RE: Thunderbird sucks!

Damien Hull wrote:

> Why do I have filters for "Local Folders" and account filters that
> apply to "dhull@digitaloverload.net"? Under Evolution I just have
> filters. All filters apply to all things. That includes incoming

Because if they did that someone would complain that they want to filter set
X of messages for this account, and set Y for that account and they're stuck
w/a one size fits all solution. It is a minor bit of work to set up a 2nd
(or 3rd) filter, but 99% of the people using t-bird probably only have on
mailbox they're checking anyway. I like the granularity. I plonk some
posts in newsgroups that will never hit my inbox anyway, so why filter for
them. Probably slight, but if the filters grow very big you could see a
performance hit in theory.

> email. I figured out how to "right click" on an email address in a
> message and create a filter. It works but the filter only applies to
> "Local Folders". This means that new incoming email will not get
> filtered. I now have to recreate that filter under
> "dhull@digitaloverload.net". Thunderbird is making me work twice. In
> Evolution I create one filter and it works for all things.

I go into Tools, Message Filters rather than right clicking on an email.
Probably six of one and a half dozen of the other but there's a pull down
that lets me select which account to apply the filter in. Still have to
enter it twice, but it's all right there.

> The other annoying thing about Thunderbird is the junk mail filter.
> Why do they ask you if you want a junk folder? They should just

Because some folks (like me) prefer to just move it straight to the trash
folder. Just as easy to scan there for false positives, then empty trash.
It's the basic Linux philosophy I guess; have it your way. Set it up the
way that works best for you. Maybe a bit more work up front, but more
flexible. It would be nice to have a "Apply filter to all accounts" button
though so that you can get one stop shopping when desired.

> In Evolution all messages marked as "junk" are moved to the junk
> folder. I haven't figure out what Thunderbird is doing but I marked a
> few messages as "junk" and they just sat in my in box. Why? Is
> Thunderbird waiting for me to run the junk mail filter?

Go into Tools, Message Filters and select your actions. There's a radio
button that says to immediately perform the junk action when you manually
mark something as junk. Don't know why it's not on by default, but when any
junk messages are missed now, I just click on the junk status button in the
message and *poof*, it disappears into trash. One note, I don't have but a
couple of filters. Marking something as junk allows the system to "learn"
(I think they're using a Bayesian filter internally) so I don't have to make
an entry for ever bozo out there.

 
> I'm trying to switch to Thunderbird because it runs on all major
> operating systems. If I have a client on Windows I can show them how
> to use Thunderbird. If I have another client on a Mac I can still
> show them how to use Thunderbird. However, I can't recommend crap.

It's all what you get used to. I like the simple, minimalistic approach to
Mozilla/T-Bird email and news. Don't need all the clutter or a bunch of
features that I'll never use. Tried Forte Agent for news for instance (two
times) and think it's the most spastic user interface I've ever seen.
Others think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

 
> I'm going to give Thunderbird a good testing. What does that mean?
> Well, I'll post something in about a week. If I haven't lost my mined
> trying to read my email by then. I'm also going to try and send
> something to the Thunderbird developers. Email is a fact of life and
> we can't waist what little time we have trying to figure out why our
> email filters didn't work.
>
> I give Thunderbird two thumbs way down.

It ain't bad - just different that what you're used to. IMHO. YMMV and all
that...

...Kevin

-- 
Kevin Miller                Registered Linux User No: 307357
CBJ MIS Dept.               Network Systems Admin., Mail Admin.
155 South Seward Street     ph: (907) 586-0242
Juneau, Alaska 99801        fax: (907 586-4500
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