As far as email clients go, I've always preferred Thunderbird and I'm glad they got a facelift and some needed under-the-hood improvements. That said, I've just switched entirely to webmail for my own purposes (except on my phone, of course). Because no matter where I am or whose computer I'm using, it is always a consistent experience.
It's absolutley a much needed improvement and certainly looks better, but it still looks old fashioned. Especially noticeable when you try to create an html email signature. I'm glad they're still updating this, but in my opinion, there's still a long way to go to make it look like a modern application.
I really wanted to start using thunderbird but i had trouble understanding emails quick enough due to its old-ish look, i still couldn't find a decent windows + linux alternative to replace it that makes me feel like i'm in 2022 tho... the search continues :D
I am super happy with Thunderbird, since 2 years ago I took it back to configure emails I never went back, tried Outlook and Mailspring as well but still Thunderbird is the best IMO
I really like the aesthetics of the “new experience” look of Outlook on Mac, but the usability is absolutely horrendous (as is every MS product on Mac). Definitely going to take a look at Thunderbird now, given the UI update
I have been using Thunderbird since the beginning , I actually have always prefered the old school as you all consider dated intereface....it's always been stable, simple and have everything i needed...... not once has the program ever crashed on me! so glad they are still supporting it and hope they don't change the intereface to drastically in future updates.
Agreed, change is not always good, more often it isn't. Windows 10 is a little better than XP, but everything in between was horrible. Quit screwing around....
something's headed your way. You might want to look at the beta versions of TB, as this might break your deal. Admittedly, I don't know enough about it, though.
Most things I needed extension for have now been added to default Thunderbird, which means you no longer have to use older versions. Wow that took about 6 years. Glad to be keeping Thunderbird after all.
Thunderbird has been my main email client for 10-15 years, I'd be lost without it. I use BlueMail on my android devices. With Gmail account set to imap everything sinks perfectly and even better, it's all free!
Thank you for this video. I've been using Thunderbird and addons for yonks. When the company changed to Exchange email, I tried Outlook but settled for Thunderbird plus the Owl addon. Thunderbird's email search feature (both the quick and the more advanced) are superior. The problem is that Thunderbird changed something over time which means that some of the really useful addons (e.g. Attachment Extactor, Mail Summaries) no longer work and development isn't continuing. The solution has been to have separate installation of an old version (68.9) in which the addons still work when they are needed.
Yes, indeed, thunderbird is really great, also another point worth mentioning is that handles rss better than any other rss client, so you basically can have everything you need for your office workflow almost right there.
@@watsoft70 you can easily group feeds built in browser that you can add ublock or any other addon you want, plus the email feat, basically I handle, emails, news, browser, calendar, youtube subcriptions, all in one program. and cant save and export all settings and data anywhere. But, that's just an opinion. maybe I'm wrong.
@@arielalejandro6900 Perhaps you're right, I don't know, but thank you for the information. To be honest I no longer use rss feeds as I struggle to keep up with my emails, lol. I've never found an email client lacking in this department, for my needs. I tend to use an email client as just that, I'm not a fan of the bundled extra functionality, preferring web-apps for things such as my calendar, but I understand this works better for personal rather than corporate users. Thanks again for the reply.
IMO Thunderbird still feels "old". Like yes this is an improvement, but with Mailspring being free, open source and available on all platforms (now on AppleSillicon as well). The sync engine and the features it offers + great modern UI is just unbeatable for me. But the calendar in Thunderbird is a ver nice to have feature as well.
You need an account with them, thread sharing involves sending your email data to them, cloud syncing involves them sharing access credentials to your email. I'll stick with thunderbird.
I've only recently dove into the RSS functionality of Thunderbird and that alone has made it a must have app. The calendar notifications are super handy too. Now if only Fedora would update their repos.
Around a decade ago, I switched away from thunderbird to Seamonkey for email on PC, and Bluemail for my phone. Why Seamonkey? It worked, that's why. But this is looking way better than I remember it. I may come back. I think the reason i switched away in the first place was I was told they were stopping development. Obviously they didn't. Meanwhile seamonkey was still getting updates.
@@Tall_Order It is a feature that I also find very useful, especially when it will default to the "Unified Inbox" on start-up unlike many other email clients. The support team respond very quickly to any issues and are keen to resolve. While I miss the convenience of the database of Outlook to organise and store my emails (using a POP3 connection), in many ways I find BlueMail a better alternative to what is the Holy Grail of email clients (IMHO).
Good review, thanks. I wasn't aware that v102 had been released and required a manual update. Also agree that the vertical layout works better. The OWL extension for Office365 server integration has been very handy for work - well worth the $15 fee.
Same, didn't know there was a new 102, but I love the new UI. The new colors definitely bring life to the app. Too bad that it costs money for the OWL extension, I wish there was a lifetime subscription tho
Thunderbird is a workhorse. It's not fancy but its designed to allow you to do a ton of work quickly and efficiently. It's essentially the John Deere of Email Programs.
Timely video. I just updated Linux Mint to the latest ver 21 and decided to try Thunder-Chicken as we called it years ago. But, you are right, it’s much improved. Also, the Linux software manager installed ver 91.11.0. After seeing your video, I downloaded the latest from the site and that ver is 102.1.2. Also, to replicate a configuration on another pc, I just copied the .thunderbird folder from the home folder to 2nd. Then installed T-bird and it started up fully configured.
How's your Mint 21 working? Mine seems to freeze for a few seconds occasionally. To upgrade Thunderbird you have to reinstall? Don't see an easy upgrade option.
