Re: Devin's effort

But the last time I checked TB doesn't do two things that are important to me:
1) support nested groups in the address book
2) allow copy/paste creation of an address group without creating individual contacts. 

Has TB begun supporting these features? Last I knew only Mulberry (and Pine! :) supported them, but I'd love to know that there's an alternative. 

Steve


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Sent from the carpet of the sun. 

> On Apr 20, 2015, at 9:35 AM, Tanstaafl <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> On 4/20/2015 7:54 AM, Bernie Maier <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Tanstaafl:
>>> So... I'm very curious what you (and the other list participants here)
>>> consider some of the most appealing features of Mulberry over other IMAP
>>> clients you/they have used.
> 
>> For me it's:
>> 
>> 1. *Proper* support for multiple accounts. While Thunderbird supports
>> multiple accounts, the last time I looked you could not log into
>> them separately. Either all accounts made a login attempt, or you
>> logged out of all accounts.
> 
> Well... I have 8 separate IMAP accounts in my personal TB (I use
> Portable versions, so I can have both my Personal and Work TB's running
> simultaneously), and 13 separate IMAP accounts in my work TB, all with
> independent 'check account' settings (some disabled so I have to check
> manually, others set to different intervals checking automatically).
> 
> Also, I don't recall a time when you couldn't do this with TB...
> 
>> 2. *Intelligent* support for massive (Gigabyte plus) mail archives
>> with a large number of folders.
> 
> Ditto here. Most of my accounts have 5GB+ of mail, some with many dozens
> (maybe even approaching 100) folders, and performance is fine. Of
> course, nothing is perfect, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that very
> occasionally, TB can get 'confused', and go into la-la-land, and has to
> be restarted (sometimes leaving a rogue process running that has to be
> manually killed off).
> 
> I will say that there was one release - version 3.something - that
> automatically enabled GLODA (global search and indexer) and full offline
> mode for all accounts and folders, I was extremely pissed, because I
> had/have a very careful selection of certain folders for full offline
> mode, and others not. This was by far the worst experience I've ever had
> with TB.
> 
> That said, if you have everything set to full offline mode, once all
> folders are fully synced and GLODA is fully up to date, searching is
> pretty powerful.
> 
>> 3. I also loathe the 3-pane interface made standard by Outlook, so
>> I'm glad that Mulberry still supports its original classic
>> multi-window interface, even though it too fell into line with the
>> 3-pane interface. I recall Thunderbird kinda-sorta supported
>> something other than the 3-pane interface,
> 
> TB has 3 Views - Classic (this is the default, and is 3 pane which is
> about the same as Mulberry's from what I can see of the screenshots
> online), Wide (also 3 pane, but the Preview Pane is extended underneath
> the Accounts Pane), and Vertical, which is the default Outlook view (and
> which I also dislike).
> 
>> but it was a bit clunky compared to Mulberry's "each folder and 
>> message can appear in a separate window if you want it" approach.
> 
> Messages can definitely be set to open in separate windows (the default
> is tabs, but I really dislike tabs in my mail client).
> 
> Folders can be opened in new windows by right-clicking on  them and
> doing it manually, but there is no option to do this automatically, and
> it opens an entire second Thunderbird window, which is probably not what
> you are wanting.
> 
> So, I guess that would be a 'no' on that one.
> 
>> 4. I have no idea if Thunderbird supports multiple identities /
>> personalities.
> 
> TB has excellent support for multiple Identities.
> 
>> Mulberry does a decent job of these, though I'm finding that because 
>> I use an outrageously large number of identities (because I can with
>> my own vanity domain, and so I have separate identities for each
>> mailing list, shop, site etc. that I deal with) that Mulberry's
>> identities don't scale really well.
> 
> TB's do... and with a few excellent Addons, the Identities can be easily
> associated with specific folders.
> 
> In fact, Addons (ie, customizability) is one of the main reasons I have
> stuck with TB for so long.
> 
>> I had tried Thunderbird on and off more than once over the years,
>> and whilst obviously capable in both the basics and with some degree
>> of more sophisticated use, every time I tried it, it fell far short
>> of what is needed for really my heavy-duty email requirements.
> 
> 
> I'll wager that it will do pretty much everything you want and more,
> with possibly a few exceptions (ie, opening folders in separate
> windows), but you would likely need to customize it quite a bit, as I
> have. The UI in mine is heavily customized. Anyone who uses the default
> UI would almost not even recognize mine as thunderbird...
> 
> I currently use a grand total of 46 Addons (in TB - only 41 in
> Firefox)... ;)
> 
>> And my time became more valuable to me than to bother keeping on
>> re-trying Thunderbird in the hope that it had improved.
> 
> Well, not to push, but if you ever do decide to give it another look,
> I'd be happy to answer any question and help you decide if it really is
> capable of doing what you need/want.
> 
>> So I've stuck with Mulberry. But I think it does require a more
>> major effort to modernise it than can really be justified by usage
>> and demand.
> 
> Definitely, if it is only one or so people doing the work. Thankfully,
> there are a lot more than that working on Thunderbird, and as I said,
> there is movement on some really old bugs that have been some of the
> more major annoyances. I'm seriously looking forward to the Composer and
> Address Book rewrites.
> 
>> Hope that helps satisfy your curiosity.
> 
> Yes, thanks very much for the detailed response.
> 
> Charles