If you are planning a move from Outlook 2007, or if you just want to “soup-up” your open-source Mozilla Thunderbird product, I’ll share some tips, some links and some add-ons that I found particularly useful during my own MS to open-source migration.
Get Thunderbird
Mozilla’s Thunderbird is an opensource email handling program available for free download from the Mozilla site: Download Thunderbird 1.5
Download Lightning
This calendar plugin for Thunderbird isn’t feature-rich, but it’s a nice, solid option to have your calendar and email program in a single place and it mods nicely with most Thunderbird themes. It’s based on the stand-alone Sunbird program. Get yours: Download Lightning for Thunderbird.
Make it pretty:
I’ve downloaded several themes to test and these are the best I’ve found so far.
For the simple lover, or those who want minimum look-and-feel changes from Outlook:
VistaMail – as described, it’s a Windows look-alike theme. Thankfully you can change the progress icon from the windows to the standard version.
Modern Modiki - this is the one I’m using right now because it’s simple and clean, but I’m probably going to switch around a bit more soon, once I get settled in with the TB layout.
Some Like it Dark:
BlackJapan – nice simple black mod that has a matching FireFox theme.
PitchDark – dark mod — just a bit too dark for my tastes (and I like the darker themes, as a rule). I wish I could find one to match my FireFox RedShift Theme.
Something a little different
Walnut - This wooden-look skin is not one I downloaded this time, but this is the one I used for ages when I originally had Thunderbird a couple years ago.
GlowyGreen (Update: link removed, no longer maintained) – a Malachite or Green Marble inspired dark, artsy skin.
You can pick up other themes and extensions by visiting the Mozilla Thunderbird site, but these are the ones I consider “essential” or particularly cool. I’ll probably give the security/email encryption program Enigmail a test drive once things settle in and I have everything else working.
Whhyyyy, would you downgrade to thunderbird if you already own outlook 2007.. hellooooo
Well, I exchanged my Outlook 2007 for Thunderbird for three reasons. First, Outlook 2007 takes FOREVER to launch. Second, it’s Microsoft (‘Nuff said on that point) and Third… I’m moving to Linux. I have a huge objection to the direction MS is taking with Vista and I’ve decided I’ll not follow them down that dark path.
Angela-Parker, go for it and move to linux
I’m trying to decide which to use. I use Outlook for my calendar and contacts, so it would make sense to stick with it for emails? Unless there are things that I can do with thunderbird that are impossible with Outlook 2007?
Andreas – If you have a system you like, and it’s working for you — STICK WITH IT. (If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!)
I’m anti-windows and am working diligently to remove all windows machines from my life.
If, however, I liked Windows, I’d probably stick with Outlook. I enjoyed it (other than the excruciatingly extended launch time and the difficulty of backup). Having everything all in one place is nice — if you can launch first thing in the morning and not have to reboot during the day and wait for a large program to boot.
I like how quickly and completely I can backup my Thunderbird, but I quit using the calendar plugin after I wrote this post and am now exploring an online solution for that.
Thunderbird seems to be 10x better with IMAP, faster better integration. Plugins are mostly free. With outlook I could not find a plugin I liked to delete duplicate messages and they were all high$$, with Thunderbird I found a plugin that just works with a right click. I have only been using it for this morning and I love it so far.
I have been using the Outlook 2007 trial–just because I’ve used Outlook for so long–because I just LOVE the way my emails look with html signatures for each of my accounts.
I love gmail EXCEPT: no HTML Signatures, and no insertion of pictures…they are attached instead.
However, I’ve had Thunderbird on my computer for awhile, and I can insert pictures into the emails, and I can make HTML signatures.
I use both Zoho Apps and Google Apps, and in my very small 3-person company (with few, if any “security issues”) I am moving almost exclusively to Web 2.0.
I do have MS Office 2007 products (Excel, Word, PP).
The Outlook has nice features–but I am thinking that I don’t need Outlook 2007; especially just because of the email feature.
