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Email Programs - Mozilla Thunderbird vs. MS Outlook and Outlook ExpressNote: This article was apparently written in the 2000s. I would take it down except it has an incoming link which would break. The article below complained about email programs. I switched to Thunderbird back in the 2000s and have stuck with it through today, in 2023. Thunderbird is associated with the popular web browser Firefox, and Mozilla. After reviewing and trying many email programs, I chose Thunderbird because it had so many features, could be customized far more, and importantly, it put mail for different folders into different files which helped a lot with backup speed. For example, if you get new mail into a few of your folders, or do any modifications in them, then your next backup may just back up those folders, not all folders. At least some if not most complaints I have made about Thunderbird and other email programs might have been fixed in the many years since I wrote the article below. Thunderbird has improved a lot, and I'm still using it as of 2023, though I have played around with some other email programs, too. I still see ways it could be improved, but comparing it to alternatives in the market, it is still overall my favorite. I use Thunderbird on both my Linux and Windows desktop computers.
Used before: MS Outlook, but it had backup problems because it stored all its messages into one huge .pst file by default, which for me got to be gigabytes in size. Add a few messages and you must back up the whole file. It also had a lot of temporary "freeze-up" problems over internet (vs. in-office Exchange systems) using IMAP. Therefore, I looked elsewhere. MS Outlook Express came free with Windows, and was the best for most people I know, but has limited customization. It was discontinued by Microsoft, unfortunately. MS Outlook comes with Microsoft Office and has a few more features, but it is designed for use within an office over a LAN, or with an in-office Exchange system on your LAN, not a standalone computer on the internet. In the latter configuration, it has a lot of "temporary freeze-up" problems using IMAP. For backing up your email files, MS Outlook has some problems. Thunderbird is free and open source, and can be customized more, but is terrible "out of the box" until you customize it (I have a list of things to do right away), and has some irritating glitches and problems. Thunderbird is NOT recommended for novices unless you are comfortable figuring out configuration files and options, or have a good computer consultant. It is a techie's product for techies. Besides these, I've thoroughly tried and used lots and lots of others, back to 1985 (about the earliest that existed). For years, I used MS Outlook (designed for an in-office LAN intranet Exchange server which my office used awhile) and MS Outlook Express (best for internet servers), and still use these a little bit. This changed some time after I started using IMAP instead of POP (see explanation of IMAP vs. POP below). Outlook is terrible with an internet IMAP internet server, too many long pauses and lockups while it downloads, interrupting message composition. Outlook after Outlook 2003 is horrendous for many things, just downhill, similar to MS Office, similar to XP vs. Vista (stick with XP)... Outlook was always a problem for data backups, as discussed at the end of my article on Data Backups. This problem by itself made me question whether to continue using Outlook, even if it was the best email program in the world (but it is not, Thunderbird is). The main thing I liked about Outlook was the ability to edit received messages, such as the Subject line, or even the message body, which Outlook Express could not do. Editing the Subject line is useful when the topic of a thread changes and it needs to be broken and renamed, or noting things of interest in emails, or taking website feedback forms with a subject of "Thailand Guru Website Inquiry" and renaming it to something like "Needs company setup, exporting furniture". Sometimes, editing the message body is handy, such as deleting big embedded photos and text I didn't need. I delete non-business incoming emails liberally, but in some I keep just the little tidbits of information useful to reference later. Outlook has this built in, but you can't do any of this in Outlook Express. Thunderbird requires an add-on extension. So, for email, I use Thunderbird, made by the same people as Firefox -- Mozilla. (I also use Firefox, not Internet Explorer, except for a very few websites. So much better... and user friendly.) Thunderbird can be customized much more, plus there are some great extensions to add on, but I do NOT recommend Thunderbird (unlike Firefox which I strongly DO recommend) to novices unless you have a good techie who understands your needs to configure and customize it to be user friendly at first. The default configuration has a lot of very objectionable settings. I spent considerable time going thru the configurations. The configuration menus are OK, but for many changes you must edit configuration text files like mailnews.js which have many things not on the GUI menus, searching for words and figuring it out. Thunderbird is not too difficult if you are comfortable editing configuration files, and in fact has many more options than Outlook and Outlook Express combined. However, to make it better than Outlook, I also installed a few add-ons. (Some of my own methods of using email software may also