OSX Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird?

Namingweary · Namingweary #1 (**permalink**)

05-16-2008, 11:47 PM

Why and why not? I have always liked Thunderbird but the OS X Mail program doesn't seem too bad.

Any suggestions?

cwa107 · cwa107 #2 (**permalink**)

05-16-2008, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Namingweary

Why and why not? I have always liked Thunderbird but the OS X Mail program doesn't seem too bad.

Any suggestions?

I like them equally. Personally, I started with Thunderbird, but eventually switched to Mail since so many people here spoke kindly about it. I like it about the same - it's really just a personal preference type of thing.

Kash · Kash #3 (**permalink**)

05-17-2008, 12:02 AM

I personally prefer Thunderbird for the Extensions, not to mention the fact that I was able to carry over my Thunderbird profile, and consequently thousands of pieces of mail, from my Windows machine.

MaDDoG · MaDDoG #4 (**permalink**)

05-17-2008, 01:03 AM

I'm with CWA on this....I like them both and they both have good and not as good points.

dtravis7 · dtravis7 #5 (**permalink**)

05-17-2008, 01:23 AM

I also like them both. On my PC's I use Thunderbird but on my OSX machines Mail. I just like the simple interface of Mail and how it integrates with OSX.

getuptogetdown · getuptogetdown #6 (**permalink**)

05-17-2008, 01:32 AM

yeah...i used to use thunderbird on my pc but the integration with mac with mail is awesome.

mac57 · mac57 #7 (**permalink**)

05-18-2008, 11:08 AM

I have used both, but I prefer Thunderbird because it uses the industry standard MBX format for its mail. This means that you can import that mail into just about any mailer out there that supports MBX (and most do). The upshot? You are not "locked in" to Thunderbird long term. You can change your mailer like you change your browser if you get tired of it.

Mac Mail on the other hand uses a proprietary format for its mail. While you can export mail out of it and into MBX eventually, it is not straightforward for large volumes of mail. For this reason alone, I prefer Thunderbird.

Thunderbird has one more major benefit - it is platform independent. This means that I can (and I do) copy all of my Thunderbird mail folders to an external hard drive and drop them onto my Windows box or my Linux box and have Thunderbird there work with them happily. Hence, a Thunderbird user is not even tied into any particular computing environment (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) for access to their email.

Thunderbird features unparalleled flexibility as you can see. It is also hugely feature rich, which makes it a great mailer overall.

I have both Thunderbird and Mail.app set up on my machine, and I occassionally use Mail.app, if only to get the background stationary (a feature that Thunderbird does not support). In the end, I use Thunderbird for most of my emailing, but now and then I use Mail.app and just cc: myself on the outbound mail so as to get a copy of it into my main Thunderbird email stash. Perhaps you should do the same thing. Then you don't have to decide which one - you can work with both for a while until you decide.

Brian Higgins · Brian Higgins #8 (**permalink**)

05-22-2008, 11:42 AM

Does Thunderbird support FileMakerPro scripting to attach files to emails, and auromatic email sending?

MaDDoG #4 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 01, 2007 Location: Oz.....near the Wizards home Posts: 1,918 Mac Specs: iMac 24' 7 Snow Leopard + Parallels and Win 7 \| 30 Gb iPod \| Canon EOS 400D	05-17-2008, 01:03 AM I'm with CWA on this....I like them both and they both have good and not as good points. "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." MaDDoG's Photo Gallery - http://mcarfa.smugmug.com/
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dtravis7 #5 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 04, 2005 Location: Modesto, Ca. Posts: 25,796 Mac Specs: iMac C2D Late 2007 20" with 10.8.3, Macbook Santa Rosa 4GB Ram OSX 10.8.3	05-17-2008, 01:23 AM I also like them both. On my PC's I use Thunderbird but on my OSX machines Mail. I just like the simple interface of Mail and how it integrates with OSX. ...Dennis Mac-Forums Community Guidelines
	QUOTE Thanks

getuptogetdown #6 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 01, 2008 Posts: 323 Mac Specs: 15" Matte Macbook Pro 2.5Ghz 4gb RAM 250gb HD, 60gb iPod Classic maxed, iPod shuffle	05-17-2008, 01:32 AM yeah...i used to use thunderbird on my pc but the integration with mac with mail is awesome. Loving my MBP more and more everyday
	QUOTE Thanks

mac57 #7 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 29, 2006 Location: St. Somewhere Posts: 4,547 Mac Specs: PowerMac G5 Quad, 2.5 GHz, 4 Core, 120 GB SSD, 500 GB HDD	05-18-2008, 11:08 AM I have used both, but I prefer Thunderbird because it uses the industry standard MBX format for its mail. This means that you can import that mail into just about any mailer out there that supports MBX (and most do). The upshot? You are not "locked in" to Thunderbird long term. You can change your mailer like you change your browser if you get tired of it. Mac Mail on the other hand uses a proprietary format for its mail. While you can export mail out of it and into MBX eventually, it is not straightforward for large volumes of mail. For this reason alone, I prefer Thunderbird. Thunderbird has one more major benefit - it is platform independent. This means that I can (and I do) copy all of my Thunderbird mail folders to an external hard drive and drop them onto my Windows box or my Linux box and have Thunderbird there work with them happily. Hence, a Thunderbird user is not even tied into any particular computing environment (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) for access to their email. Thunderbird features unparalleled flexibility as you can see. It is also hugely feature rich, which makes it a great mailer overall. I have both Thunderbird and Mail.app set up on my machine, and I occassionally use Mail.app, if only to get the background stationary (a feature that Thunderbird does not support). In the end, I use Thunderbird for most of my emailing, but now and then I use Mail.app and just cc: myself on the outbound mail so as to get a copy of it into my main Thunderbird email stash. Perhaps you should do the same thing. Then you don't have to decide which one - you can work with both for a while until you decide. My Macs: PowerMac G5 Quad, 2.5 GHz, 4 Core, Mac Pro, 3.2 GHz 8 Core, Power Macintosh 7500/100 My iStuff: 32 GB iPhone 4, 30 GB iPod Video, 16 GB iPod Touch My OS': Mac OS X Tiger, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Leopard, Mac OS 8.6, openSUSE 10.3, Win XP I was on the Mac-Forums honor roll for September 2007
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Namingweary #1 (permalink)
Member Since: May 08, 2008 Posts: 76	05-16-2008, 11:47 PM Why and why not? I have always liked Thunderbird but the OS X Mail program doesn't seem too bad. Any suggestions?
	QUOTE Thanks

Brian Higgins #8 (permalink)
Member Since: May 13, 2008 Posts: 2	05-22-2008, 11:42 AM Does Thunderbird support FileMakerPro scripting to attach files to emails, and auromatic email sending?
	QUOTE Thanks

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