration" from Outlook to Thunderbird, and because Thunderbird stores mail using standard mbox format, I had little trouble moving from Thunderbird to mutt. If you're using Pine, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to alternate between Pine and Thunderbird as you see fit.
Personally, I don't see what the fuss is about, but if this helps the folks at Thunderbird work out litt
Why Not to Switch...yet (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Why Not to Switch...yet (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why Not to Switch...yet (Score:2)
Well, all applications *should* be responsible for importing from other formats. It *shouldn't* be the responsibility of anyone other than Microsoft to make an importer for MSIE from Netscape/Mozilla settings. But that's just my hippie cooperation freako side talking.
There are converters that can change between different formats. I've used bookmarkbridge, which synchronizes between Opera, Mozilla
Re:Why Not to Switch...yet (Score:2)
I migrated ... (Score:2)
I migrated to from Outlook Express to Thunderbird about two months ago.
This was just after I migrated from MS IE to Firefox 0.9. The motive was the serious security issues with Microsoft products. I also installed OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 to run all FOSS applications.
Thunderbird did a fine job migrating. Of course, I started by backing up my mail folders to the home server. Thunderbird imported all my old mail without a problem, except that it fudged a "From " header for every message, with funny dates, su
Outlook to Thunderbird migration needs work (Score:3, Interesting)
The Outlook Calendar, Tasks, and Notes apparently did not migrate. I do not think that Thunderbird has support for those yet. Which leaves me stuck between using Thunderbird and Outlook.
Also missing in Thunderbird is the virus vault feature of AVG Antivirus, which works with Outlook, but has no support for Thunderbird.
Also missing was the Intergration or synching with my Cell Phone, PalmOS device, and iPaq, I fond Thunderbird was missing these as well.
Also missing was integration with my Timex Datalink watch, no support for that either.
Thunderbird was not able to migrate accounts I use in Hotmail with Outlook XP(2002). I heard there may be an external program for that to convert Hotmail into POP3, but from what I read of it, it was still in beta and not properly tested.
GPG using Engimail or whatever it was called, did not work properly. I am not sure what went wrong, but I am unable to encrypt and decrypt messages. I cannot get GPG working with Outlook either, and I have to fall back to PGP. I have the latest version of GPG, but it says it cannot find my private keys, despite me loading them, and creating a new one just in case, it still reports they are missing. Fbog! I think this is more of a GPG problem than a Thunderbird one.
Should I ever decide to read/write a MS-Exchange account, will Thunderbird ever support that?
Thunderbird junk mail treats each account seperately. I use Spambayes with Outlook which learns from all the email accounts and can filter spam on account B by learning from account A.
Also the email rules only work on one email account, I have to create duplicate rules for each email account (I have four POP3/SMTP accounts) to filter mail just right. Also I am confused as to what SMTP server it uses to send mail. I am not yet sure how to pick one, it seems to use the same SMTP server for each account, this may be seen as possible Spam by Spam filters, until I can figure it out.
So I am stuck with Outlook until Thunderbird can properly address these issues.
Migration from Mozilla (Score:2)
Pegasus (Score:5, Interesting)
My guess is that Thunderbird will eventually approach the feature set that is available elsewhere, and I may move over to a Firefox/Thunderbird combo, but it'll be a while yet.
Re:Pegasus (Score:3, Informative)
Then when you've finished moving things around, get rid of Mercury and the associated server entry in Thunderbird.
Necessity (Score:3, Insightful)
In order for Thunderbird to be something it is going to have to do something very well that no other mail client does.
I suggest full, complete, and amazing integration with GPG/PGP. In such a way that *every* user can make use of it. I'm talking "as a part of the intro wizard"-easy.
Did they fix the calendar? (Score:2)
"Sunbird" just sucks ass.
Where are the plans to address this and create a triumphant calendar component?
I've switched a few users over - but they all complain about how much better the Outlook calendar is. At least with Outlook they can send/receive invitations and add them to the calendar easier.
Missing feature: who did I reply to and when? (Score:2, Insightful)
Not quite ready for prime time business use yet.