be unique.) Anyway, it's way too much to cover here, but if you use Thunderbird, I may have some useful suggestions. You can get it to do almost anything if you really tinker under the bonnet. I might add a longer page on Thunderbird if there is much user feedback requesting it. Thunderbird is much faster, especially for IMAP. There are no long pauses and "lock-ups" as in Outlook. It multitasks very well. Some other problems I had with Outlook were fixed, including inability to send SMTP messages to my US server via some ISPs with Outlook and Outlook Express (always worked 100% with certain ISPs, always failed 100% with certain other ISPs, regardless of location). It was the SMTP problem while on travel which finally forced me to complete my switch to a non-Microsoft email program, and Thunderbird is it. Thunderbird does not let you edit the subject line of messages you receive unless you add on an extension. Outlook allows this but Outlook Express does not. I was switching between Thunderbird and Outlook for this on the same IMAP server until I eventually found an add-on that works with ThunderBird version 2 from a techie, but it requires a few adjustments and instructions. Then it's quick and easy. I have it customized to pop up only the subject and a button to optionally edit anything in the message. Inquire to me if you need help. One thing I haven't figured out yet, for creating messages, is how to set the default font size in points. You can set the font and then the font size for smaller or larger, but I don't have a lot of confidence in how this looks for a variety of recipients. The templates system of Thunderbird is tedious so I don't use it. I want to click on the button for creating a new message and have it use my default template. Dragging and dropping of messages between folders requires learning a different way to use the mouse in Thunderbird than Outlook. You cannot just right-click, drag, then choose Move or Copy like in most Windows programs. (Outlook and Outlook Express also have their unresolvable problems and pains, despite many people around the world complaining, but it's moot as far as I'm concerned since I don't use them anymore, so I won't discuss them here.) I have more problems with Thunderbird which maybe someone can help me resolve. Again, Thunderbird is for techies, or companies with a good techie who also knows how to make software user friendly for nontechies. IMAP vs. POP: I use IMAP instead of POP for myself and my employees. IMAP keeps messages on the server, not the workstation, so that you can access your email from multiple computers, such as from work as well as home. Also, you can share folders with others, such as website inquiries, and multiple people can manage the same folders and messages. (Actually, you can also download them like POP for working offline, too. There is a default cache in Outlook, and a configuration option in Thunderbird to download and keep messages from specified folders.) IMAP also makes it easier to backup email for people spread around many locations. MS Outlook is designed for an in-office LAN intranet Exchange server (which my office used awhile), though it works OK for POP email via internet, but it is terrible for IMAP over internet. MS Outlook Express is best for internet servers, like Thunderbird. An important benefit of Thunderbird is the ability to backup IMAP folders. Outlook just has a temporary cache and makes its own decisions how long to keep something in the cache. It's a pain when you're on the airplane or in the car or airport or otherwise offline and then you find a message isn't available in Outlook which you had read just a few days before. Outlook / Microsoft had decided for you to remove that message from your memory cache. Thunderbird lets you choose which folders to download for offline usage, including the option for all folders. As far as I know, this is permanent, not a date or size dependent cache. Thunderbird defaults to no offline storage, unfortunately, but that's quick to change, albeit downloading it all the first time might be an overnight requirement. Thunderbird will almost surely be around for the forseeable future, just like Firefox, because it is at the heart of the Mozilla alternative to Microsoft, with a large userbase and programmer base across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. It is free, open source, and cross-platform. Therefore, I do not expect it to become obsolete like Eudora, cc:Mail/Notes, and other like them of the past. There's lots of "backup" security to its continued existence into the forseeable future. I don't use GMail much, long story, but if enough people want to know why, then I will open that topic. Ultimately, I like to have everything backed up to DVD so I can recover from any conceivable problem. It's my life's data. I hope this article helps my friends and associates gain data security. There is no insurance against data loss except for a backup, and so many people don't realize that if that little hard disk of theirs crashed, what they would lose. Stop to think about it a minute. Or longer. Internet serversI run my own internet backbone servers, one in the USA and one in Thailand, including my own administration with the help of a couple of techie friends. Linux. If you need any help, they can help you. I can advise you, but I don't have time as CEO to do all the technical stuff. However, I do know quite well what is appropriate for which kinds of businesses.
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