I’ll keep you posted…my Outlook 2007 trial ends soon; and I am almost sure that (with hands shaking…) that I will NOT purchase and use open source for my personal and business use.
Whoever said downgrade just made a huge mistake. Big enough to say you’re dealing with the devil Bill Gates so as a loyal LinuxMint user I call bs to that statement make the switch and for all you windows junkies get a life
Outlook is all shiny and colorful and nice.
Yet when it comes to handling big inboxes, once your inbox grows to several gigabytes… I dont know.
Most serious business users would rather use something reliable then something unreliable, slow, buggy and that often suffers from data corruption, even if the software looks like something the flinstones would use.
So when asking tb vs ol, you gotta consider this situation. I cant answer the question and pick a winner, i have never seen how Thunderbird handles multiple gigabytes inboxes and hundreds of rules.
Outlook might look prettier and in fact it’s got many useful features, but, as it has already mentioned, it just takes forever to lunch and despite all the updates and stuff, it’s still so slow.
Yes I agree. Outlook does looks nicer. Anyway thunderbird can change theme too.
I just switched to TB a few days ago and have loved it so far. Until I needed to find an email chain from a month ago. I like how in Outlook you can do a “find all related messages” for one specific email.
Does anyone know of something I can add to TB to make it do that? Maybe an add-on?
CC
Please list out Merits and Demerits of Both Email Clients
I would love to help you out with that, but this post is so old… and I don’t use either of these clients anymore. I’ve gone to Google Apps for everything. Love it, BTW — no issues with virus infestation, easy-to-fix spam issues (which are minimal from the beginning) and access from anywhere with a universal update on all devices when I make a change from anywhere. Love it.
You can still use Thunderbird with your Google Apps. This is what i am doing now. Love thunderbird and Google Apps too. Use the online Google Apps went i am not using my PC. Never liked outlook much.
You can also host a Zarafa server and use Outlook on the client side…. I find the combination of Linux server and Windows clients to be quite compelling…
I hear really good things about the new Windows 7, but I made the switch to Linux and then to Mac when Windows was making me crazy. I’m so happy with that decision (and the lack of problems I’ve had with my Macs) that I doubt I’ll ever go back.
I prefer outlook 2007 by far. I have not had any problems with it thus far as well.
I use all three programs Gmail, Thunderbird, and Outlook simultaneously as they serve different purposes. Outlook as my POP client, Thunderbird as my IMAP client and Gmail as the mail server. Explained in more detail below:
1. First you have to decide on what Mail server to be used (and I preferred a cloud server that I can access anywhere): Choice is between MS Exchange Server Vs Gmail. MS Exchange Server is very expensisve and cannot be installed for personal use. MS has a less expensive cloud version MS Exchange Online. I preferred Gmail as this is free and much easy to set-up compared to Exchange Online. (Later I realized Gmail syncs easier with Thunderbird, and not sure Thunderbird can be used as an Exchange client at all?).
2. Next you have to choose a good email client to do your daily work. You can opt for Gmail, but I prefer the convenience of an email client to that of a web interface as in Gmail. The choice to be made is between Outlook and Thunderbird. Outlook is a very heay program, its installation size itself is 1.5 GB compared to about 8 MB for Thunderbird! Naturally the progam is relatively sluggish for normal use. So for daily regular use Thunderbird is advisable. Thunderbird is faster than Outlook and syncs very well with Gmail on IMAP. On the other hand there may be tasks involving writing lengthy reports which require numerous and detailed formating, indexing, smart graphics which I believe is better accomplished on Outlook.
So I now have for the same account: Thunderbird as my IMAP client for regular daily use, a POP3 Outlook client always continuously running, downloading my email, and which I use for more complicated projects and Gmail as my Mail Server available wherever I move.
Shehariyar –
Thanks for the response and the detailed information about your system. It’s a little complex for my tastes (I’m a Google Apps girl these days), but I’ll bet it will be of great use to others looking for workable solutions. Thank you for offering the info!
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