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Thunderbird Not As Successful As Firefox
Friday, Apr. 8 2005 | Author: jeremyThat is what a report released by the Radacti Group is saying. Even though Thunderbird ranks high on security and other features, this report says that it will not be as popular as Firefox. One reason that it will never have as much success as Firefox is that most people don’t think about security issues in their e-mail applications. That could be because security holes in e-mail apps do not get as much coverage in the press as those in browsers.
The main flaw I see in this report is that Radacti is comparing Thunderbird to Outlook, when in fact I don’t think Outlook is even a target of Thunderbird. Outlook as such a full blown feature-set (Calendar, Contacts, Journal, Tasks, etc.) as well as superb integration with Exchange that Thunderbird has no hopes of taking market share from it anytime in the near future.
Thunderbird’s competitors, as I see it, are the standalone e-mail apps like Outlook Express, Eudora, and Apple Mail.
I began using Thunderbird on my old Dell laptop at version 0.6, and have enjoyed using it since. When I got my Powerbook, I never thought twice about installing Thunderbird instead of using Apple’s Mail.app.
The one area I can see that Thunderbird needs improvement is in the Address Book. Although I can easily search for the item I am looking for, it could be organized better.
Have you switched to Thunderbird from another application? What has your experience been?
Related posts:
Mozilla Thunderbird gets Firefox-style tabs
Thunderbird to fly from the Mozilla nest?
Portable Firefox and Thunderbird
Thunderbird 1.0.7 Released
Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 1.5.0.2
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21 Responses for "Thunderbird Not As Successful As Firefox"
April 8th, 2005 at 10:38 am
1I’ve found that Thunderbird gets really slow after while, to the point of slowing my machine down. This is usually solved by defragging. If Opera’s M2 supported more mail features (perhaps html e-mails) I’d use it in a heartbeat (the feedreader in Opera is a great plus).
April 8th, 2005 at 10:47 am
2I also think it is easier to switch to Firefox than Thunderbird. In a corporate environment where you aren’t using IE applications you can just switch everyone over to Firefox along with their bookmarks with no hassle. However, when you have an address book and gigs of emails along with using an Exchange server that only supports certain features found in Outlook, then of course you are going to have a slower adaption.
And hell, most people use webmail anyways (which you use a broswer like Firefox to view).
April 8th, 2005 at 11:07 am
3I think Scrivs hit the nail on the head, it is Microsoft Exchange that is holding Thunderbird back. Corperations and institutions (at least in the U.S.) depend on email to function, Exchange keeps all the mail on a (or a group of) central server(s)(aside from archived messages) so it is much easier to secure and manage.
If an OSS project could be (or has been) created that provided the same function, or even worked better (lets face it, it’s Microsoft) Linux would have a real fighting chance in the workplace. Really, to me, it looks like one of the last hurdles for the OSS community is to provide stable easy to use “user-prof” applications, this is one of those. (I know MS dosn’t do the same… but that is a diffrent comment.)
P.S. Still looking for a 3rd party Exchange client… just for giggles.
April 8th, 2005 at 11:18 am
4If you configure an Exchange server to support/use POP3 and IMAP incoming mail services, then you can use Thunderbird with an Exchange server.
Exchange, by default, uses a proprietary Microsoft format.
The only thing running something like Thunderbird on Exchange is you are missing out on public calendars, contacts, etc.
April 8th, 2005 at 11:19 am
5BTW, who else thinks its funny that my artcile on Thunderbird, and e-mail client, has prompted google to send a bunch of ads about Thunderbird, the Ford sedan?
April 8th, 2005 at 11:27 am
6Ha Ha, reminds me of the essay about automation an albinoblacksheep.com, actualy a good read if you get the chance.
April 8th, 2005 at 11:39 am
7I switched from Mozilla/Netscape suite. So… did I switch? Probably not. ;-)
April 8th, 2005 at 11:42 am
8I made the switch as soon as they added the capability to use shared folders – version 0.8 I think?
I used to use Outlook 2003 and made use of it’s calendar and tasks quite frequently. But I’ve since started using Basecamp to handle all that stuff.
I find Thunderbird to be super light-weight. After importing my emails from Outlook, the total size of the data file that contained them was around 80mb, where it was over 400mb when in Outlook format. Yikes!
Gotta love being able to use CSS in email as well.
April 8th, 2005 at 11:50 am
9I just moved from a dell to a powerbook, and initially used Thunderbird on the mac because I was familiar with it. Now I’ve switched to the mac Mail app just becuase it integrates better into my system, even though I lost alot of mail in the process. I’m just curious as to why you switched to mail.app so quickly when moving to a mac. Also, does anyone know how mail.app’s junk mail filtering compairs to thunderbird’s?
