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submitted 11 months ago by imgel@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

A very interesting video about the Thunderbird Project successful donation process and how KDE can improve them by following their step.

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[-] Caua@lemmy.ml 57 points 11 months ago

The best email client ♥️

[-] vox@sopuli.xyz 5 points 11 months ago

i love it but it's not very stable, crashes pretty often

[-] Salix@sh.itjust.works 13 points 11 months ago

Have never had this happen on my 4 computers

[-] vox@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

well it only started happening after adding a corporate university email, it happens much more frequently if matrix account is online for some reason

[-] dust_accelerator@discuss.tchncs.de 42 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's my daily driver. It has incredible compatibility and very nice features, for example the rule based filter actions, header matching, which immensely boosts my workflow efficiency. Not to mention the calendars and tasks integration and the great extensibility via the plugin system.

Thunderbird is a great example of community driven awesomeness.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 2 points 11 months ago

Is the maildir support still considered experimental/buggy? It's the main issue that's been preventing me from using. it.

[-] silmarine@beehaw.org 15 points 11 months ago

ELI5 please, why would I use thunderbird over a web client? I have used a local email client in years but it seems everyone uses and loves thunderbird.

[-] flyos@jlai.lu 24 points 11 months ago

If you don't have multiple email accounts, then probably a webmail is fine. If you have multiple accounts, and require some advanced email features, then a local client is often more efficient. Unfortunately, because the majority of people are fine with a webmail, those clients are not attracting much activity for development and Thunderbird itself almost died some ten years ago.

[-] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

May I ask the opposite? Why use JavaScript client from the web instead of desktop ones?

Most operating systems, excluding Windows, are shipping with decent native and fast email client. They are automatically updated with the system, again excluding Windows, integrate with other apps (for ex. right-click and share with mail), can store messages offline just in case and are overall nicer to use.

The only use case I think of is when using someone's else computer and you don't want to remember to log out, because browsers have "incognito" mode.

[-] saigot@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago

Because then I can access the same client from anywhere, any platform without having to worry about learning the interface for several different clients.

[-] silmarine@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago

Sounds like you're making an a point from privacy, which I agree with and subscribe to. But I feel like there's something in your point that is missed in that the email provider has the emails still. If I have a Gmail account then I doubt it matters if I use thunderbird or not. So that pushes me to use a more privacy focused email provider but if they are then their web client should also be privacy focused. So if total privacy is the focus then hosting your own email service would be what is needed. But if privacy isn't the point then convenience is more important. And going off the other replies to my question, the only reason is if you have multiple accounts and want them to be accessible from one place.

I have 2 main email accounts, 1 that is family and friends focused and 1 that is privacy/purchases/etc focused and I actually like them to be separated so thunderbird doesn't sound very useful for my case. Not sure if there's something I'm missing here but if there is then I am willing to read and learn. Especially when it comes to privacy focused stuff.

[-] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 11 months ago

No, it was not about privacy. From privacy standpoint there is no difference from email client running in browser or on desktop, both can have trackers and in both we need to trust the source. There are even selfhosted web email clients like RoundCube or Nextcloud Mail, that I use too but really rare.

[-] silmarine@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

Ah okay, my bad. I misunderstood. I guess to be able to answer your opposite question I would have to try thunderbird myself and see if I still prefer web based or not. Otherwise I don't have an answer to why I use web client over thunderbird other than it's already there and ready when I set up my account.

[-] brenno@lemmy.brennoflavio.com.br 1 points 11 months ago

Doesn't windows ship with a native email client? I don't use Windows but I remember an email app on it.

[-] ForbiddenRoot@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Yes, it's called "Mail" and I guess it's the successor to "Outlook Express" from the old days. I have never actually used it though, but it's certainly there.

[-] Patch@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Most operating systems, excluding Windows, are shipping with decent native and fast email client.

Even Windows ships with one ("Mail"). I don't have any real experience using it (on my Windows work laptop I have Outlook, and on everything else I use Thunderbird), but it looks fine to me.

I have no idea what the pricing scheme is for Outlook these days, but Outlook does remain genuinely excellent too.

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[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 9 points 11 months ago

I pull all my email locally and only leave the last few weeks on the servers. I have all my email (going back 20 years) available locally and also backed up safe. If an email provider goes tits up, or is acquired, or starts misbehaving, I can have my mailboxes somewhere else within the hour and not lose anything.

[-] Yerbouti@lemmy.ml 8 points 11 months ago

Multiple accounts that I need to check daily (works, personnal, business). It would take me way more time to check all of them on a browser. You can also search within all your account from TB. Also have access to my archives without internet access.

[-] NotAnArdvark@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago

I have email going all the way back to 2013 or so, and don't like the idea of all that information sitting readily available for hacks, warrants, or automated scanning. I move mail older than two years into a local Thunderbird folder to limit what's sitting online, while also letting me search for recent emails while out and about.

Aside from that, I like that I can still access emails while offline, see all my inboxes, contacts, and calendar in one place. Also, I've got enough "apps" that run in the browser.

Actually, sudden account closure without recourse (which Google does) is another reason to make sure I have local copies of email too.

[-] anothermember@beehaw.org 4 points 11 months ago

I like it because I put all my RSS feeds there (podcasts, blogs, etc.), for RSS purposes it does everything I want and more than many of the dedicated RSS clients do. Then, if I can get my email there too, I don't have to open my web browser all the time, which is more efficient.

