Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thunderbird 3 released

getthunderbird.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 61 posts

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#31

Post by mikedouglas »

aw3c2 wrote: post #16
billybob wrote: post #8

Just curious - what's the appeal of non-web-based email? I'm forced to use Outlook at work, but I can't imagine having to install something to get my personal mail, and having to back up my personal mail. Do people do this mostly because they're concerned about their data privacy, or because it's easier to work when you don't have internet access, or what?

You having the full control over your data. Do you really not backup your mails? Do you consider them not important or do you glorify your provider? I highly recommend making your own backups for anything you consider worth saving.

Just because I have control, doesn't mean the data is safer.

It's the practical realization that Google is likely to have a more recent, redundant backup of my data than me. The amount of effort to ensure that P(losing my backup) < P(google losing a backup) isn't worth the effort except for a few very important pieces of data.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#32

Post by jsz0 »

billybob wrote: post #8

Just curious - what's the appeal of non-web-based email? I'm forced to use Outlook at work, but I can't imagine having to install something to get my personal mail, and having to back up my personal mail. Do people do this mostly because they're concerned about their data privacy, or because it's easier to work when you don't have internet access, or what?

Four big things for me:

1) Offline copies: Either because I have no internet access or the webmail provider is down. For my company e-mail "Google is down" or "I can't get online" is just not a good enough excuse when such an easy solution exists. Even if you primarily use webmail I would highly suggest mirroring a local copy via IMAP if you're dealing with important stuff.

2) I like being able to segregate my mail into its own space. I maximize my mail client full screen and have other windows on my second display such as individual messages or notes, address book, calendar, etc. I find this to be more appealing than opening half a dozen browser windows and clicking through different sections of GMail.

3) Nothing beats the performance of a local store. My IMAP server keeps a full backup so any one client losing its local copy isn't a problem. Searches are instant in Apple Mail, I can bounce between different folders/messages with no penalty waiting for another GMail page to load.

4) No distractions. When I have to sit down and pound through lots of e-mail being in a browser makes me less productive.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#33

Post by julianz »

sounddust wrote: post #20
vito wrote: post #19

Just tried it here, I normally use Mail.app. First impressions were "oh, this isn't so bad," but then I started using it. It feels very janky, the interface is a bit disfunctional (going to File > New Folder gave absolutely no visual feedback as to where it put it, and if you have the filters window open and make a new folder you have to close and reopen the filters window for it to notice the new folder). The one th…

I downloaded it and tried it, and unfortunately it has the same two problems that I hate about version 2: 1) There is no option to say "reply using the same 'from' address that the mail was sent to." This means that you either have to set up an "identity" for every possible e-mail address you use, or you have to reveal your "main" identity to anyone who sends you an e-mail (and possibly confuse them in the process).…

> There is no option to say "reply using the same 'from' address that the mail was sent to."

Huh? I've used Thunderbird 2 (on Windows) forever and I rely on this feature all the time, with multiple IMAP accounts and multiple email addresses for each of the accounts. It just works perfectly.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#34

Post by SapphireSun »

mikedouglas wrote: post #31
aw3c2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You having the full control over your data. Do you really not backup your mails? Do you consider them not important or do you glorify your provider? I highly recommend making your own backups for anything you consider worth saving.

Just because I have control, doesn't mean the data is safer. It's the practical realization that Google is likely to have a more recent, redundant backup of my data than me. The amount of effort to ensure that P(losing my backup) < P(google losing a backup) isn't worth the effort except for a few very important pieces of data.

Of course your google account could always be disabled for some reason....

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#36

Post by WalterGR »

Daemmerung wrote: post #21
keyist wrote: post #2

Vimperator fans will want to monitor the Muttator add-on page for updates: http://www.vimperator.org/muttator

vim : Muttator :: emacs : ? Don't I wish....

Attention downvoters:

You are apparently not familiar with analogy syntax.

Daemmerung is simply asking if there is a similar plugin, but using emacs syntax.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#37

Post by sid0 »

elbenshira wrote: post #23
dustingetz wrote: post #3

if its not better than gmail, i don't think anyone cares.

I think there is a valid point hidden inside this flame-bait. GMail (and other web-based email clients) are making inroads against traditional desktop email clients. I used Thunderbird for a long time, but just found GMail's client much more intuitive and faster. The best part is that web apps are getting faster and faster as JS engines improve. This isn't the case for desktop clients, at least from my experience. Bl…

Interestingly, I find Gmail's client an absolute pain to work with. It's the best browser-based client, but that really isn't saying much.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#38

Post by Daemmerung »

WalterGR wrote: post #36
Daemmerung wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

vim : Muttator :: emacs : ? Don't I wish....

Attention downvoters: You are apparently not familiar with analogy syntax. Daemmerung is simply asking if there is a similar plugin, but using emacs syntax.

Thanks, Walter.

I've tried using XKeymacs (http://www.cam.hi-ho.ne.jp/oishi/indexen.html) to this end, but had problems with the previous Thunderbird. Perhaps I should try again with 3.0.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#39

Post by mikedouglas »

SapphireSun wrote: post #34
mikedouglas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because I have control, doesn't mean the data is safer. It's the practical realization that Google is likely to have a more recent, redundant backup of my data than me. The amount of effort to ensure that P(losing my backup) < P(google losing a backup) isn't worth the effort except for a few very important pieces of data.

Of course your google account could always be disabled for some reason....

That's true, and a much better reason than data loss.

Re: Thunderbird 3 released

#40

Post by mahmud »

Thunderbird, Firefox and Emacs. Seriously, the three pieces of software my life would be meaningless without. Greasemonkey and Lisp are the crack cocaine of software, that is, if crack allowed you to realize an innate higher potential in yourself.

I have never scripted it myself, but I have paid someone else to do it and my thunderbird add-ons account for at least 20% of my income. If you're doing a lot of marketing and lead generation, you owe it to yourself to tame this beast to your advantage. Specially for one-person shops, you can bypass the whole CRM shenanigans with a well kept TB strategy. Good luck!

Post reply on HN