@@GeorgeStar I have Mint 21 running so far on 5 PCs; 3 are different HP tablets (8 GB mem, nvme drives), 2 PCs I built with Intel i7 ; one with the absolute latest hardware that only works 100% now with Mint 21. Minor issues in upgrading from 20.3 (manual delete and reinstall and keyring deprication was tricky). I had been using Mailspring for email but each update brought more bugs, so I switched back to T-bird. So far I have done ONLY the T-bird install using the software manager that has ver 91.11.0. So T-bird was a FRESH install for me.
I use Betterbird when I need to use GPG, and Mailspring when I don't. Otherwise, the Thunderbird UI is just too painful for words. Buttons on different rows, one row with "filter" and the other with "search" (and what's the difference?). And then finding the magic three lines maybe an inch below the titlebar and an inch in from the RIGHT side of the screen that contains the hidden menu. And for the name of all that's holy, why are we still limited to a single line of preview with the subject and author of the email in the message list?? Fortunately, with b102 they've finally moved the buttons for the calendar and contact list off to the far left as a vertical button bar. Unfortunately, MacOS came up with the right recipe almost 20 years ago. Stop trying to jam your calendar and contact list into the email client. Three separate applications doing three separate jobs. Each app is light doing exactly what it needs to do. I very much want them to clean the UI up and go back to being the preferred client for Linux. Features? Oh, yeah. By far the most feature complete. So far, they're the only email client I've found that works correctly with GPG keys on smartcards. They've just fallen too far behind in the UI unless I really have to do something that's really REQUIRES Thunderbird.
Its commercial, but PostBox is worth a look too. Its based off an older code fork of Thunderbird and is developed by some ex Mozilla engineers. Licensing is very reasonable.
I have used PostBox in the past but stopped after version 5. Sadly PostBox being a fork ist just as unusable on retina displays. Until version 5 you could use some configuration file magic to up the GUI font sizes but from version 6 onwards that wasn't possible any more.
Your video motivated me to have another look. But I still can't use Thunderbird. I have a 5K, 220dpi display and every, absolutely every, GUI component is to small. In that respect Thunderbird is still stuck in 2003 and it's, by current standards, low resolution monitors. But then all of Linux is is still stuck in the 72 and 96dpi era.
@@df3yt indeed. You have to force higher dpi in a configuration file. Which was the reason i moved away from Linux: I spend to much time tweaking configuration files and not enough time with productive work.
@@df3yt true. Modern Linux applications do a pretty good job at scaling. Just don't ever start XTerm. As such it's not a Linux achievement but a KDE or GNOME achievement.
2 things that i hope get addressed in your UI & Code overhaul 1: Why can't we just drag and drop the email view on the bottom to the right side? That's way more intuitive than going in 2 submenues. 2: Why do the quickmenu icons on the left side *also* open tabs? That's redundant, those menues are then 'open' in two places at the same time. it clutters up the tab-list, sliding in between important emails. Making it hard to navigate around, or requiring one additional click to close the tabs again.
Indexing when mails are downloaded on already large mailboxes still takes an insane amount of CPU and often looks like it makes the main thread wait... so there's still a lot of room for improvement next to which the GUI may be a nice touch, but not a fundamental one.
I remember when they changed the way the CC line works, no end of frustration until pressing return did the job. Too much of this 'modern' look involves hiding the controls. If I wanted things hidden I would have stuck to the command line.
I stopped using TB like... 8 years ago, and switched to closed sourced, paid, em Client. Why? Because I have 10+ email adresses, each with *thousands* emails. Also some Exchange/Office 365 emails, and multiple calendars. The problem with TB, at the time, was that all the emails were stored in a single file. Is that still the case nowadays? There is a huge file per mailbox, which would take multiple gigs of space. How is that a problem you may ask? The issue is that adding a new email becomes exponentionally slow, since the entire file needs to be re-created. Same with deleting, moving, an email, etc. So, in my experience TB used to work for small inboxes, but not with millions of emails. Then TB starts to freeze and to trash your disk. That was 8 years ago, I'm willing to come back. Meanwhile I tried Evolution on Linux, and this client supports my use case without problem.... except for the shit UI and bugs. So... has the INTERNALS of TB changed? Last time I checked their source repo, people mentioned the same design flaw I suffured from, and the devs said they'd never change this. So, almost a decade later, has the working design of TB changed? Can it support millions of emails? If not a new layer of paint ain't gonna change a shitty design.
The only thing that matters is how well and easy does it connect to Exchange server, as its always a PITA even if you use outlook, especially for company self hosted servers
It's like a good dress, tight where it needs to be tight, and loose where it needs to be loose. All the other email clients with so called good looks are the opposite. Empty space around buttons etc. And not enough space for you to read emails. Everything cut short, and emails where you also need to scroll sideways. Each to their own, but emailing needs to be practical.
One time I sent an email with Thunderbird and I was notified that the formatting, especially the table, are all broken. I'll wait until at least the Sync update for me to try it again, because that wasn't fun.
I wish they made normal paddings a new default, but they still stick to their 2003 guns, ugh. And still no common Inbox for my multiple accounts. Tinkering it is then?
So, Thunderbird is still a gawd-awful email client that does all sorts of stuff but in a way that is pretty much incompatible with anything else. I'm not sure Outlook users will appreciate any of the changes because it will only be the unwise Outlook user that would end up using Thunderbird. For Outlook users there are far better options out there to which they might migrate should they fancy a change or be moving to Linux. I share your desire to move to the vertical list, but in 2022 and they still haven't got it on more than one line, taking up half the screen...even with wide screens these days it is woeful. Thanks for the clear concise presentation, but I think you may have a click on your microphone or the processing of your audio.
