https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/128.0/whatsnew/
Thunderbird is a free email application that’s easy to set up and customize - and it’s loaded with great features!
Updates in code base, interface, mobile development, plus improvements to the look and feel on Linux. Pretty cool to see!
There are going to be two clients for an unspecified period of time. Same code base, different branding. It's not possible to take an existing app released through the app stores and rebrand it. The new Thunderbird app will have import tools to help folks transition.
I mean you can rebrand an app, just not the package name. And users won't see that. So they could rename it Thunderbird even though the package name would stay "com.fsck.k9". It's not at all uncommon.
Though I'm sure they have their reasons for not doing that.
They also don't want to upset people who prefer the K-9 branding among other things.
Unfortunate, all the new users I know would prefer TB branding, or at least a toggle button in the Settings. The icon and name throw them off since they are already Desktop users.
They've said that they will use the TB name when it is at parity with the desktop client. Even then, they may use both names. It's possible that there are people who are using k9 who prefer it and may not even know that it is connected with TB.
They have not set a timeline for when they expect to be there, but they have set a roadmap.
I've been using Betterbird for a good 6 months and it's the best email client I've used, it's what Thunderbird should be out of the box. With the Proton bridge app running in the background it integrates very well.
It's Thunderbird but with bugfixes and additional features. Bugfixes I like are being able to sort by attachment and minimize to my tray. Features I like are regex searching/filtering (including encrypted messages), opening to the same folder every time, being able to change message headers, being able to directly open links in messages I'm writing, maybe a few more I'm forgetting. Regex searching is the top used additional feature for me.
Since BB isn't a hard fork of TB, it stays up to date with bugfixes and features that new TB versions include, and they often restore existing features that new TB releases break or remove (at least 4 in the last major release v115), and are open about breaking features in new versions (like IMAP folder corruption in both TB and BB v128.0 that they say they hope will be fixed in v128.3.0).
I saw the popularity on AUR several times and installed but couldn't figure out why people use it.
Their website cites GDPR or whatever and is honestly kindof meh.
I was interested in the conversation layout, advanced email headers and recoloring things like folders but idk if they have that or not.
Also I've always been annoyed that half the dialogs are integrated tabs and the compose email is a window that can't be nested. I can't remember if they fixed that or not.
I wasn't personally impressed by the logo, it reminded me of a 2000s Mozilla but maybe that was intended. It didn't have enough distinguishment from other Mozilla products while communicating that it was for Email or related to Thunderbird. It honestly looks like a browser.
/opinion
I've been bitten by some popular but abandoned AUR releases. Lately I've using yay -S instead of pacman -S with yay config defaulting to AUR and haven't had too many issues. Just one where my modified OBS uses an ffmpeg branch that conflicts with the VLC one and I haven't dug in to the package management weeds deep enough yet to learn if or how I can have conflicting packages installed but with isolated scopes.
Try Claws Mail too while you're at it, if you're on Linux. Most powerful email client on Linux, with everything OP mentioned (some of it available as plugins, but your distro should install those too).
Haven't used thunderbird in a long time but it looks really nice! Might give it a go again
What have you been using instead? I've been using Thunderbird since I was 13 at least, literally never used a single other desktop mail client since then. So I wonder what other mail clients people use.
I’ve been an Airmail (Mac) user for many years now. But it’s been really buggy lately and there’s no motivation to fix the issues apparently. So I switched to Thunderbird about a month ago after a lot of research. It’s … ok.
Again, I might be missing some settings to correct some of these issues, so take it all with a grain of salt. But these are my takeaways after about a month of usage.
Search is great?
One of my biggest issues with Thunderbird is that I can never find emails I want.
Search works really well for me. Definitely reveals a less aesthetic side of Thunderbird but it works!
A works to archive messages btw, I'm not sure about a shortcut for labels though.
It has the most powerful search of any email client I've used. That was one of the reasons I switched. What issues have you had?
What a weird thing to read. I open my work's email in thunderbird because the search is so good. Outlook is really slow when searching for something and so so tedious.
In all fairness, my usage is still minimal at this point. I’ve only searched a couple of times, but the thing I needed popped right up. Maybe my experience will change over time.
This is ultimately what made me try out Betterbird. It has regex searching which imo every search box of every app should have as a basic feature. Plus it still has all the features Thunderbird has and even some that Thunderbird has removed in recent releases.
Apple seems to have a lot more variety in the email client ecosystem than Win or Linux. One of those weird unexpected things.
I couldn't handle all the changes to outlook over the past year or so. I've been pretty impressed by Thunderbird. It's not perfect, but it keeps getting better and better with each release.
I used evolution for a min, it wasnt bad... But, ive been using thunderbird for so long, i didnt stray for long.
I particular look forward to the native exchange integration.
Email already works, but is behind a feature flag still. But it’s finally visibly progressing.
Can it search email now? I tried finding an email about two weeks ago and i had to give up and search on my phone.