- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/NT
- Date added: April 19, 2007
- Total Downloads: 775,848
- Downloads last week: 3,460
- See full specifications
A newer version of Mozilla Thunderbird is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 780 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff
Mozilla's Thunderbird comes into its own with version 2.0, offering features and innovations that take aim at both Web mail clients and industry standards like Microsoft's Outlook.
The program loads fast, even when weighed down by multiple folders and RSS feeds, and the basic feature set remains intact: good junk mail filters, HTML support, multiple identities, and POP, IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange server support. Security features include S/MMIE, digital signing, message encryption, and a built-in phishing detector. Interface tweaks maximize message viewing, an obvious necessity in an e-mail reader.
What makes this freeware e-mail client such a serious contender are the new features. Back and forward buttons, like you have in your Web browser, let you jump through messages in the order that you viewed them. Customizable tag names and colors make it a cinch to keep things organized, even across dozens of message folders. The folder pane is customizable. Gmail and Mac users will find configuration as simple as entering your e-mail address and password, with rumored support forthcoming for other Web-based providers. Search results can be saved, and Thunderbird has Firefox's extension capability, allowing for user-designed tweaks that greatly enhance the program.
Flexible, powerful, and lightweight, Thunderbird 2 is an appropriate companion app to Mozilla's Firefox in every way.
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Publisher's description
From Mozilla :Thunderbird makes e-mailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features, such as intelligent spam filters, a built-in RSS reader, and quick search.
Thunderbird gives you a faster, safer, and more productive e-mail experience. Thunderbird was designed to prevent viruses and to stop junk mail so you can get back to reading your mail. Thunderbird provides the most effective tools for detecting junk mail. Our tools analyze your e-mail and identify those that are most likely to be junk. You can automatically have your junk mail deleted or you can put it in a folder you specify, just in case you like reading junk mail. View your e-mail the way you want it. Access your e-mail with Thunderbird's new three-column view. Customize your toolbar, change its look with themes, and use Mail Views to quickly sort through your messages.
Version 2.0 adds message tags, and new visual theme, session-history navigation, advanced folder views, and a variety of other new features.
What's new in this version:
Version 2.0 adds message tags, a new visual theme, session-history navigation, advanced folder views, and a variety of other new features.
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User reviews of Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 780 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 48 user reviewsSee all 48 user reviews
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3 out of 5 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
"Thunderbird is putting up quite a fight against Outlook!"
Pros: Is a superb product, the tagging is a nice addition.
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13 out of 16 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
"The best overall email client out there, period."
Pros: Open Source.
Free to use.
SUPERB junk mail filtering.
Excellent incoming filter options (folder, virtual folder or both).
Fast.
On-the fly spell checking.
You can have multiple accounts, each with individual inboxes and subfolders. On top of that, you can have multiple identities in each account.
Built-in RSS reader (although you can do better with an extension).
Smart address completion.
Full Usenet (newsgroup) capability (multiple account options here too).
Easily import your email and settings from other programs.
VERY customizable thanks to addons (extensions) from various sites (including the official Mozilla addons site).
I personally have about 30 extensions installed.
Customizable message "tagging" feature.
Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.
You can customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.
Gmail POP access is integrated.
Customizable mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message preview text.
New Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit) support.
Cons: You'd think the words "Mozilla" and "Thunderbird" would be in the spell checking dictionary. Adding lots of Extensions can slow an otherwise very fast pgogram down.
Sometimes an installed extension can render the program instable or create strange behavior. And it can be difficult to determine which extension is the culprit.
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19 out of 26 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
"Some nice improvements but......"
Pros: Thunderbird 2.0 improves on the last version with the addition of message tags, a three column viewer, session history navigation, and advanced folder views. While these are nice none of the new features strike me as earth shaking improvements. That's ok for me because ground breaking state-of-the-art features aren't as important as having a smooth running glitch free piece of software loaded with just enough functions to make my emailing convenient. As for the bells and whistles, well, you can give them to the cows and traffic cops. Stick to basics and do it well.
Cons: All in all I would say Thunderbird 2.0 is a definite step up from v. 1.5, but the program is not without its' faults. The recently developed Lightning calendar extension that integrates with Thunderbird 2.0 is having teething problems, and some of the import/export functions don't work as smoothly as they should. Also, as you would expect from a new version, not all of the extensions that worked in T Bird 1.5 function in the new version yet. There are also some VERY IRKSOME shortcomings seen in previous versions that have yet to be addressed. 1.) When composing a new mail message it is a royal pain in the b_tt to change the font size. Often times you have to readjust the settings several times to get the size you want. Thunderbird should have a drop down menu where you see and select from a list that shows not only the font size number but also an example letter of that size? 2.) For the font type it would also be nice if, next to the font name, there was an example of that font. That would make changing fonts so much less painful. HINT HINT... it shouldn't be painful . These are very simple and needed changes that would make composing a message in this email client much easier. Instead of being hit or miss it would be a lot more professional. 3.) When I want to change the the background color (stationary?) Thunderbird 2.0 only gives me a choice of 70 colors. This palette is WAY TOO LIMITED! Often times I would like to use background colors that are much lighter and far less saturated. It would be so much better to be able to choose from the full color spectrum. Seventy colors?....YUCK! This is the graphic equivalent to stone knives and bear skins. Come on T Bird developers.... get with it!
I really hope these three suggestions become default features in the next update.
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15 out of 17 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
Pros: Much easier and much more secure that OE with effective spam filters and easy to set up POP filters/accounts (I always struggle with it but found it easy on Thunderbird), dictionary's, themes and other add-ons available all for free, speedy too. I am a big fan of Mozilla and this is another A+ product by them.
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11 out of 12 people found this review helpful
Version: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
"Good email client, but with just a few gripes."
Pros: T-bird is a relatively small download, and is quick to install. The addition of message tags is useful, and the program allows pretty flexible filters and message handling.
Like Firefox, there are add-ons available for Thunderbird. The most useful one is probably the calendar, which gives Thunderbird abilities similar to MS Outlook.
Cons: There are bugs that still persist from the early 1.x versions. Importing account settings from Outlook or OE does not work properly, and results in wrong port settings, wrong server names, etc.
The Lightning calendar add-on is still buggy and incomplete. It won't print, the command line switch to start Thunderbird in calendar mode doesn't work, and maybe worst of all, importing iCal files is inaccurate -- Appointment times get changed, which could be a major headache if you rely on it for your scheduling.
Thunderbird's mail-handling is good, but the setup and the calendar add-on need a good bit of work.
- See all 48 user reviews Write review
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