I've had loads of clients that scrapped outlook in favour on Thunderbird. Main reasons being performance, stability and less corruption. Basically functionality over form.
@@df3yt It's each to their own, but I only have a low powered PC running Windows 10 and Outlook 2010 and have experienced none of the problems you mention. Come to think of it, I haven't had those issues in any version since launch. I do understand that while the Linux community have historically favoured Thunderbird, it hasn't been without issues and the developers haven't been quick to resolve said issues or improve functionality. That's sort of why this video is celebrating the release of the latest version. You report many of your clients using Thunderbird, but in all my years (and there's lots) of working in IT I have never witnessed a corporate or personal user, so I guess our clients/co-workers/friends move in different circles. It is "each to their own", but I'm not aware of anything that Thunderbird does as an email client that hasn't been previously implemented on other more pleasing (to me anyway) products.
@@watsoft70 Agreed - The type of common issues we encounter stability wise are pst limits and corruption. By design I prefer TB's storage system. Most clients like TB's speed when you have tonns of email - compared to Outlook. A couple months ago over 80 pc retail stores moved all their email over to TB from Outlook and most of them are privately owned. Apart from looks it's been nothing but complements when they compared their experience. So I think for many the issue is they aren't aware of anything outside of gmail and outlook.
I'm using it as my personal email client for many years. Outlook doesn't look that great to me either, hardly intuitive, I use it daily for work. Thunderbird is simpler but still plenty capable for my needs though I must admit I don't use email all that much anymore. I've got K9 on my tablet which is similar in the dated looks department, but plenty functional. I use thunderbird mainly for archiving email. Is there an official dark theme? I've tried many themes but few look good.
I have to give Thunderbirb devs massive credit for making a FOSS email client that *just works* with all my email accounts, more so than any other app I have tried. My one problem with it is that the interface is very dense and busy, even when you adjust the density it doesn't really help much. I really wish they would make it look like every other contemporary email client that has a nice tall preview of each email so only a handful fit onto the screen vertically. It looks much better and actually reduces my stress levels as I don't have to look at 40 unread emails at once. Please devs, add an option for this layout. Other than that, it's a fantastic app.
@@wayland7150 just one line is enough. if you put the sender on one line, subject on a new line and a preview of the message body on a third line, it looks nice and relaxed. Mailspring has implemented this layout really nicely, but I have various reasons for preferring Thunderbird from a functional perspective.
@@walking_on_earth True but tricky if you're used to the visual layout showing you. In recent years we've moved away from everything that can be done being visible on the screen to things only showing up if you know where to move the mouse. I'm not against hidden functionality like shortcut keys but you should be able to see what a graphical user interface is offering simply by looking at it. People have a lot of trouble with the right mouse click menus. I expect this is why Apple only have one button.
@@wayland7150 fair enough that seeing many recent emails may be preferable from an accessibility standpoint. In an ideal world the layout I described would be another option.
Problem: When using the consolidated unified view, the spam shows displays in the inbox even though it is in the spam sub folder. They are marked as spam, yes, but whole point of filtering spam is to have them NOT be mixed in with your good emails.
For 20 years now I've kept one monitor in portrait and one in landscape... the email client goes in the portrait one, for obvious reasons... and I code in landscape, for I don't know why (comments I guess).
Some useful tips - I have a suggestion - why not post a video on how to set up mailing lists to email everyone in a contact list - its not obvious how this is done.
My problem with Thunderbird is that it will show an email multiple times in the list and when you delete one, the others remain and can't be viewed or deleted. Restarting Thunderbird will make them disappear. I just upgraded to the latest version and the problem remains. I've been using emClient because other than Thunderbird, it's the only other client that I've found that has a password to open the client.
I've been using Thunderbird for years now, but the other day all my sub-folders just disappeared and haven't come back. Can't figure out what the problem is.
I quite like the default mail app on Windows 10/11, however as Microsoft is forcing us to migrate to "New" Outlook, which is a clunky mess with intrusive adds disguised as emails, I am looking for an alternative desktop email app, as email should never live in the browser, and Thunderbird seems like it's probably the best alternative that's out there.
It has a great dark theme that matches nicely with Fluent dark theme, my favorite theme. I've hidden the sidebar and the title bar (English grammar is weird. Sidebar is one word, but title bar is two!??) and enabled the calendar. I use it with Outlook account, so I have all my mail from there. I wish Firefox still had the Thunderbird look. Not a big fan of the floating tabs on Firefox. I know you can change it, but Mozilla should have left the option in in about:config.
I tried using Thunderbird and that's when I actually realized how good Gmail handles mails. Mails need to be categorized. I don't want to see 40 twitter and 58 quora digest emails on my front screen. But they aren't spam mails either, so I can't mark it as spam. Categorization of mails like Gmail or even Mail on Windows goes a long way.
That's why rules exist. This gmail categorization has only been in existence for the past few years. Gmail was a pain before this feature. But in email clients such as Outlook and Thunderbird there is an option to create rules ourselves so that we can filter out unnecessary emails.
Features and stuff is really great but I still think it looks like it comes from 2003. Which is fine if it's a LOB app that services a specific one case use function but there are so many other email alternatives that look so much better. Even Outlook looks better but of course it's not FOS which for many is a must. Personally, I've switched to webmail, just find it way more reliable and useful.
