Bird is the Word!

 

By David Shamah, The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 28, 2005

 

This week, I continue my love affair with the Mozilla family (don’t tell my wife!). I have made the switch to a "substitute" e-mail program, and I don't intend to look back. Ever. Unless Microsoft somehow diabolically makes using Windows contingent upon using Outlook/Outlook Express.

 

Not that there weren't alternatives for the picking, all along. The most popular alternative choice of recent years has been Eudora (http://www.eudora.com), which has scads of features, including Scamwatch, says it can tell whether an e-mail was sent by the people the message claims to be from, or whether it's a "phishing" message – like one that pretends to be from a bank or some such institution and asks you for personal details. Other notable non-Microsoft e-mail programs include Pegasus (http://www.pmail.com), Eureka (http://www.eureka-email.com), Foxmail (http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english2.htm),  Incredimail (http://www.incredimail.com), and even Scientific Letter (http://www.sciletter.com), which makes sending letters in scientific notation fun and easy.

 

Been there, done that. All of these programs have their strengths and weaknesses, but they just didn't have "it;" they were either too complicated or too iffy looking; they just didn't make the professional grade, for whatever reason.

 

Meanwhile, Outlook Express remained the default choice for most users. Most of us are used to it, and it does an acceptable job of getting and sending mail. Outlook, of course, is the application of choice for many people who use it not only for its e-mail capabilities, but its scheduling, calendar, and contact functions as well. And in offices where the system servers run Microsoft Exchange, Outlook is often the only option for communications.

 

If working for "the man" – Microsoft – doesn't bother you and you feel comfortable with the Outlook family, by all means keep on using it. Theoretically, Microsoft's programs should work perfectly with Microsoft's operating system.

 

But if you have had enough of Outlook's lethargic way of doing things; if you're tired of looking at messages like "Outlook could not proceed because of an error. ODEZ5XXXX;" if you think giving the "little guy" a chance is important, if only to keep the "big guy" on his toes; and if you want a fast, efficient, easy to use and – perhaps most important – expandable e-mail program, you should try Mozilla's Thunderbird, the message companion to the Firefox browser.

 

Thunderbird, like Mozilla, has its roots in Netscape, and at first glance Thunderbird will remind you of Netscape's mail function, which was always a little more "mellow" than the Outlook family. But Thunderbird goes far beyond anywhere Netscape ever dared venture.

 

Where Outlook aims to mold the way you work in the interests of making you more "efficient," Thunderbird gives you the freedom to work any way you want. From the way mail is organized to the wide array of extensions available to expand its usefulness.

 

Many of us receive dozens of messages a day. Not all of them are spam, and even some spam is interesting. You may be more efficient than me, but I usually glance at my e-mail and make a mental note to go back to it later – which I of course never have a chance to do. But these undigested messages don't go away, and after four or five days, you have a formidable pile to wade through – which makes picking through the important ones a time consuming, difficult task. Thunderbrd has the cure for this ill, though; when I take that first cursory glance, I can label e-mails any way I want – whether as "business," "personal," "from people I know," or any other criteria I want. All I have to do is mark the message with its label, and I can view only those messages that interest me at a given time. You can create views with any criteria you want (like "personal messages over 7 days old") and view only those messages from the View drop down menu. Compare this labeling power to Outlook's far more limited system of flags and "mark as read/unread" (both of which are also features of Thunderbird). Also note that this is separate from Thunderbird's full fledged filter system, which uses any or all of these criteria to direct messages to specific folders.

 

Spam, of course, is the bane of e-mail, choking not only your inbox, but wasting your time as you try to slog through annoying, useless messages. If we're already mentioning filters and labels, it seems clear that the most useful filter an e-mail program can provide is one against junk mail – and Thunderbird does the job admirably, letting you classify annoying messages as e-mail that can be automatically deleted or segregated. The program's filter is designed to "learn" what messages you consider trash, and will fine tune its settings to ensure it gets everything. And, if you want to be sure that a sender's messages doesn't get caught up in the general housecleaning, simply put that contact on T-Bird's "white list," which will ensure that those messages are always protected.

 

Certain e-mail programs which shall remain nameless are always among top suspects of introducing and spreading viruses on a system – simply because they run scripts in messages by default. Not Thunderbird, though; unlike with Outlook, scripts do not run by default, and the program will alert you when one is present in a message. Thunderbird also does not display remote images in a message unless you give it permission to. Thunderbird supports all POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, as well as AOL Mail and HTML mail, as well as Hotmail (with a plug-in available at the Thunderbird site). Add to this a built in newsreader, RSS support, changeable interfaces ("themes"), and a built in spell checker for your messages, and Thunderbird becomes a real contender to replace the Outlooks.

 

But like with Firefox, it's the wide range of extensions that further widen Thunderbird's range of services that put the program over the top – way, way over, as far as I'm concerned. On my system, I installed ConQuery, which lets you highlight a word and open up a browser window to search for information at sites like the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, Google advanced search, or Alexa, which gives you page rank as well as sites related to the term you are searching; Address Context, which lets you add user addresses to your contact book as an e-card or create a mailing list automatically; and Launchy, which gives you a great deal of control over how links within messages are handled when clicked on.

 

Some of the extensions that work with Firefox that we mentioned last week work, like Foxytunes, which gives you control over your computer's music from within applications, work with Thunderbird as well. A comprehensive list of extensions is available at http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/extensions (note that, unlike with Firefox where extensions can be installed on line, Thunderbird extensions must be downloaded and then installe).  

 

Thunderbird even has a full fledged scheduler/calendar extension, called Mozilla Calendar, which lets you plan events with alarms and recurring events, as well as letting you e-mail alarms to users. You can also publish calendars and download calendars in the Apple iCal format; you can download hundreds of calendars at http://icalshare.com. Mozilla Calendar does everything Outlook does, except hook up with Microsoft servers and Palm Pilots (they're working on the Palm Pilot thing). There is also s stand-alone version of the calendar called Sunbird (both available at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar).

 

Complaints? After a set of features like these, who could possibly complain? Actually, there is one slight drawback to Thunderbird, and that is its sparse documentation. Actually, T-Bird is pretty intuitive, but if you like seeing things in black and white, the official documentation can be seen at http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/documentation.html. Equivalent keyboard shortcuts  for Thunderbird and Outlook Express are listed at http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/keyboard.html. And there are plenty of user forums and help sites, including http://www.moztips.com, http://kb.mozillazine.org/Main_Page, and http://mozilla.gunnars.net.

 

The help system is not as organized as Microsofts' products are because Thunderbird (and Firefox) are open source programs, which means they are owned by no (wo)man. They are free spirits, helped along by the contributions of users around the world. But this is precisely their strength! New functionality is being added all the time in the form of extensions, and the program gets more, not less, secure daily, as users innovate and improve in order to better protect your mail and make your life easier – unlike the "other guys." Get out of the "Redmond Rut" – start using Thunderbird instead of Outlook/Outlook Express and become a true cyber-citizen of the world!

 

Download Thunderbird from http://texturizer.net/thunderbird; free, for all computers and platforms (Windows 98 and better, Mac OSX 10.1, Linux kernel 2.2.14 minimum). Hebrew language version of Thunderbird for Linux and Windows available at http://www.mozilla.org.il/thunderbird; Hebrew Firefox for Linux, Mac and Windows at http://www.mozilla.org.il/firefox.

 

ds@newzgeek.com