And of course you import the mail and leave behind the calendar (linked to the mail), the notes (linked to the mail), the diary (linked to the mail)... hmm, I don't think they'll go for it.
I use it myself & love it, don't get me wrong. But for
I'll try it but I still like OE setup better (Score:2)
Thunderbird was really close but not quite there last time I checked. I'll try again though.
No import from Mozilla Mail (Score:2)
Tell it it Mulberry (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Tell it TO Mulberry (Score:2)
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:3, Insightful)
There you go [geocities.com].
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:2)
It runs on win32 and doesn't suck a bag of cocks.
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:3, Funny)
Whoah.. I didn't know Outlook could fit an entire bag of chickens in its mouth. How do I demo this?
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:2)
I've tried Thunderbird and others, but am still staying with Eudora for now.
A few months ago, I started to write some sort of review/blog, pointing out some aspects of the mailers I tried. Never finished it really, but in case you find it useful: here it is [hispeed.ch]
Re:I installed Thunderbird today... (Score:2)
All I can say is keep trying, Thunderbird truly is the bees knees as far as I'm concerned. Try updating whichever client you're using now to the latest version before doing an export/import.
Another thing that's worked for me in previous migrations (I've tried most of the big mail clients in my day) is to, for example, go from OE
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
While we test our pile of shit, could you please ask the maker of your fully functional secure fast and stable email client to disable the feature that sends me spam each time some script kiddy mails you an
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry to suck the fun out of your witty comment here, but please don't confuse Outlook for Outlook Express. OL still has the occasional exploit, but it is nowhere near as bad as OLE. In all seriousness, with OLXP (released in 02 I think) you have to hack the registry to even get it to download an
(For the record, I did have a chuckle at this comment.
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
It's worth mentioning that Linux and Mozilla have occasional exploits as well.
"... as if "being better than Outlook Express" were a redeeming quality."
In a sense, it is. If anybody here actually used Outlook >2000 next to OE, they'd understand the drag OE's had on OL's reputation. Just like how a bunch of dumbasses here don't know the difference between Windows 98 and Windows 2000 and tee hee hoddle haw at every stale BSOD joke.
So you
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
No it isn't. Linux isn't an email client, and one [securitytracker.com] isn't occasional [google.com].
Again, no it's not redeeming [google.com].
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
I meant in the sense that it didn't earn that reputation to begin with. Differentiating the two makes a big difference when the percpetion is ill-defined.
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
It's not 10 times slower than Eudora or Thunderbird, it's orders of magnitudes slower.
Re:great idea (Score:2)
I might do the migration on the work machine from Eudora to Thunderbird.
I migrated from Eudora to Moz, to TBird, and it took some work back when I did it. But to bug test like this and try and get more people using TBird, is a great idea for sure.
Re:Great! (Score:3, Insightful)
If your favourite web-based data source doesn't already have a tool to access it using Perl, there are also web-scraper modules (and LWP) which make it easy to build your own. Remember to put it on CPAN if you create something new.
Re:Pine? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:that's a bad idea (Score:2)
Re:Thunderbird Rules! (Score:2)
Re:Thunderbird Rules! (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks, asshat. Try "example.com" next time. That's what it's for.
- Monkey
AsdFgBe, Inc.
Re:Thunderbird Rules! (Score:2, Funny)
Um, yes. It's digtemail@email.com. Is that THAT hard to figure out? I mean, really. How much effort does it take? It's not like you're ever gonna get it wrong.
Re:Thunderbird Rules! (Score:2)
Okay, after deleting the As I get
Frankly, I'm stumped. Wanna give a hint about the "obvious" part?
Re:Recently switched to Thunderbird (Score:2)
Which mail client were you using before?
FWIW, I imported all my folders from Outlook 2002 into Thunderbird 0.7.1 pretty effortlessly at work. I can't comment on the address books, filtering rules and so on, because part of the reason for moving was that Outlook is just plain screwed up in the number of bugs it has in these two areas, so I deliberately started from scratch in TBird.
Re:What if.. (Score:2)
Re:Still doesn't support MS-TNEF! (Score:3, Informative)