I have a question please its driving me crazy I have an email address from a service provider which I use Thunderbird to open read send etc: which is all I want thunderbird for nothing else. The problem is if I'm in Gmail and want to save an email it saves it as thunderbird format, plus if I want to respond to a link I might get in a Gmail email when I click respond it opens in the Thunderbird program. It's like Thunderbird is the default program. How the hell do I stop it, please.
Sadly though ... it still doesn’t handle exchange servers well on the calendar so I need to wait tbsync and exchange addons to be updated ... whenever the developer gets a minute or two ...
Calendar is pretty much the only reason you'd chose to put your company on an Exchange server. That whole thing went wrong when they decided to kill Lotus Notes. That functionality has been missing from the world for 20 years, you'd think by now someone would have launched a new product that could so all that.
I just don’t get why they use tabs. Having the quick access buttons in the left for calendar, contacts, etc. is great, but why open extra tabs at the top? . If I open settings, I like it to be a floating window, having all that in tabs gives me a messy feeling. I tried BlueMail a few days ago and loving it so far.
Which version you are using? Because the one I have and is displayed on their website isn't looking like yours. Your is looking really great... Mine? on WIndows 11 ? No.... Please share with me this magic you have done...
Doesn't look terrible but qt interfaces always end up looking too messy and cluttered in such complex apps imo, would be cool if there was a gtk client for it to look the part on gtk desktops like gnome and cinnamon
@@xperience-evolution since the majority of a free and open source email client in Linux sucks.. Mainly use the web page of whatever email i am checking
You skipped one of the most important additions (already available in the last version). Without an extension, Tbird will sync you google contacts, so you don't need so "suck" information in and out anymore.
At a time when the cloud predominates, I don't understand why there isn't the possibility of natively synchronizing contacts, calendar and tasks with the most popular services, like outlook, gmail and others! can anyone use a mail tool without contacts or calendar?
I wonder why people are so much concerned about things looking old fashioned? Like would someone prefer to use services just because they look latest and modern?
Admittedly, my email needs are no longer what they once were but for the 2-3 years that I've been discovering/exploring Linux, I've almost resented the fact that Thundebird is always a default choice (along with LibreOffice, which is NOT as Microsoft compatible as other options) and the first thing I've always done with a new install is remove Thunderbird and install Geary.
@@happygofishing Thanks...but I really have no idea what such files are for or where or why I would want to mess with them. Email today should be "plug and play."
@@xqqqme the dumbing down of computing has been a disaster for the human race. just sign in with google , facebook, and other big techies. never actually think or learn how it works, just consume more products!
Maybe not from 2003 but from 2015?
Yet. But they are not stopping. 114 next year brings not just further features and feature improvements but huge UI overhaul as well.
Nah, it's still in the 2010s
Which is better than the 2022 material you ui oversized buttons and dull pastel colors
@@roberttranceedm Well 114 bring us a responsive GUI so that Thunderbird becomes usable on retina displays?
@@therealb888 I would love some larger GUI elements.
I don't care if a version of a software was from 20 ish years ago as long as it's stable, secure, and just works... period
Agreed. I rather see an "update" resolve some issue rather that give me fluff I : Didnt ask, dont want, go away and take NO for an answer!
@@mingiasi I couldn't agree more.
Some of these software devs just refuse to get such a common sense point
As far as email clients go, I've always preferred Thunderbird and I'm glad they got a facelift and some needed under-the-hood improvements.
That said, I've just switched entirely to webmail for my own purposes (except on my phone, of course). Because no matter where I am or whose computer I'm using, it is always a consistent experience.
Hello another David G 😂
Could you tell us which webmail are you currently using? Having to help out small enterprises and I'm really tired of roundcube
It's absolutley a much needed improvement and certainly looks better, but it still looks old fashioned. Especially noticeable when you try to create an html email signature.
I'm glad they're still updating this, but in my opinion, there's still a long way to go to make it look like a modern application.
I really wanted to start using thunderbird but i had trouble understanding emails quick enough due to its old-ish look, i still couldn't find a decent windows + linux alternative to replace it that makes me feel like i'm in 2022 tho... the search continues :D
use a theme I suppose
@@TortelliniSRL what about mailspring?
You need to follow their news on Twitter and development road map laid out for even next year to. 114 will be a huge UI overhaul too.
@@ardishco is there an unofficial themes store? Because in the official one 98% of themes look like they came straight up from 2004
I am super happy with Thunderbird, since 2 years ago I took it back to configure emails I never went back, tried Outlook and Mailspring as well but still Thunderbird is the best IMO
I really like the aesthetics of the “new experience” look of Outlook on Mac, but the usability is absolutely horrendous (as is every MS product on Mac).
Definitely going to take a look at Thunderbird now, given the UI update
and LOV111VOL email client?
I have been using Thunderbird since the beginning , I actually have always prefered the old school as you all consider dated intereface....it's always been stable, simple and have everything i needed...... not once has the program ever crashed on me! so glad they are still supporting it and hope they don't change the intereface to drastically in future updates.
Agreed, change is not always good, more often it isn't. Windows 10 is a little better than XP, but everything in between was horrible. Quit screwing around....
something's headed your way. You might want to look at the beta versions of TB, as this might break your deal. Admittedly, I don't know enough about it, though.
@@giroheadWindows 7 was the best version of Windows.
Most things I needed extension for have now been added to default Thunderbird, which means you no longer have to use older versions. Wow that took about 6 years. Glad to be keeping Thunderbird after all.
Thunderbird is my go to. Super clean and easy to use.
