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Thunderbird’s Future Home

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#81

Post by buovjaga »

dotancohen wrote: post #78
newscracker wrote: post #56

Last year when donating specifically to Thunderbird was made possible on mozilla.org, I donated to the project because it has provided a lot of value over the years. Recently I started looking at the discussions on the tb-planning mailing list and it looks like we'll get a revamped (fully rewritten) Thunderbird. That sounds like a very long project to me - probably a few years just to bring it to what Thunderbird alr…

That fully rewritten Thunderbird will apparently be based on Electron, the Javascript GUI. The CPU-thrashing, memory hungry, battery killer Electron. I do not want an email client, or any other software that is meant to run constantly in the background, to be written in Election.

Why are you spreading this information, when you know no such thing has been decided?

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#82

Post by jamesgeck0 »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #63
elipsey wrote: post #35

My CS instructor once asked everyone in the class to "raise you hand if you still use an email client." My hand was the only one that went up, and a couple of people laughed and said "really?" I think that was almost 10 years ago.

Students don't have office jobs. Get a real job and suddenly things like Outlook or TB make a lot of sense. Webmail is ultimately overly limiting compared to a native client for many common work-related use cases. Not to mention, your phone email app is an email client. I like to think of myself as being minimalist and flexible in some ways, but if I started a company tomorrow I could see myself springing for Outlook…

What sorts of use cases? My Thunderbird experience doesn't mirror this at all.

I've found setting up complex filters to be easier to set up in Gmail. Gmail's search is also much faster and it's results more relevant with huge mailboxes.

Gmail also lets you create calendar events from keywords in messages, which Lightning didn't do last time I used it, iirc. I admittedly haven't used Lightning very much; I found that syncing Google Calendars in Thunderbird had a nasty tendency to lock up the app.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#83

Post by sandworm101 »

ashark wrote: post #80
TeMPOraL wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use e-mail client (Outlook) at work. Two reasons: - it's very convenient for accounts you check only in one place - it's infinitely more convenient than any browser-based interface besides GMail that I've seen so far I'd be using a client for my personal mail too, if configuring Emacs to work with GMail wasn't such a pain. Also, don't tell me that on your phone you check your e-mail through a browser!

> Also, don't tell me that on your phone you check your e-mail through a browser! Basic-html gmail, yes.

You arent alone. Its also a great idea if you travel. Unlocking the phone doesnt give them access to email.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#84

Post by Avshalom »

dotancohen wrote: post #78
newscracker wrote: post #56

Last year when donating specifically to Thunderbird was made possible on mozilla.org, I donated to the project because it has provided a lot of value over the years. Recently I started looking at the discussions on the tb-planning mailing list and it looks like we'll get a revamped (fully rewritten) Thunderbird. That sounds like a very long project to me - probably a few years just to bring it to what Thunderbird alr…

That fully rewritten Thunderbird will apparently be based on Electron, the Javascript GUI. The CPU-thrashing, memory hungry, battery killer Electron. I do not want an email client, or any other software that is meant to run constantly in the background, to be written in Election.

Thunderbird is already written with a JavaScript GUI running on top of web rendering engine so even if this is true it's just a lateral step

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#85

Post by abalashov »

elipsey wrote: post #35

My CS instructor once asked everyone in the class to "raise you hand if you still use an email client." My hand was the only one that went up, and a couple of people laughed and said "really?" I think that was almost 10 years ago.

I don't know, I went back to Mutt after 10 years of Thunderbird recently and couldn't be happier. But more pointedly, I don't see how I could live without an e-mail client.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#86

Post by JetSpiegel »

Frankly, I think it would be easier to write a GUI over mutt than to rewrite Thunderbird.

I was a heavy user of Thunderbird, but after migrating to mutt, it's basically obsolete. The only pain point is really HTML, but converting it to text is Good Enough most of the time. Outlook-produced emails still look like crap, but I can click a button and open it on Firefox.

Mutt is not only alive and kicking, there's the new NeoMutt project that is the NeoVim for Mutt. We have initial Lua scripting capabilities now.

http://neomutt.org/

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#87

Post by jdboyd »

NoGravitas wrote: post #59
phantom_oracle wrote: post #50

I hope Thunderbird lives on for a long time, but in the FOSS world, one should never depend on a single piece of software for their day-to-day functionality, thus here are some alternatives: https://alternativeto.net/software/mozilla-thunderbird/?lice... You must also keep in mind that desktop mail-clients make the (otherwise) complicated PGP-encryption of emails a bit more user-friendly.

I keep forgetting that I intend to give Geary a try.

Geary hasn't been very reliable for me and I have been keeping up to date with the latest versions. I mostly just use it for retrieving attachments and stick to mutt and k9mail the rest of the time. I think it is sad than an android mail program works more reliably and faster than most established desktop mail clients.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#88

Post by jldugger »

tjoff wrote: post #76
elipsey wrote: post #35

My CS instructor once asked everyone in the class to "raise you hand if you still use an email client." My hand was the only one that went up, and a couple of people laughed and said "really?" I think that was almost 10 years ago.

I don't get how anyone (that are somewhat computer savvy) can live without one. Sure, webmail is an awesome backup for when you don't use your main device. But seriously, gmail and the like are absolutely horrible to use compared to a real client. I guess the sad state of affair in regards to email syncing protocols (POP3 and IMAP) are partly to blame, JMAP might help a little but I guess it's too late.

GMail seems fine? The threading & quote collapse feature is a godsend compared to godawful attempts by offline clients.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#89

Post by moosingin3space »

cookiecaper wrote: post #60
clishem wrote: post #15

> A Bright Future > The long term plan is to migrate our code to web technologies

What we really need is a good way to execute desktop apps as if they were web services: accessible from nearly any device, access to your data with minimal complication wherever you happen to sign in from, and a lightweight, instant-response, zero-install interaction model. If we value "native clients", we need to address the things that make web clients more convenient.

My biggest frustration whenever an anti-web/anti-Electron comment is posted on Hacker News summarized.

Re: Thunderbird’s Future Home

#90

Post by chrisseaton »

tjoff wrote: post #76
elipsey wrote: post #35

My CS instructor once asked everyone in the class to "raise you hand if you still use an email client." My hand was the only one that went up, and a couple of people laughed and said "really?" I think that was almost 10 years ago.

I don't get how anyone (that are somewhat computer savvy) can live without one. Sure, webmail is an awesome backup for when you don't use your main device. But seriously, gmail and the like are absolutely horrible to use compared to a real client. I guess the sad state of affair in regards to email syncing protocols (POP3 and IMAP) are partly to blame, JMAP might help a little but I guess it's too late.

What are you doing that's so complicated with email?

I get email. I read them. I archive them. I only interact with each email for about 10s and then it's gone, usually forever. Very occasionally I need to search for something in the archive. I also need to send so I just need a text box to write in and somewhere to drop attachments.

What else is there that you need in a client?

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