[-] Patch@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

I have 4 email addresses in regular use (excluding my work one, which is deliberately kept entirely off my personal devices). They are from several different providers. Checking 4 different inboxes in 4 different browser windows is an awful lot less convenient than having them all in one application. Thunderbird also lets these inboxes throw system notifications when the application is running in the background, which wouldn't happen if I'm just relying on the webmail interfaces.

Thunderbird also gives me an offline local backup of my emails, which is useful if I find myself in a connection blackspot and in desperate need to find an email. As my main personal laptop also regularly backs up data to an external storage device, it also means these local mail copies are backed up too; not sure when that's ever going to be vitally useful, but it's an nice thing all the same.

Ultimately, why not? I find the Thunderbird interface easy to use (not least because I've been using it forever), and the webmail interfaces are simple and intuitive too, so it's not like there's any intellectual strain on using multiple clients.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 13 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=XYqkOxZMsfU&t=5s

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 11 months ago

Even better, Here is an alternative PeerTube link:

https://fediverse.tv/w/418mCW9WVWiDmxJWDdJW2A

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Hopefully they'll build in support for disroot, fastmail, posteo, protonmail, tutanota, and other opensource encrypted mail agends that don't provide a bridge.

Edit: so the summary of the video is "marketing". Linux, KDE, and opensource projects in general need way better marketing. If Linux could rebrand itself as anything but "the geek thing", I bet it would be much more successful.

[-] KillSwitch10@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I think why Lennox seems so unapproachable by so many it's because there's so many distros and choices people get choice paralysis. And then as soon as they ask anyone about it they get 20,000 different results. Lol

[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

That's true. It's a great strength to have the freedom to do anything with your hardware and software, but a great detriment to those who just want it to work. The torture of choice.

That's where marketing comes in. It guides you to the best choices for the "point and click, make it work" group of people - which are the majority.

[-] CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

I think a lot of the issue with mainstream adoption to Linux is the software suite and not the operating system. I refused to switch to Linux because of needing MS Office (specifically Excel). I needed it for work at my previous job until they provided everyone with laptops during the pandemic. And before you say just use LibreOffice or OnlyOffice, they are fine options for personal use for me. But for my productivity, switching between the two with different shortcuts was miserable. LibreOffice still pisses me off for formula auto completion. If I hit tab while making a formula, I want to go to the next parameter in the formula not the next cell.

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[-] crank@beehaw.org 4 points 11 months ago

Client like thunderbird is good if you always use the same desktop/laptop machine to do your email. If you are using multiple devices like school, friend, work, library or even mobile it totally breaks down. To say nothing of system failures, breaking or losing the machine etc.

Most people who love TB have a setup that has been stable for 20 years. Good for them, it suits their needs. But the contempt with which they seem to hold the majority of the population for whom TB would be a totally unsuitable choice is rather unpleasent.

Ever notice how rarely you see someone saying "I switched to TB from webmail 2 years ago and its great"?

Too bad, as i would absolutely love to switch the floss desktop/mobile clients and have tried to do so on a few occasions. They are simply not compatible with modern communications habits.

[-] nevial@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 11 months ago

I'm a heavy Thunderbird user and to be honest, I don't understand what you're saying at all? I have multiple private mail accounts and a work mail account and I use all of them on multiple machines with Thunderbird but also with different clients (e.g. FairEmail on Android) as well as webmail (at least for my work mail I use it sometimes) and I never experienced any problems. What exactly do you mean? I mean, I do have an export of my thunderbird profiles (maybe not up to date, though, tbh), but more so out of comfort than necessity. Without this export, and in the unlikely case of a system failure, I would have to go through the process of adding my mail accounts (server, password, username) by hand and that's basically it

[-] crank@beehaw.org 3 points 11 months ago

If you want to filter all mail (on a specific mail host) from host.tld into a specific folder, how do you create the filter?

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[-] Patch@feddit.uk 5 points 11 months ago

I'm not really sure I understand this post.

I use Thunderbird on several machines, and I use broadly the default config (no fancy business). I also have the same email accounts set up on my Android phone (Gmail ones on the native Gmail client app, an Outlook one on the Outlook app). When accessing my email on a machine which doesn't have Thunderbird set up for me (such as my corporate laptop), I just use the webmail interfaces.

And it all works...fine. why wouldn't it? Thunderbird and the Android apps just send their service calls off via IMAP and it all sorts itself out without any fuss from me. All the data lives off in the cloud anyway; it's just a different way to interact with it other than the web interface.

I just happen to like having all my email accounts in one combined place, running in the background and throwing system notifications.

[-] giloronfoo@beehaw.org 3 points 11 months ago

I think they're expecting thunderbird users to use POP instead of imap, Gmail integration, OWA, or other protocol that expects the mail to stay on the server.

Leaving the mail on the server has been great in Thunderbird since the Mozilla days. I did jump to Gmail web app a long time ago though. I'm assuming Gmail support has improved in the last 15 years?

[-] lud@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

Does anyone still use POP?

[-] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 2 points 10 months ago

I switched to TB from webmail 1 year ago and it's great.

There you go.

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this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
308 points (100.0% liked)

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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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