Been using it for 25 years, clean, not bloated and keep my emails on another drive to easily copy a backup. 6 profiles and may email accounts
I actually like how thunderbird looked like, haven't really tested the new 102 version though
Thunderbird has been my main email client for 10-15 years, I'd be lost without it. I use BlueMail on my android devices. With Gmail account set to imap everything sinks perfectly and even better, it's all free!
Thank you for this video. I've been using Thunderbird and addons for yonks. When the company changed to Exchange email, I tried Outlook but settled for Thunderbird plus the Owl addon. Thunderbird's email search feature (both the quick and the more advanced) are superior. The problem is that Thunderbird changed something over time which means that some of the really useful addons (e.g. Attachment Extactor, Mail Summaries) no longer work and development isn't continuing. The solution has been to have separate installation of an old version (68.9) in which the addons still work when they are needed.
Yes, indeed, thunderbird is really great, also another point worth mentioning is that handles rss better than any other rss client, so you basically can have everything you need for your office workflow almost right there.
What is it that that Thunderbird does better with rss than other clients? I'm only asking because I've never had issue in any that support it.
@@watsoft70 you can easily group feeds built in browser that you can add ublock or any other addon you want, plus the email feat, basically I handle, emails, news, browser, calendar, youtube subcriptions, all in one program. and cant save and export all settings and data anywhere. But, that's just an opinion. maybe I'm wrong.
@@arielalejandro6900 Perhaps you're right, I don't know, but thank you for the information. To be honest I no longer use rss feeds as I struggle to keep up with my emails, lol. I've never found an email client lacking in this department, for my needs. I tend to use an email client as just that, I'm not a fan of the bundled extra functionality, preferring web-apps for things such as my calendar, but I understand this works better for personal rather than corporate users. Thanks again for the reply.
IMO Thunderbird still feels "old". Like yes this is an improvement, but with Mailspring being free, open source and available on all platforms (now on AppleSillicon as well). The sync engine and the features it offers + great modern UI is just unbeatable for me. But the calendar in Thunderbird is a ver nice to have feature as well.
Thanks go the tip, I hadn't heard about Mailspring before!
Agreed. Mailspring is waaaaaaay better than Thunderbird.
You need an account with them, thread sharing involves sending your email data to them, cloud syncing involves them sharing access credentials to your email.
I'll stick with thunderbird.
I've only recently dove into the RSS functionality of Thunderbird and that alone has made it a must have app. The calendar notifications are super handy too. Now if only Fedora would update their repos.
Around a decade ago, I switched away from thunderbird to Seamonkey for email on PC, and Bluemail for my phone. Why Seamonkey? It worked, that's why. But this is looking way better than I remember it. I may come back. I think the reason i switched away in the first place was I was told they were stopping development. Obviously they didn't. Meanwhile seamonkey was still getting updates.
I find BlueMail the best IMAP email client on Android, Windows and Linux.
@@watsoft70 Me too. I've tried several apps. BlueMail is the only one I kept. I like it's combined inbox feature since I have several email addresses.
@@Tall_Order It is a feature that I also find very useful, especially when it will default to the "Unified Inbox" on start-up unlike many other email clients. The support team respond very quickly to any issues and are keen to resolve. While I miss the convenience of the database of Outlook to organise and store my emails (using a POP3 connection), in many ways I find BlueMail a better alternative to what is the Holy Grail of email clients (IMHO).
that was exactly what I needed , thank you so much
It never mattered what it looked like because it was so god darn good especially by doing so many things anyway but it's still looks great now.
Impeccable work as always
Good review, thanks. I wasn't aware that v102 had been released and required a manual update. Also agree that the vertical layout works better. The OWL extension for Office365 server integration has been very handy for work - well worth the $15 fee.
Same, didn't know there was a new 102, but I love the new UI. The new colors definitely bring life to the app. Too bad that it costs money for the OWL extension, I wish there was a lifetime subscription tho
Thunderbird is a workhorse. It's not fancy but its designed to allow you to do a ton of work quickly and efficiently. It's essentially the John Deere of Email Programs.
Inversely John Deere has earned the reputation of actually fighting against owners fixing their own equipment.
Not quickly and efficiently AT ALL
@@mrt.1903 how
Timely video. I just updated Linux Mint to the latest ver 21 and decided to try Thunder-Chicken as we called it years ago. But, you are right, it’s much improved.
Also, the Linux software manager installed ver 91.11.0. After seeing your video, I downloaded the latest from the site and that ver is 102.1.2.
Also, to replicate a configuration on another pc, I just copied the .thunderbird folder from the home folder to 2nd. Then installed T-bird and it started up fully configured.
How's your Mint 21 working? Mine seems to freeze for a few seconds occasionally. To upgrade Thunderbird you have to reinstall? Don't see an easy upgrade option.
@@GeorgeStar I have Mint 21 running so far on 5 PCs; 3 are different HP tablets (8 GB mem, nvme drives), 2 PCs I built with Intel i7 ; one with the absolute latest hardware that only works 100% now with Mint 21. Minor issues in upgrading from 20.3 (manual delete and reinstall and keyring deprication was tricky). I had been using Mailspring for email but each update brought more bugs, so I switched back to T-bird. So far I have done ONLY the T-bird install using the software manager that has ver 91.11.0. So T-bird was a FRESH install for me.
Nice to see you again at making content more occasionally:-)
On Linux, Evolution is what I use for Mail. K-9 Mail on Android and on Windows I play or work, so mails only in the browser, if needed.
I have used Thunderbird since it was in the late stage of beta, it now looks and works so much better.
I'm gonna install Thunderbird and give it a try tonight. I used to use it lots 10-15 years ago.
Thanks for that vertical view trick! 🙌
Agreed!
