Thunderbird 102 Beta

WetGeek

I was invited to join the beta program, so I did that using my Ultramarine laptop, so as to avoid any complications with my Solus machines, and I'm throoughly impressed. This is the third beta, and I can't wait for it to be released.

It turns out that it can be installed on a Solus machine and can be done with a separate profile, so as not to interfere with the original profile, so that would have been a safe option as well. So if anyone else here is offered to join the beta, and you're interested in seeing the new version, don't hesitaate to do so.

The UI is very familiar. I added two accounts, and my saved address books, and sent myself an email from the new Tbird. As I wrote above, I can't wait to install the new version as soon as it is in the Solus repository.

That's all, for now.

brent

Coincidentally I spent 2 weeks auditioning Solus repo desktop email clients and I'm down to two: Evolution or TBird. All the others in the repo were subpar and could not be configured correctly. I use all my webmails' reccomended stmp and imap defaults and nothing. All variations rejected with no connections.
The only two email clients that configured my accounts automatically and correctly were these two. Impressed that TBird is bascially painless.
Long story short, what's exciting about the 102 beta?

WetGeek

brent what's exciting about the 102 beta?

Basically, usability. Thunderbird was already very complete, in its features and functionality, but the new version just makes doing everything easeier. If you liked what you've seen so far, you'll LOVE the new version.

I would recommend that you go ahead and start using Thunderbird. It should be a simple matter to upgrade to version 102 as soon as it hits the repo.

brent

WetGeek If you liked what you've seen so far, you'll LOVE the new version.

I do like what I've seen so far. Thanks for that info.

WetGeek

brent I do like what I've seen so far.

These are my Thunderbird archives. Every email I've received since I started using it. There's a similar set for my WetGeek account.

Like you, I've experimented with other email clients, but never found anything better. Thunderbird is what compelled me to start my monthly contributions to Mozilla. I use it every day, all day.

brent

WetGeek wow. ok I'm new to this. imap is just reading from yahoo/gmail/etc sites themselves and pop is getting all emails to to your pc? And if that's true then in your real gmail account---for example, right now at this minute no letters exist in Deleted, Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Yadda, Yadda, Yadda folders? Correct? I mean the point of Thunderbird or others is to keep ALL letters on the PC and not at the webmail source?
I may give this a whirl.

WetGeek

@brent, I didn't realize it until I looked there just now, but a beta invitation isn't required to access it. All you need to do is go to the Thunderbird web site, and use the link there to download it.

Be sure to follow the directions for not overwriting your original copy, unless you really mean to do that. Even if you don't decide to install the beta and explore it, there's a lot of documentationn that will answer your questions about "what's new."

WetGeek

brent I may give this a whirl.

Speaking as a friend, you don't want to use POP3. It's an antique. Yes, it puts all your emails on your computer, so they're all in one place. But if you use IMAP, which is much newer, your emails reside on the email server, and you can access them from anywhere.

Any other distro you may want to explore. Any VM you create, after you get started with those. Anywhere.

And you don't need to do anything special to make that happen. Just choose to use IMAP any time you can. I know that it works from gmail, as wetgeek@gmail.com is an account that works fine with Thunderbird. I don't happen to monitor that one, or a lot of others, because I own the wetgeek.net domain, and prefer to use those accounts instead.

Incidetnally if you'd like an IMAP account for brent@wetgeek.net, I could make that happen easily.

brent

WetGeek . But if you use IMAP, which is much newer, your emails reside on the email server, and you can access them from anywhere.

Then how do you have a copy of every email since 2009 (very cool) on your computer? Unless IMAP sends an email client (thunderbird etc) a duplicate? So a single email could exist simultaneously in two places? (Unrelated: I wonder what file format an email would get saved/archived as?)

WetGeek if you'd like an IMAP account for [brent@wetgeek.net](mailto:brent@wetgeek.net), I could make that happen easily.

You'd talk to your people and vouch for me😉? Love the idea, though, thank you. I wish I had just one email account instead of a handful so no more accounts for me. I think a tool like Thunderbird would fulfill that fantasy by "pretending" I have a single "account" where all my mail is at. Which likely is the point of having a centralized client I think.

Thanks for the crash course education re: email clients & thunderbird and indulging my questions.

WetGeek

brent Unless IMAP sends an email client (thunderbird etc) a duplicate?

Yep. At least, that's the effect. I'd have to research the IMAP protocol to find out exactly how it all works under the hood, but all my VMs, and all my computers that have Thunderbird installed on them have access to all those emails. And it appears that they all get copied to every client.

brent I wonder what file format an email would get saved/archived as?

I believe it's .eml.

brent You'd talk to your people and vouch for me?

No need to do that. As I mentioned, I own the wetgeek.net domain. I could set it up in a few minutes. Free, of course.

But what neither of us has suggested yet is that you can install Thunderbird without getting rid of whatever you're using now. Add your gmail account to it, and any other accounts you have access to. Thunderbird will handle all the accounts you want it to, but it doesn't intermix emails from them.

brent

Yeah I would think the emails are physically there in the client as well since you can save them. I did some more reading about POP and that was very old school. That's for the archivists and I'm not opposed to that setup either. If IMAP provides a version of that function all the better.

Internet receipts, for example, are something I organize in folders on my standard web accounts...having a copy--figuratively a hard copy-- in the Solus filesystem makes me feel better if I switch over to an email client like tbird.

WetGeek you can install Thunderbird without getting rid of whatever you're using now. Add your gmail account to it, and any other accounts you have access to. Thunderbird will handle all the accounts you want it to, but it doesn't intermix emails from them.

oh yeah, I will keep all those accts and route thru a central emailbox. What I like about Thunderbird vs the others I tried is its plug and play. All domains like yahoo etc are pre-configured and you don't need the "one-time" special secret "app password" (offered by yahoo, msn, etc) to bypass 2FA. In time I will wire all the accts thru it. It worked for a couple accounts.
ps--I was cracking wise with the 'talk to your people' comment---I knew you ran the show! Self created domain and email addresses---you are ahead of most of the kids!