By integrating with groupware solutions such as SOGo, Thunderbird 3 will succeed, especially in the business world.

Thunderbird 2 integration with SOGo is already excellent, it just needs a small update for working with 3.

So, you want quality and a release every other week? Good luck with that. How many times have you upgraded your Microsoft "solution" in that time?

@Jon Masters -- um no. I don't run Microsoft solutions. I run open source solutions that typically iterate rapidly or at least once a year, solutions like Firefox.

I've tried TBird 3 and like it but without Lightning it is useless to me. I'll have to stay with TBird 2.xxxx

The nightly build of Lightning works fine with Thunderbird 3.0

I like it but it is still not able to connect to exchange owa natively so i'll have to stick with outlook and evolution.

It works great for gmail though

I would use it for Windows and Gnome as I do not use the default alternatives. In general I find Evolution awkward for "simple" use and Thunderbird is a good alternative.

For KDE i use Kmail which I find far more adaptive to "simple" and more advanced usage.

Thunderbird has lost a lot of ground, but is valuable for it's niche. Hopefully they make it perfect within that niche rather than having a go at Evolution featurewise.

sorry, but lightning does not work for me. I am running ubuntu 64bit. Sunbird does work though but its kind of a drag having a separate application for the calendar.

Overall though, tbird3 is faster but I was pretty happy with tbird2.

I would like to see lightning built in for the next release. Google calendar works pretty sweet with it. It would be nice to get tasks to sync too.

Personally using Lightning & Zindus with TB3 is more enjoyable, more flexible for me than using Zimbra. Better than using the google web interface for mail & calendar as well. My two cents.

Hi, everyone

I just prove it today and i'm very glad for the work, the upgrade process went all ok -- and think i have like 10000+ mails --. After a few minutes working on the new interface a just feel in home.

The new search engine is great and combined with the tab option give you great control and any of my filters and configures gets altered.

Although is a great software i do agree with Kerner, a few more frequently updates will make of this a option for a important environments.

Over the years I've hunted around for alternatives, but I've always been drawn back to TB, even in the dark desperate days of an unloved TB2 bound for the orphanage. Some say that webmail has made the mail client redundant, but I don't get it; it's always seemed to me too slow and too inflexible. Now TB3 clinches it; I won't pretend it the nirvana of email interfaces, but it does me better than anything. With the added bonus that development is right back on the cards.

Having read that the French Defense Dept and National Police use Thunderbird extensively and have contributed significantly to new Thunderbird features, it appears that the view expressed in article is strictly than American perspective.

Likewise, many Americans involved in technology constantly express their opinion of disaster for GNU/Linux desktops - which is quite contradictory to evidence I experience when traveling globally
where the Linux Desktop is exploding in use in South America, many European governments and cities and even in former USSR countries.

Somehow the international reality is omitted frequently in these very myopic comments and articles.

Lightning's support for services needs to be expanded and ultimately become part of TB. I can sync my Blackberry email, contacts, and calendar with Google Apps account. I need at least 4 addons to accomplish the same with TB. It definitely has to support all the features of todays web based alternatives. TB3 is much better than TB2 though.

I love thunderbird and have used it from the early beginnings and I converted many people to thunderbird. I only really need a calendar sollution otherwise I will loose my users to outlook and lightning is not really up to par yet.
I hope the evolution of thunderbird and lightning will go a bit faster.

Their CTO made a proposal in Nov. that after 3.0 they "shoot for one major release every 4-6 months, based on the closest appropriate Firefox/Roadmap release" and "shoot for a milestone every 4 weeks (down from 8-10 in the Tb3 cycle)".

https://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Dmose/Tb_Post-3.0_Scratchpad

TB3 development is supposedly going to continue at a more rapid pace now with TB3.1 coming out in the not too distant future, so here's to hoping it does.

Personally, I can't stomache tbird (or ff for that matter) because of the continual discord and therefore security risk associated with all the plugins. Aside from that, neither FF nor tbird have ever been good with resources which, imo, points to the plugin epic failure.
But most importantly, the 'idea' that everyone "get on board" with FF & Tbird makes me want to puke on general principle

I've been using Netscape and its email counterpart for eons so Thunderbird is just a continuation and lets be honest, I dont really care.

Thunderbird works.
Always has for me,
I dont think about it, its just there.

I would like some things like a font based system instead of big, bigger, biggest but those are really minor.

A browser is a a browser, i stay with FF3 because its somewhat free software and because the extensions help me make it useful for ME.
The same thing with an email client. I used Outlook, Eudora, Netscape and the rest and they all do the same thing.

You cant re-invent the wheel.
And if you do, at least have the kindness to give a 'classic' option when you start changing paradigms.

Going from a one pane to three pane default isnt earth shattering and few things really are.

Thunderbird is along with Firefox, VLC, Skype and OpenOffice the free software (except skype but Kopete isnt exactly rocket science for yahoo.icq users) I have put my windows using friends and family these past few years that have made the transition to Linux so easy this year (with KDE4.2, I have decided that my family and friends are ready to switch to Linux. Its cut my support time by 90%).

Ill update to 3 because Im a THunderbird user but I could just as easily stay as I am for longer.

The email client isnt sexy, its useful.

TB is useful to me now, all I ask is that you dont make it LESS useful to me.
The bells and the whistles?
Meh.

I have Kwin for that.

My company is within days of announcing the 'killer app' for Thunderbird 3.0: an add-on that allows user to change their e-mail after they've sent it, even after it's been read. It also enables massive savings in mail system resources, sometimes over 99%. Our product has been available for Thunderbird 2.0 since early this month.

So, is it too little, too late for TB 3.0? I don't think so. Our add-on is just the beginning and right now, it's only available for Thunderbird. Outlook has nothing like it, so for enterprises looking for the benefits our add-on can provide, Thunderbird is the only game in town.