I use Betterbird when I need to use GPG, and Mailspring when I don't. Otherwise, the Thunderbird UI is just too painful for words. Buttons on different rows, one row with "filter" and the other with "search" (and what's the difference?). And then finding the magic three lines maybe an inch below the titlebar and an inch in from the RIGHT side of the screen that contains the hidden menu. And for the name of all that's holy, why are we still limited to a single line of preview with the subject and author of the email in the message list?? Fortunately, with b102 they've finally moved the buttons for the calendar and contact list off to the far left as a vertical button bar. Unfortunately, MacOS came up with the right recipe almost 20 years ago. Stop trying to jam your calendar and contact list into the email client. Three separate applications doing three separate jobs. Each app is light doing exactly what it needs to do.
I very much want them to clean the UI up and go back to being the preferred client for Linux. Features? Oh, yeah. By far the most feature complete. So far, they're the only email client I've found that works correctly with GPG keys on smartcards. They've just fallen too far behind in the UI unless I really have to do something that's really REQUIRES Thunderbird.
Imo by far my biggest pain point is the table where i would like a multiline per mail list...
Loaded it up recently. This is a much nicer Thunderbird and I think I can switch over full time.
This is so reassuring - I had worried Thunderbird’s UI had stagnated.
I was more worried they ended development. I remember hearing that once. So I switched away from it. But I guess that was just a rumor.
Pretty folder colors. Just what I really wanted.
Thanks for the be review and pointing out some things that I had missed. God bless 🤓
Maybe some day we will get multiple line email lists like outlook, so that vertical view finally serves its purpose.
You could write that as an extension.
Its commercial, but PostBox is worth a look too. Its based off an older code fork of Thunderbird and is developed by some ex Mozilla engineers. Licensing is very reasonable.
I have used PostBox in the past but stopped after version 5. Sadly PostBox being a fork ist just as unusable on retina displays. Until version 5 you could use some configuration file magic to up the GUI font sizes but from version 6 onwards that wasn't possible any more.
I'm afraid the search feature is still a mess. That's the main reason I stopped using it...
Nice overview.
Your video motivated me to have another look. But I still can't use Thunderbird. I have a 5K, 220dpi display and every, absolutely every, GUI component is to small. In that respect Thunderbird is still stuck in 2003 and it's, by current standards, low resolution monitors. But then all of Linux is is still stuck in the 72 and 96dpi era.
I use TB on Linux and GUI scales crisp and fine. On Windows I have loads of proprietary apps that still don't scale well
But I don't use Wayland or gnome, on KDE I don't use global scale either. I force font DPI and things look good. Except for 5.25+ Panels sucks.
@@df3yt indeed. You have to force higher dpi in a configuration file.
Which was the reason i moved away from Linux: I spend to much time tweaking configuration files and not enough time with productive work.
@@df3yt true. Modern Linux applications do a pretty good job at scaling. Just don't ever start XTerm.
As such it's not a Linux achievement but a KDE or GNOME achievement.
2 things that i hope get addressed in your UI & Code overhaul
1: Why can't we just drag and drop the email view on the bottom to the right side? That's way more intuitive than going in 2 submenues.
2: Why do the quickmenu icons on the left side *also* open tabs? That's redundant, those menues are then 'open' in two places at the same time.
it clutters up the tab-list, sliding in between important emails. Making it hard to navigate around, or requiring one additional click to close the tabs again.
Agreed
Indexing when mails are downloaded on already large mailboxes still takes an insane amount of CPU and often looks like it makes the main thread wait... so there's still a lot of room for improvement next to which the GUI may be a nice touch, but not a fundamental one.
i find outlook much more streamlined and manageable. thunderbird is trying to be everything to everyone and its become a bit of a mess honestly.
Microsoft spyware
I love Thunderbird because I can back up my email, and I can write programs to search and process certain emails.
Majority of Thunderbird users are people who are “set in their ways”, just like me. So big UI changes are not always appreciated.
I remember when they changed the way the CC line works, no end of frustration until pressing return did the job. Too much of this 'modern' look involves hiding the controls. If I wanted things hidden I would have stuck to the command line.
v68 forever (and v27 to import from Outlook). TB got worse over the years. Using it since 2003.
Now, Thunderbird no longer looks like a program from 2003, but like a program from 2010.
Considering the downward spiral into the drain user interfaces are taking I'd say they are doing well to slow the decent.
I stopped using TB like... 8 years ago, and switched to closed sourced, paid, em Client.
Why?
Because I have 10+ email adresses, each with *thousands* emails. Also some Exchange/Office 365 emails, and multiple calendars.
The problem with TB, at the time, was that all the emails were stored in a single file.
Is that still the case nowadays?
There is a huge file per mailbox, which would take multiple gigs of space.
How is that a problem you may ask? The issue is that adding a new email becomes exponentionally slow, since the entire file needs to be re-created. Same with deleting, moving, an email, etc.
So, in my experience TB used to work for small inboxes, but not with millions of emails. Then TB starts to freeze and to trash your disk.
That was 8 years ago, I'm willing to come back.
Meanwhile I tried Evolution on Linux, and this client supports my use case without problem.... except for the shit UI and bugs.
So... has the INTERNALS of TB changed?
Last time I checked their source repo, people mentioned the same design flaw I suffured from, and the devs said they'd never change this. So, almost a decade later, has the working design of TB changed? Can it support millions of emails?
If not a new layer of paint ain't gonna change a shitty design.
I see you are a man of culture as well
this light theme killed my eyes man !
