Thunderbird Email Client Review by HappyandBlue2

Thanks to HappyandBlue2 for guesting and writing what I agree is a fair review of Thunderbird, having recently tried to download and use it as well.

I just deleted Thunderbird for the fourth time. In all fairness I didn't really give it much of a chance to impress me the first two times. I just downloaded it, had problems and deleted it. I tried hard to get it to work for me on the third attempt but I ran into problems with my Hotmail accounts so I deleted it again.

On my fourth, and last, attempt to be one of the cool guys that uses a mail client like Thunderbird to handle my email I did have better success. I still couldn't get Hotmail to work. I really didn't try too hard though. But I did find information that fixed the return address on my emails. I found it by chance when searching Google.

So, I had Thunderbird installed. I had my Gmail accounts set up properly. The mail system was notifying me of new email . And my emails I sent worked the way I needed them to.

The problem is that in the end I didn't find that Thunderbird really did anything much for me personally. For example:

1) I couldn't use my Hotmail accounts in it. So I still had to check them separately. And yes, I'm sure there is a workaround somewhere. But I do have a life outside of my computer time and I am sick of trying to search for it.

2) I couldn't access my junk mail (which sometimes really isn't) or my deleted mail (which I sometimes check back on for whatever reason) from Thunderbird.

3) I have been using ePrompter for quite some time now to notify me that I have mail. It accepts all my accounts, even the Hotmail ones. Thunderbirds notification system isn't better. In fact in my case it was worse because of not being able to get Hotmail accounts to work.

4) I still had to go into my Gmail and Hotmail accounts regularly to delete messages. So why not just go there in the first place.

5) I could write emails using Thunderbird. But I can do that in Gmail or Hotmail. So why bother. It didn't seem any easier or better. And my address books in each separate account were already there. I really have no clue how to get separate address books in Thunderbird. I'm
sure there is a way. But it would involve searching. And setup, and testing, and…

If you have endless time or you enjoy searching on Google it would probably be fun for you. In an "I like to spend my time tinkering with software" kind of way..

But, if you want a simple way to deal with your email then stick to checking your accounts online. And get a program like ePrompter to notify you of new mail. ( I use ePrompter. I'm not endorsing it as the be all/end all in email notification. It's simple and it does what I want..)

Comments

b said…
I accept your views. But, Mozilla Thunderbird works best with Gmail. Gmail offers POP/SMTP access free for all accounts. While I don't use Hotmail myself I would recommend you to try this for configuring your gmail.

Thunderbird would be useful for those who needs to check multiple Gmail accounts all at once.

thanks.
Anonymous said…
Thanks again for posting my guest post..
Anonymous said…
The power of thunderbird is in the ability to accept extensions. I tried so much to run my MSN email and Hotmail using thunderbird, but I failed. Finally, I found an extension called WebMail, it helped me to get my MSN, Hotmail and Even Yahoo. It can be used by some different emails.

for more information, email me at am_abdelsalam@yahoo.com
Laura Brown said…
I've tried Thunderbird twice and was surprised by how much trouble it was. After my computer froze a second time I deleted it. I was expecting to like it as much as I like Firefox. I was disappointed but like HappyandBlue, I didn't really need email software. I use Gmail. I still like Eudora best as an email client and I have that as my stand by, if I ever bother to use the email addresses that came with my domain. So far I'm fine with letting Gmail filter out all the spam rather than wasting time on it myself.
Ari-free said…
The #1 reason why I use thunderbird is because I don't want my mail to be locked up. Not by gmail, hotmail, eudora or anybody.

I have a gmail account and fastmail and I can access it online but thunderbird downloads all my mail to my hard drive. I don't have to worry if there's no internet-I can still check my email. The other thing is, if the browser crashes it doesn't take out my email. So having thunderbird is to give me a bit of safety for email.
Anonymous said…
There is a way to use hotmail in Thunderbird using Web Mail extensions ,Google it, it wont take you more than 10 min to figure out how to set it up. I can check emails from hotmail however I cant send them with Thunderbird yet ill post once I figure that out, Google mail works just fine.

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