wired.com— In the age of Gmail, we asked Thunderbird lead engineer Scott MacGregor why anyone needs desktop email these days. He had a pretty good answer.
Apr 9, 2007View in Crawl 4
If only for the backup, you should use a desktop app for e-mail. That way you can work at those rare off-line moments.And what if Google ever loses your mail? I know the odds are waaaaaaaaaaaaay low, but...
We need desktop software because browsers are a very poor environment for developing applications. You're bundled within an application that retains control of all the common operating system keys - tab, print screen, cutting, pasting, f1 for help etc etc.That's why after 5 or 6 years people are still "creating" new email clients, rss aggregators and personalised homepages.Runtimes like Adobe's Apollo take the web applications out of the web browser which is really going to redefine how we develop web apps, and more importantly remove the huge limitations a browser places on functionality and creativity.
Thunderbird will be worthless until they add the (inexplicably absent) ability to export filters. Like hell am I going to re-enter a complex set of filters on every computer I own.WTF were they thinking?
You can say that (search any email I've ever received from anywhere I happen to be) about Outlook, if:a) It's connected to Exchange, which gives you Outlook Web Access.b) You use IMAP from a provider that gives you a web interface (Fastmail, Netidentity, etc).Best of both worlds.What webmail will never give you (well, maybe...Firefox/Google Apps seems to be going this way) is the ability to access your email offline. And what it will NEVER be (in the forseeable future) is as fast as a local client.
Before I switched to gmail, i used to use thunderbird everyday. When gmail added pop support, i tried to go back to thunderbird, but I couldn't because of one single, but very important reason (to me at least): labels. I like to classify my emails, and labels were a godsend.so until thunderbird is able to understand gmails labels, i guess i'll have to skip it.. :(
Its because of Thunderbird that I stopped using desktop email, period. Even with my work account we have set up Kerio mail to access mail online. It was intended to access email on the road but I prefer to access it from a browser rather then using Thunderbird.Sorry, maybe Thunderbird has gotten better, but on three separate occasions it simply decided to nuke all my email, it was completely unrecoverable. Also if your managing a large amount of email I found that Thunderbird would match the wrong email header to the wrong content. You go to read an email sent from the boss and viagra spam whould display instead. I also found Thunderbird's spam filters to increasingly become unreliable over time, rather then learning to block spam it just seemed to allow more of it to get through. I actually had to reset the filter state on several occasions to get it to block spam more efficiently.Gmail just works, and while it doesn't have a number of features found on most desktop email readers, it does have features I have yet to find on desktop email readers. The search in Gmail works considerablly better then Thunderbird for large amount of email (i.e. Google is known for their search technology). I have often seen in Thunderbird typing a search phrase would return no results, and then 5 minutes later the same search phrase would finally return something a second time.Thunderbird may have started off as a decent email reader, but honestly like Firefox, Mozilla seems intent on trying to cram more features into it. I would prefer if Mozilla just focused on making the perfect simple web browser / email read out there rather then trying to duplicate IE and Outlooks bloat. Firefox 2.0 is going wayward and Thunderbird has already. At least Google calls Gmail a beta, Thunderbird hasn't left the beta state in my humble opinion.
Tracydanger, if you travel a lot, you should know that your computer isn't always going to be connected to the internet in order for you to check your messages, compose, or even access your account. Desktop E-mail isn't for everyone, but for some it's a necessity.
conradovinaApr 10, 2007
If only for the backup, you should use a desktop app for e-mail. That way you can work at those rare off-line moments.And what if Google ever loses your mail? I know the odds are waaaaaaaaaaaaay low, but...
fkr3Apr 10, 2007
We need desktop software because browsers are a very poor environment for developing applications. You're bundled within an application that retains control of all the common operating system keys - tab, print screen, cutting, pasting, f1 for help etc etc.That's why after 5 or 6 years people are still "creating" new email clients, rss aggregators and personalised homepages.Runtimes like Adobe's Apollo take the web applications out of the web browser which is really going to redefine how we develop web apps, and more importantly remove the huge limitations a browser places on functionality and creativity.
palmerApr 10, 2007
Thunderbird will be worthless until they add the (inexplicably absent) ability to export filters. Like hell am I going to re-enter a complex set of filters on every computer I own.WTF were they thinking?
tkardinalApr 10, 2007
You can say that (search any email I've ever received from anywhere I happen to be) about Outlook, if:a) It's connected to Exchange, which gives you Outlook Web Access.b) You use IMAP from a provider that gives you a web interface (Fastmail, Netidentity, etc).Best of both worlds.What webmail will never give you (well, maybe...Firefox/Google Apps seems to be going this way) is the ability to access your email offline. And what it will NEVER be (in the forseeable future) is as fast as a local client.
fabio1Apr 10, 2007
Before I switched to gmail, i used to use thunderbird everyday. When gmail added pop support, i tried to go back to thunderbird, but I couldn't because of one single, but very important reason (to me at least): labels. I like to classify my emails, and labels were a godsend.so until thunderbird is able to understand gmails labels, i guess i'll have to skip it.. :(
topher06Apr 10, 2007
Its because of Thunderbird that I stopped using desktop email, period. Even with my work account we have set up Kerio mail to access mail online. It was intended to access email on the road but I prefer to access it from a browser rather then using Thunderbird.Sorry, maybe Thunderbird has gotten better, but on three separate occasions it simply decided to nuke all my email, it was completely unrecoverable. Also if your managing a large amount of email I found that Thunderbird would match the wrong email header to the wrong content. You go to read an email sent from the boss and viagra spam whould display instead. I also found Thunderbird's spam filters to increasingly become unreliable over time, rather then learning to block spam it just seemed to allow more of it to get through. I actually had to reset the filter state on several occasions to get it to block spam more efficiently.Gmail just works, and while it doesn't have a number of features found on most desktop email readers, it does have features I have yet to find on desktop email readers. The search in Gmail works considerablly better then Thunderbird for large amount of email (i.e. Google is known for their search technology). I have often seen in Thunderbird typing a search phrase would return no results, and then 5 minutes later the same search phrase would finally return something a second time.Thunderbird may have started off as a decent email reader, but honestly like Firefox, Mozilla seems intent on trying to cram more features into it. I would prefer if Mozilla just focused on making the perfect simple web browser / email read out there rather then trying to duplicate IE and Outlooks bloat. Firefox 2.0 is going wayward and Thunderbird has already. At least Google calls Gmail a beta, Thunderbird hasn't left the beta state in my humble opinion.
patricklogginsApr 10, 2007
@HigherLogic..heh.. I use the Gmail notifier too, but when it alerts me, i open Mail.app :P
mstkApr 10, 2007
Tracydanger, if you travel a lot, you should know that your computer isn't always going to be connected to the internet in order for you to check your messages, compose, or even access your account. Desktop E-mail isn't for everyone, but for some it's a necessity.