I used to just use webmail for my main e-mail account (gmail) and my school e-mail. I’ve always used Outlook on my desktop for my ISPs e-mail because it’s not important and I rarely check it. But a few months ago I was chatting with someone and they made a compelling argument that made me want to try actually using a software client for e-mail. Just because it was there, I decided I’d give Apple Mail a go. It was a little rough starting… trying to get used to things on it and what not. But I gave it an honest chance and in the end I find I actually pretty much like it.
Recently my brother was telling me he used it and found that it sucked with his g-mail account because he had so much e-mail. I’m not sure why that would matter other than they initial sync. He probably didn’t give it enough of a chance. (We’re both using IMAP, btw.) He said he uses thunderbird and finds it to be much better. I had always heard about thunderbird but have never actually tried it, despite loving Firefox (which oddly enough my brother hates… he’s retarded in that sense).
So… last night I gave Thunderbird a go. I setup IMAP for my gmail and closed Apple Mail to give Thunderbird a good chance. Just over 24 hours later… I had closed Thunderbird and reopened Apple Mail because I can’t stand Thunderbird.
From the start, it just felt like crap. It has a very boring theme and it just feels like a hack off a web browser or something (which it is). Every time you click a folder it has to load up the messages… then eventually loads and scrolls to the most recently selected message. Such an operation is instant in Apple Mail. There was also a weird issue where some random message was just brought to the front of the list as if I had just received it… but it was from sometime in 2007. I tried reordering by date (again)… but it still insisted that I had just received this message.
Then after some time… I realized that you have to actually click on the various folders (labels in g-mail terms) to see if there are new messages in them. That is stupid and I couldn’t find any way to fix it. I decided to look for an Add-On. While I was looking through them… I found an Apple Mail theme and decided to try it out just because I thought the default theme sucked. I go to install it and it says it’s not compatible with my version of thunderbird (the latest, 2.0.0.14). I dismiss it as just that maintainer not keeping it up to date. I then found an add-on that might help with this new messages in different folders issue. I go to install that and lo-and-behold… it isn’t compatible either! Two add-ons in a row… both of which would actually improve my experience with Thunderbird. Why the hell are so many add-ons incompatible with the latest version of the software?!
Also… some general things like a stupid question every time I go to send an e-mail about using plain text, html, or both was really getting on my nerves. I just want to send the fucking message as it is… if it has HTML in it then that is what I wanted. Just send the damn message! It was also very slow at actually downloading a message when I click on it to read it.
I did a Google search on this just to see if I was alone in my thinking… and it’s evident that I’m not.
So… I recommend that you don’t use Thunderbird. Use Apple Mail (if possible), Outlook, or just webmail. (Honestly… Outlook is a pretty good mail client (Not Outlook Express)).
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