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Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

blog.thunderbird.net

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Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#41

Post by einpoklum »

bnchrch wrote: post #3

While its been a long time since Ive used Thunderbird, I just wanted to take the time to publicly say thank you. Many HNers probably wont (or cant) remember the world of desktop mail clients but basically during the height of MSFT dominance there was only one real mail client: Outlook. Which Microsoft was starting to monetize heavily, ignore UX, and keep it windows only (cant blame them for that). Then Thunderbird ar…

> the world of desktop mail clients

We live in that world still.

> but basically during the height of MSFT dominance there was only one real mail client: Outlook.

On Windows, you had:

* Netscape Suite (later Seamonkey)

* Eudora

* Pegasus

and (edit:) two of those still exist. Plus, Outlook cost money (unless you used Outlook Express), while Netscape was gratis, and on Linux and most Unix variants, Outlook has never even existed. On Linux specifically there's Evolution and there's KMail.

And I'm sure I'm forgeting a few others.

> Then Thunderbird arrived on the scene

It was a development of the MailNews component of Netscape, to use the same XUL-based platform as Firefox. So, an evolution, not a revolution.

(edit:) Oh, look what I found!

https://missive.github.io/email-apps-timeline/

uncheck 'Web', iOS and Android.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#42

Post by ToucanLoucan »

kstrauser wrote: post #8
briffle wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before Thunderbird, Eudora was fantastic. We ran it at a college I worked at for most of the staff and faculty, and it was a very sad day when Qualcomm shut it down.

Eudora was nice, but it wasn't available for Linux/BSD, and it wasn't open source.

Eudora was practically a CULT. I worked for one of their users who straight refused to use anything else, and one of my ongoing jobs as an admin was trying to get Exchange to play nice with it. It was maddening.

I fired it up several times for testing purposes, I don't get the hype, but man, for some people it was just the best damn software ever made.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#43

Post by drummojg »

einpoklum wrote: post #41
bnchrch wrote: post #3

While its been a long time since Ive used Thunderbird, I just wanted to take the time to publicly say thank you. Many HNers probably wont (or cant) remember the world of desktop mail clients but basically during the height of MSFT dominance there was only one real mail client: Outlook. Which Microsoft was starting to monetize heavily, ignore UX, and keep it windows only (cant blame them for that). Then Thunderbird ar…

> the world of desktop mail clients We live in that world still. > but basically during the height of MSFT dominance there was only one real mail client: Outlook. On Windows, you had: * Netscape Suite (later Seamonkey) * Eudora * Pegasus and (edit:) two of those still exist. Plus, Outlook cost money (unless you used Outlook Express), while Netscape was gratis, and on Linux and most Unix variants, Outlook has never ev…

I loved Pegasus. Specifically because to move it to another machine you just had to copy the PMAIL folder and make a shortcut. No registry awareness, no dependencies.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#44

Post by godelski »

stackskipton wrote: post #35
drannex wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's using EWS (Exchange Web Services) which is being removed in October 2026 for Office36 This is Microsoft we're talking about here, so if its slated for removal in Oct '26, it will be put into LTS, and finally 'retired' (but operational) _starting_ around 2031.

Microsoft swears it's happening: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/retirement... Take the blog article for what you will. I have noticed in Office365, they tend to be less backward compatible than you would expect from Microsoft.

  > Microsoft swears it's happening
And when has that ever meant it comes without delay?

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#45

Post by fsiefken »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #14

Nice to see, but unfortunately it's not uncommon for orgs using Outlook/Office to disable Exchange client support and require use of the official clients. It's highly unlikely and maybe not even possible, but I'd like to see desktop and mobile mail clients implement some kind of workaround.

I was responsible for third party e-mail clients able to connect to Exchange, it was decided Thunderbird was allowed and support was implemented. It can be done if people are aware of the needs, can implement it securely and can evaluate risks.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#46

Post by stackskipton »

godelski wrote: post #44
stackskipton wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft swears it's happening: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/retirement... Take the blog article for what you will. I have noticed in Office365, they tend to be less backward compatible than you would expect from Microsoft.

> Microsoft swears it's happening And when has that ever meant it comes without delay?

Up to you if you believe Microsoft or not. I don't really care, I haven't messed with 365 outside being end user in years.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#47

Post by bitwize »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #42
kstrauser wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eudora was nice, but it wasn't available for Linux/BSD, and it wasn't open source.

Eudora was practically a CULT. I worked for one of their users who straight refused to use anything else, and one of my ongoing jobs as an admin was trying to get Exchange to play nice with it. It was maddening. I fired it up several times for testing purposes, I don't get the hype, but man, for some people it was just the best damn software ever made.

It did its thing—internet email—really well. It was aimed squarely at the user with like a POP account, and it had a clean UI and plenty of features. For the time and use case, it was a fantastic client.

Outhouse tried to be too many things at once. Email client with HTML/rich text features that made it leave Microsoft crufties including mso: tags and the infamous J smiley all over your emails, contact manager, calendar. It was heavyweight, slow, and not quite there in terms of UI. But if you're an MBA type and you're committed to MSFT, or you're looking for a turnkey solution and it's this or Lotus Notes, Outhouse and Exchange sound like a win.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#48

Post by cachius »

shevy-java wrote: post #17

Is this good? This is a genuine question. I am not sure whether this is good or not. It seems to only extend existing options? Or is there some trade-off?

This is awesome!

For one to have an open-source client to Exchange online and on-premise with broad support for more than plain email management. And also for other servers like Kerio Connect and grommunio.

Current limitations:

  Search & filtering
  Filter actions requiring full body content are not yet supported.
  
  Accounts hosted on Microsoft 365
  Domains requiring custom OAuth2 application and tenant IDs will be supported in the future.
  
  Accounts hosted on-premise
  Password-based NTLM authentication and OAuth2 for on-premise servers are on the roadmap.
  
  Calendar support
  Not yet implemented – calendar syncing is on the roadmap.
  
  Address book / contacts support
  Not yet implemented – address book support is on the roadmap.
  
  Microsoft Graph support
  Not yet implemented – Microsoft Graph integration will be added in the future.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#49

Post by ocdtrekkie »

stackskipton wrote: post #35
drannex wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's using EWS (Exchange Web Services) which is being removed in October 2026 for Office36 This is Microsoft we're talking about here, so if its slated for removal in Oct '26, it will be put into LTS, and finally 'retired' (but operational) _starting_ around 2031.

Microsoft swears it's happening: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/exchange/retirement... Take the blog article for what you will. I have noticed in Office365, they tend to be less backward compatible than you would expect from Microsoft.

As an on-prem admin, I am blown away that there's 30-40 changes to 365 monthly, often including at least two or three feature deprecations. It seems like building a building on top of quicksand.

Re: Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support

#50

Post by kstrauser »

canucker2016 wrote: post #31
kstrauser wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eudora was nice, but it wasn't available for Linux/BSD, and it wasn't open source.

Eudora was open-sourced in 2018. see https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-eudora-email-client-sou... and from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudora_(email_client) The last 'mainline' (pre-OSE) versions of Eudora for Mac and Windows were open-sourced and preserved as an artefact by the Computer History Museum[2] in 2018; as part of the preservation, the CHM assumed ownership of the Eudora trademark. The only actively m…

Eventually, and I was glad to see it!, but way too late for it to matter much. I would've used Eudora when it was originally offered. Since I couldn't, I got comfortable with Thunderbird. And when my friends who used Eudora had to migrate off of it, I set them up with Thunderbird, too.
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