Mozilla has hit another huge milestone, this time with their email management software called Thunderbird. The newest Thunderbird 2 contains a whole list of new features that I normally just point out really quick. This time I wanted to go a different route and visually walk you through Thunderbird 2 so that you can better determine if it is right for you before installing it.
Before I get into my review, I wanted to first point out that the release notes page for Thunderbird 2 is up but still refers to the last release candidate. Mozilla hasn’t officially announced the release of Thunderbird 2, but they have already begun prepping their FTP mirrors for the big release.
To download Mozilla Thunderbird 2 straight from one of Mozilla’s mirrors, just select your language below and choose the appropriate operating system:
Alright, let’s go ahead and jump into everything that makes Thunderbird 2 so great!
Account Setup
As soon as you start Thunderbird 2 you’ll be prompted to setup email accounts or RSS feeds. The wizard is pretty self explanatory and walks you through everything you will need to do.
Reading Emails & New Mail Notifier
Mozilla has redesigned the user interface to not only make it more pleasant on the eyes, but also more usable. The notifier (as seen in the first screenshot below) has been revamped to give the user much of the information they need to recognize whether the email needs to be viewed immediately. The only thing that I have found it lacks is a way to pin the notifier so that it does not automatically retract itself.
Tagging Emails
Tagging is becoming a more important way for users to keep photos, files, and emails more organized. Thunderbird 2 is the first version of Mozilla’s email client to offer a tagging feature.
Find as you Type
Finding a specific email can be pretty tricky when you get hundreds a day. Luckily Thunderbird 2 offers a great new feature to instantly search for emails as you type in the Search Box.
Options
Like always, we enjoy being able to customize an application to our every whim. This is actually one of the most important features for me when trying to find just the right application for the job. That is why I made sure to capture nearly all of the different options you can change in the screenshots below. Oh yeah, and the options page received a nice facelift as well!
Account Settings
There are a lot of settings (as always) when it comes to managing your email accounts as well. You can do everything from attaching a signature, to configuring which account Thunderbird uses to send your emails by default.
Other
There were a few last things that I wanted to throw in screenshots in for, and pictured left to right you’ll see the Composition Window, adding a contact, the Address Book, and the About Page for Thunderbird.
I know that Mozilla put a lot of time and care into this release, so I wanted to make sure I did Thunderbird 2 justice by providing as many screenshots as I could. This email client is among the best out there, and if you haven’t tried it out for yourself then you haven’t experienced the simplicity and power that Thunderbird has to offer.
I’ve been meaning to give Thunderbird a try for a while, how does it compare to gmail? The best thing I love about gmail is the notifier plug-in that checks my emails every minute. Does thunderbird have anything like this?
I’ve been using Thunderbird since the 0.7 release and its a great mail program, quick to load and easy to use. If you leave the application open you can it updates every 5 minutes I believe, and you can change it to check more often. I’ve been using the beta 2 and its a nice step up nothing significant but a few more nice features.
I moved some tagged e-mails into a new folder and they disappeared completely. That’s just great.
I still like using Gmail for some of my email accounts, but Thunderbird has a really great interface and features. I do actually have a screenshot of Thunderbird’s notifier above which is very similar to what Google’s is. The only thing that I like more about Google’s is that if you’re away from your computer it won’t show the notification until after you come back, whereas Thunderbird (and most other programs) show the notification immediately even if you’re not there.
I haven’t been using Thunderbird for quite that long, and I think I started around the time version 1.5 came out. Thunderbird 2 is extremely stable and actually does have some nice new things to offer such as the tagging. I just wish they were able to get the tabs implemented.
I tried to duplicate your problem but my messages didn’t disappear.
Sorry.
i really like this extension [tjeb.nl]
Awesome extension! Looks like they just updated it yesterday to work with Thunderbird 2 as well!
Ryan, there are some other extensions that i find very helpful, but there seems to be lack of updates sometimes…in those cases i use
ops
nightly tools and force..
the only thing i don’t like with TB is that i only can see the date and time when the sender sent the mail…i want to see the time when i receive it…maybe anyone ?
Hit CTRL-U and a new window will pop up with all the headers, including when you received the email.
actually i thought of the “view”…now i have to sort on order received..
will there an update option from 1.5 to 2? anytime soon?
From [mozillazine.org]
There are two problems I have with Thunderbird.
Outlook is a disaster.
The main one is calendar and syncing. I want to be able to sync with my Pocket PC. But so far I have not found a way.
You should be able to just download and install it over 1.5 which is exactly what the upgrade will do anyways. It could be quite awhile before they enable the auto update because I don’t even think they have prompted Firefox 1.5 users to upgrade to Firefox 2 yet.
I actually haven’t looked into synchronizing a Pocket PC with Thunderbird before, but I’m sure there has to be a way that someone has come up with. As for the calendar, Mozilla is working on the Sunbird/Lightning project which will offer an integrated calendar in Thunderbird. The calendar is really starting to take form and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it released in the next few months.
Firefox has always been a decent “simple” email client. But honestly I’ve been using Mulberry for a few years now and nothing match’s it for power and versatility. It’s the not only the best IMAP client out there, but it also does pop well.
But if one is using Outlook Express and needs a simple email client, Thunderbird is a great option.