April 8th, 2005 at 12:26 pm
10When Thunderbird 1.0 first came out on OS X, I ran it for about a month. After a while I missed the message rendering, address book integration and inline spell checking of Mail.app and went back.
Just the other day I downloaded 1.0.2 hoping that Mozilla had created some kind of Import function for Mac users on Mail.app. Nope – still not there. The thought of manually transferring 2500+ messages and 35+ mailboxes is not my idea of a fun time. I did it once and once was enough. When Thunderbird is finally released with a proper import tool for OS X users, then I’ll come back.
April 8th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
11I switched from Outlook. I like Thunderbird much more. :p
April 8th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
12Josh, were you using Outlook to connect to an Exchange server, or just using it as a POP client?
April 9th, 2005 at 12:31 am
13Mike, if you haven’t already, try compacting all folders after clearing out your trash. It speeded up my thunderbird a little– especially when searching a folder.
April 9th, 2005 at 7:53 am
14I use Thunderbird at home, and think it’s great! However, the only thing that keeps me from fully ditching Outlook is the calendaring and contact management. I use these daily. Keep hoping they will bundle this with Thunderbird.
April 10th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
15Can you someone please advise how I can make my thunderbird faster to download emails. I first liked it because of its cool search function and its news and blogs features. However, because it’s just damn slow, I switched back to Outlook (I lost several emails in the process )…
Help@!
April 10th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
16I haven’t really noticed any difference in speed of mail downloads. I would assume it depends on the type of server/service you are connecting to (pop3, imap, etc.) and the speed of your connection.
If you are using Outlook in a corporate setting with Exchange, you aren’t going to get any faster than that.
April 15th, 2005 at 5:13 pm
17I started to use TB since version 0.9. Before that the conversion OE -> TB didn’t work properly, especially with date formating. So since dec 04 I switched completly to TB 0.9 on my W2K laptop. I love the prg for autocleaning the spams (the most come from the US,everone knows that they are the number 1 of spammakers) and for the extentions. I configured even the addressbook like OE in the sidebar. This week I did a test to upgrade to the latest version and to migrate to pc with XP and it worked from the first shot. The purpose of learning to change profiles and moving TB to another pc/OS version is that I want to migrate to linux. So far I succeeded for openoffice and firefox, my favorite prgs. But I have a struggle with migrating TB. I have been reading docs on sharing win and linux TB mail folder or migrating from win to mac but couldn’t find usefull info for migrating TB to linux. Does anyone have experience or tips on this?
April 23rd, 2005 at 7:24 am
18There are Extensions for Firebird as well as Firefox.
A useable Calendar as well as a Contacts Sidebar F4 turns it off and on.
May 19th, 2005 at 7:26 am
19I have been using Outlook Express errors repair tool for the past few months and LOVE it.
I’ve even recommended it to all my friends. Outlook Express more stable and secure than other programs.
May 7th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
20I was using Outlook with no bother at all and have been for a few years now. I love the easy-to-use, feature-rich styles that M$ so often present us with.
That said, I have (over the last year) begun looking into e-mail marketing and full and professionally designed html emails only to be horrified by the code Outlook (via Word) creates. It’s good for absolutely nowt!
The thing that brings me here today is that I was recently required to make use of Exchange Server’s shared tasks and contacts (because M$’s Web Access is WELL POO and doesn’t support most of their own features, like CATEGORIES!).
I had to remove ALL of my POP email accounts (as a web master for many sites this was NOT cool), install the Exchange account and then re-install the POP accounts and reload the emails from an archive.
This created duplicate emails EVERYWHERE, meant that I HAD to be connected to the Exchange server over VPN to get ANY mail (POP or MX) to arrive, I had to re-do ALL my signatures AND just to top it all off my rules and alerts stopped working!!!!
Needless to say I saw this as a great time to move across.
As I was with Firefox when I first started using it, all I wanted to do was run back to the arms of Outlook to what I was familiar with, but NO!
I am already starting to feel more comfortable with Thunderbird and am convinced it’s the right move in the long run.
Linux OS next? :S
***** *****
I AM, however getting Word generated ‘html’ emails (I use the term lightly) that are displaying the full page of code from the HTML tag to the closing HTML (or whatever M$ prints…)
This is ONLY happening with Word generated mail. Anyone know how to stop this?
***** *****
Thumbs up Mozilla! ;)
“In a World with no doors or walls, why do we need Windows and Gates?” Anon.
August 14th, 2006 at 11:41 am
21Thunderbird is slow in both receiving and sending. The spell checker stinks and I agree they need to improve the address book features.
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