For those who may have gotten excited expecting an article about the Ford Thunderbird or the U.S. Air Force Squadron, no such luck. Today’s subject is Firefox’s little sister, the delightful and delovely desktop email client, Mozilla Thunderbird.
What makes Thunderbird rock so much?
- It’s easy. Thunderbird is easy to install, easy to set up, and easy to use. It includes all the popular features (folders, message tagging, templates) as well as a powerful search feature out of the box. And, if you have problems, there’s a nice big development community that will be happy to help you . (Instead of telling you to call Dell. )
- It’s trimmed down. Microsoft Outlook can be scary: There are features and settings that look like they might launch nuclear weapons. Thunderbird doesn’t do anything but email (by default), and it does it really well.
- It’s extendable. Do you actually use the calendar in Outlook? No problem, there’s Lightning, a calendar extension for Thunderbird . (Yes, Thunder(bird) and Lighting. We’re geeks, remember?) Use Google Calendar? There’s an extension for that . There are also extensions for commonly used signatures and even one to associate pictures with your contacts!
- It’s secure. Thunderbird has increased security by default, including phishing protection, remote image blocking, junk mail filtering, and automatic updating. It also has plenty of extensions to make it more secure: I like the Sender Verification extension , which uses a variety of security frameworks.
- It’s free. That’s right, it doesn’t cost a cent.. It’s also free as in open source, which is even better.
If you’re sick of Outlook, or have just been looking for the perfect email solution, give Thunderbird a try . (While you’re at it, check out the family superstar, Firefox .) And, of course, if you like it, consider supporting the work of the Mozilla Foundation.
Disclaimer: As always, I’m not affiliated with the Mozilla Foundation or any of the extensions I’ve recommended, I’m just a regular user.