Many people have wanted the ability to ditch Microsoft Outlook and replace it with Mozilla Thunderbird. Your solution is here and it is called Mozilla Lightning. This is nice because it will let you keep track of your everyday schedule right in Thunderbird. This is currently version 0.1RC1 so it has not been officially released and make sure to read the release notes so that you understand the technicalities before installing and using it (like the lack of Undo/Redo). I don’t know how well this will take off once the Google Calendar gets rolling.
Download The Extension For Thunderbird: Windows, Linux, Mac
News Source: More Screenshots Of Mozilla Lightning
Hey moron! This does not work on Exchange, therefore absolutely worthless in the real world!
Um, okay?
What a ridiculous concept — comparing Thunderbird + Lightning to Outlook. What next: A comparison of MS Paint to Photoshop?! They’re world’s apart — not even intended for the same use!
Thunderbird is great, but, even with Lightning (which provides only really basic calendar integration at the moment), it’s not a PIM. Actually, that’s exactly why I like it — I don’t need my email attached to my calendar, to-do list, notes, …or anything else for that matter! I just need my email.
If you want to do a realistic comparison, why not start with Thunderbird vs. Outlook Express, or the new (and actually very nice) WindowsMail (in Vista). Then, for round 2, you could compare Sunbird to WindowsCalendar, or Rainlendar, or whatever other scheduling program you like.
Let’s keep it apples to apples. That would be useful.
Snane
You may not think that the comparison is completely accurate, but I know several people that have switched from Outlook to using Lightning on Thunderbird. If users switch from one program to another it is inevitable that comparisons will be made, just like with Internet Explorer and Firefox.