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CostEffective IT: Mozilla
Thunderbird
Cost-Effective
IT: Mozilla Thunderbird, by
Richard Sonnier
Houston
Business Show "Advisor" Richard Sonnier, of the Information
Technology Services firm Nimble Services, Inc., provides weekly
information on our show about business technology issues. He can be
reached at 281-445-4800 x250 or rsonnier@nimbleservices.com.
This week I will discuss the Mozilla Thunderbird, the email companion
to the FireFox browser.
FireFox Follow Up
For readers of last week's article who are considering the FireFox
browser, the Spread
FireFox website reports that the
preview release has been downloaded 4,433,605 times as this article
goes
to press.
History
Netscape integrated email and news into its
browser in the famous Netscape Communicator. The Mozilla
Foundation continues this
integrated product in its Mozilla Suite that is free software like all
Mozilla products. The Mozilla Suite includes the browser, email and
news reader, IRC chat client and HTML editor. For anyone wanting the
whole package the Mozilla Suite has it all. However, along with the
stand alone FireFox browser, Mozilla is creating a stand alone email
reader called Thunderbird.
Thunderbird
Like FireFox, Thunderbird features a new, clean and easy to use
interface. Even though it is only at release 0.8 which would normally
be considered pre-release software, Thunderbird is winning praise. Many
Outlook users find Thunderbird easier to use and it many ways better. I
think it is clearly superior to Outlook Express and Thunderbird
includes a antiSPAM tool that is top notch. I use Thunderbird for my
most SPAM plagued email accounts and it is able to catch and junk
thousands of SPAM messages each week. In the 0.8 release, Mozilla added:
- Global Inbox
- Comprehensive Data Migration
- RSS Integration
- Improved Privacy Controls
- Improved Quick Search
- Master Password
The Global Inbox is very nice for users with multiple email accounts
and
represents another area that Thunderbird has pulled equal to Outlook.
Really
Simple Syndication (RSS) is the Internet way to keep up with the
constantly changing world. A website like BBC
offers its headlines as a RSS feed. With Thunderbird you can see these
headlines like emails in your inbox. If the headlines are interesting,
then click and you get the whole story from the BBC website. This is a
much faster way to scan the news and find the items that you want to
read. FireFox has a similar feature for RSS called Live Bookmarks. It
is all about saving time and increasing productivity.
Recommendation
If you looking for a better way to managed your email, you should
download Thunderbird and give it a try.
Next week, I will discuss the Frontpage alternative: Nvu.
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