The only thing that matters is how well and easy does it connect to Exchange server, as its always a PITA even if you use outlook, especially for company self hosted servers
It's like a good dress, tight where it needs to be tight, and loose where it needs to be loose. All the other email clients with so called good looks are the opposite. Empty space around buttons etc. And not enough space for you to read emails. Everything cut short, and emails where you also need to scroll sideways. Each to their own, but emailing needs to be practical.
I've been using Thunderbird for many years..... 👍🏻
When an application tried to please people that aren't its users, they're just pushing away existing users.
Thunderbird is my favourite.
One time I sent an email with Thunderbird and I was notified that the formatting, especially the table, are all broken. I'll wait until at least the Sync update for me to try it again, because that wasn't fun.
I wish they made normal paddings a new default, but they still stick to their 2003 guns, ugh. And still no common Inbox for my multiple accounts. Tinkering it is then?
So, Thunderbird is still a gawd-awful email client that does all sorts of stuff but in a way that is pretty much incompatible with anything else. I'm not sure Outlook users will appreciate any of the changes because it will only be the unwise Outlook user that would end up using Thunderbird. For Outlook users there are far better options out there to which they might migrate should they fancy a change or be moving to Linux. I share your desire to move to the vertical list, but in 2022 and they still haven't got it on more than one line, taking up half the screen...even with wide screens these days it is woeful.
Thanks for the clear concise presentation, but I think you may have a click on your microphone or the processing of your audio.
I've had loads of clients that scrapped outlook in favour on Thunderbird. Main reasons being performance, stability and less corruption. Basically functionality over form.
@@df3yt It's each to their own, but I only have a low powered PC running Windows 10 and Outlook 2010 and have experienced none of the problems you mention. Come to think of it, I haven't had those issues in any version since launch. I do understand that while the Linux community have historically favoured Thunderbird, it hasn't been without issues and the developers haven't been quick to resolve said issues or improve functionality. That's sort of why this video is celebrating the release of the latest version.
You report many of your clients using Thunderbird, but in all my years (and there's lots) of working in IT I have never witnessed a corporate or personal user, so I guess our clients/co-workers/friends move in different circles.
It is "each to their own", but I'm not aware of anything that Thunderbird does as an email client that hasn't been previously implemented on other more pleasing (to me anyway) products.
@@watsoft70 Agreed - The type of common issues we encounter stability wise are pst limits and corruption. By design I prefer TB's storage system. Most clients like TB's speed when you have tonns of email - compared to Outlook. A couple months ago over 80 pc retail stores moved all their email over to TB from Outlook and most of them are privately owned. Apart from looks it's been nothing but complements when they compared their experience. So I think for many the issue is they aren't aware of anything outside of gmail and outlook.
I'm using it as my personal email client for many years. Outlook doesn't look that great to me either, hardly intuitive, I use it daily for work. Thunderbird is simpler but still plenty capable for my needs though I must admit I don't use email all that much anymore. I've got K9 on my tablet which is similar in the dated looks department, but plenty functional. I use thunderbird mainly for archiving email. Is there an official dark theme? I've tried many themes but few look good.
I have to give Thunderbirb devs massive credit for making a FOSS email client that *just works* with all my email accounts, more so than any other app I have tried. My one problem with it is that the interface is very dense and busy, even when you adjust the density it doesn't really help much. I really wish they would make it look like every other contemporary email client that has a nice tall preview of each email so only a handful fit onto the screen vertically. It looks much better and actually reduces my stress levels as I don't have to look at 40 unread emails at once. Please devs, add an option for this layout. Other than that, it's a fantastic app.
You means a few lines of the email under the subject line?
@@wayland7150 just one line is enough. if you put the sender on one line, subject on a new line and a preview of the message body on a third line, it looks nice and relaxed. Mailspring has implemented this layout really nicely, but I have various reasons for preferring Thunderbird from a functional perspective.
@@walking_on_earth True but tricky if you're used to the visual layout showing you. In recent years we've moved away from everything that can be done being visible on the screen to things only showing up if you know where to move the mouse. I'm not against hidden functionality like shortcut keys but you should be able to see what a graphical user interface is offering simply by looking at it. People have a lot of trouble with the right mouse click menus. I expect this is why Apple only have one button.
@@wayland7150 fair enough that seeing many recent emails may be preferable from an accessibility standpoint. In an ideal world the layout I described would be another option.
Problem: When using the consolidated unified view, the spam shows displays in the inbox even though it is in the spam sub folder. They are marked as spam, yes, but whole point of filtering spam is to have them NOT be mixed in with your good emails.
For 20 years now I've kept one monitor in portrait and one in landscape... the email client goes in the portrait one, for obvious reasons... and I code in landscape, for I don't know why (comments I guess).
Some useful tips - I have a suggestion - why not post a video on how to set up mailing lists to email everyone in a contact list - its not obvious how this is done.
Great video, thanks !
My problem with Thunderbird is that it will show an email multiple times in the list and when you delete one, the others remain and can't be viewed or deleted. Restarting Thunderbird will make them disappear. I just upgraded to the latest version and the problem remains. I've been using emClient because other than Thunderbird, it's the only other client that I've found that has a password to open the client.
I've been using Thunderbird for years now, but the other day all my sub-folders just disappeared and haven't come back. Can't figure out what the problem is.
I quite like the default mail app on Windows 10/11, however as Microsoft is forcing us to migrate to "New" Outlook, which is a clunky mess with intrusive adds disguised as emails, I am looking for an alternative desktop email app, as email should never live in the browser, and Thunderbird seems like it's probably the best alternative that's out there.
