Stepping back from the brink...

[caddyman]

...to something far more mundane: what is everybody's honest opinion of the performance of Thunderbird as a mail reader? I am getting sick of unannounced socket errors on Outlook Express that come and go like passing strangers, but which manage too to outstay their welcome by a number of hours.

I tried Thunderbird some years ago and gave up on it. Is the more modern version any better?

Assuming there is a more modern version.

I really like Firefox as a browser (despite the annoying memory leakage), but Thunderbird...

Comments

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

My parents both use Thunderbird and seem to get on with it pretty well. Um, this may not tell you anything much about what it's like for someone above the baseline tech level -- and trust me, compared to them you are, even if you don't think so ;)

[romney.livejournal.com]

It gets the Romney Thumbs up. Imports mail and addresses from Outlook very well, not too many features, and the Spam filter works quite well.

[ysharros.livejournal.com]

I don't mind it. It went through a phase of locking up for 3-10 seconds when I started it up, which drove me bananas, but that seems to have passed. It's not *nearly* as intrusive as anything MS-branded, and it does what it says on the tin.

You can try it and not commit... easy enough to junk if you don't like it.

EDIT -- if you want to use it concurrently with whatever you have now, just tell your current mail client (or TBird) not to delete messages from the mail server. Then you'll just have to remember do download to the non-deletey client first, and the other one second - hey presto, two copies of everything (least till you change it back). Hope that makes sense.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I'm using Thunderbird as my main mail client at work, and it does exactly what I want - sends mail without messing up.

I don't have a lot to say in its favour other than "It just works" - it's an unobtrusive piece of software.

I'm using it IMAP over a virtual connection though, so I don't have a lot of experience of using it as a POP client at home.

[irdm.livejournal.com]

I use Thunderbird for accessing my several POP3 accounts, which it can collect, filter and reply to with any account, etc.
I am using linux, but would use TB not OE if on WindowsXYZ.

Mordern version is 2.0.0.14 (or that's the last one that auto turned up)

[binidj.livejournal.com]

I use Thunderbird exclusively and have no huge issues with it. It's not perfect software but it's better, in my opinion, than any of Microsoft's offerings.