It has a great dark theme that matches nicely with Fluent dark theme, my favorite theme. I've hidden the sidebar and the title bar (English grammar is weird. Sidebar is one word, but title bar is two!??) and enabled the calendar. I use it with Outlook account, so I have all my mail from there. I wish Firefox still had the Thunderbird look. Not a big fan of the floating tabs on Firefox. I know you can change it, but Mozilla should have left the option in in about:config.
Now that it has a calendar built in, can it do natural language recognition to create events based on text in the email? I really wish it did.
I tried using Thunderbird and that's when I actually realized how good Gmail handles mails. Mails need to be categorized. I don't want to see 40 twitter and 58 quora digest emails on my front screen. But they aren't spam mails either, so I can't mark it as spam. Categorization of mails like Gmail or even Mail on Windows goes a long way.
subscribing to too many emails? sounds like a you problem
That's why rules exist. This gmail categorization has only been in existence for the past few years. Gmail was a pain before this feature. But in email clients such as Outlook and Thunderbird there is an option to create rules ourselves so that we can filter out unnecessary emails.
Features and stuff is really great but I still think it looks like it comes from 2003. Which is fine if it's a LOB app that services a specific one case use function but there are so many other email alternatives that look so much better. Even Outlook looks better but of course it's not FOS which for many is a must. Personally, I've switched to webmail, just find it way more reliable and useful.
Where can I find the great Linux Mint blue wallpaper from the beginning of your video? Thanks much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you - I almost threw it out the window. :)
But does it store tour emails on a computer? In example, in case of a Mac? Or do all email clients store the email on device?
And? Does it work again with Google Agenda and Google Address Book? The breakage of those two drove me to using Gmail in my browser, which I hate.
I have a question please its driving me crazy I have an email address from a service provider which I use Thunderbird to open read send etc: which is all I want thunderbird for nothing else. The problem is if I'm in Gmail and want to save an email it saves it as thunderbird format, plus if I want to respond to a link I might get in a Gmail email when I click respond it opens in the Thunderbird program. It's like Thunderbird is the default program. How the hell do I stop it, please.
Question: It looks like Thunderbird has Bayesian span filtering now. How well does that work for you?
Send Later - magnificent.
Yes!! Thunderbird 2005 is here
what's that pomodoro widget on your taskbar called?
Thunderbird has been great for the past 10+ years I've been using it, but the search function has always been the worst and still is.
but thunderbird still always not responding when open 'archive email' with 20.000+ email messages
I was somewhat hoping for a video about the Gerry Anderson series :/
Sadly though ... it still doesn’t handle exchange servers well on the calendar so I need to wait tbsync and exchange addons to be updated ... whenever the developer gets a minute or two ...
Calendar is pretty much the only reason you'd chose to put your company on an Exchange server. That whole thing went wrong when they decided to kill Lotus Notes. That functionality has been missing from the world for 20 years, you'd think by now someone would have launched a new product that could so all that.
I just don’t get why they use tabs. Having the quick access buttons in the left for calendar, contacts, etc. is great, but why open extra tabs at the top? . If I open settings, I like it to be a floating window, having all that in tabs gives me a messy feeling. I tried BlueMail a few days ago and loving it so far.
Which version you are using?
Because the one I have and is displayed on their website isn't looking like yours.
Your is looking really great...
Mine? on WIndows 11 ? No....
Please share with me this magic you have done...
Doesn't look terrible but qt interfaces always end up looking too messy and cluttered in such complex apps imo, would be cool if there was a gtk client for it to look the part on gtk desktops like gnome and cinnamon
What are you talking about? Thunderbird is GTK based.
My eyesss. Is there a dark theme?
It is getting a lot better on the ui front..
But still the 90s called and they want their UI back...
I just can't use Thunderbird it's ugly as sin...
What do you use instead?
@@xperience-evolution since the majority of a free and open source email client in Linux sucks..
Mainly use the web page of whatever email i am checking
I use it whenever I accsess my emai on my computer, I just don't usually see my email on my computer
They should take UI inspiration from BlueMail
No, BlueMail users should keep using BlueMail and we'll keep using our ThunderBird as it is, thank you
great to see it
Why is the flatpak and the arch repo still at 91.12?
how do you even use it with gmail these days? It simply doesnt log in anymore with oauth2
Mike, you da bomb.
You skipped one of the most important additions (already available in the last version). Without an extension, Tbird will sync you google contacts, so you don't need so "suck" information in and out anymore.
Sure it is. Don't you know how the threaded view "works" in TB?
Thanks so much
Did they fix GMAIL yet because last i used TB it failed to load anything switched to better bird for fixes they refuse to work on.
At a time when the cloud predominates, I don't understand why there isn't the possibility of natively synchronizing contacts, calendar and tasks with the most popular services, like outlook, gmail and others! can anyone use a mail tool without contacts or calendar?
still no running in background on startup?
I wonder why people are so much concerned about things looking old fashioned? Like would someone prefer to use services just because they look latest and modern?
Admittedly, my email needs are no longer what they once were but for the 2-3 years that I've been discovering/exploring Linux, I've almost resented the fact that Thundebird is always a default choice (along with LibreOffice, which is NOT as Microsoft compatible as other options) and the first thing I've always done with a new install is remove Thunderbird and install Geary.
you can use .odt files and they work fine.
@@happygofishing Thanks...but I really have no idea what such files are for or where or why I would want to mess with them. Email today should be "plug and play."
@@xqqqme the dumbing down of computing has been a disaster for the human race.
just sign in with google , facebook, and other big techies. never actually think or learn how it works, just consume more products!