[Discuss] Thunderbird 5.0

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

In general, I like Thunderbird 5.0. But I still have some issues.
Every once in a while Thunderbird freezes. This goes back to thunderbird
2. Thunderbird 3.1 was a bit better.
There are 2 causes of the freezes. One is that while updating updating
from a server (Google) it sometimes takes a while. This could be an
issue with Google's IMAP servers. It is also poor design since not only
does the input side of T-Bird hang, but also it hangs while composing
messages. If I were designing an email system, I would  block the
incoming folder so that only the in-progress get would be able to wroite
to that folder, but I would allow compose to continue to write to
drafts. But, other than getting stuck on loading messages occasionally,
there was a time when it just froze (99% CPU) for not discernible
reason. This seemed to be less of an issue with 3.1, but I think I am
seeing it again on 5.0 (although I have not had the time to analyze).
Note that when it does freeze and I am typing the input keystrokes are
saved, but that is a function of the keyboard driver. One reason I want
to use IMAP with Google is that I want to be able to access mail
remotely. For instance, my email address is forwarded to gmail on the
BLU server.


Years ago I used claws and even kmail. I like claws because it is clean
and lightweight, but I do like to send formatted email and claws
specifically does not send other than plain text. I switched from claws
because at one point it failed to build on SuSE Linux after an upgrade
to version of SuSE. And secondly I did want to be able to send formatted
email so some people. I have not used kmail recently, but way back when
I found it very clunky. I have not used evolution in recent years. But
there are certain features I want in an email client:
Ability to GPG sign email (all clients do that, some need plugins).
Ability to configure either folders or recipients to use a specific
identity. Thunderbird does this with a plugin, claws does this with
folder properties.
The ability to classify an email address based on formatting criteria,
such as email sent to discuss and some other listservs and individuals
send only plain text, other targets can get html email. Thunderbird has
this but claws does not. And lastly a decent X footprint so I can access
my email client using x over IP through an ssh tunnel. One solution to
this is to set up an imap client at home and use local version of the
email client, but the performance of our network here at work is pretty
decent.
The ability of the email client to filter on header fields like
'List-Id:'. T-Bird does this well, but in the past when I used kmail it
did not or I had to edit the specific config file by hand.

So, I am looking for some opinions based on experience, not things like
'I hate evolution because of mono', or something like that. I don't
really care if the client has an integrated calendar. I don't even care
that much about the contacts. AFAIK, all these clients will import my
email and some settings, and hopefully most of my filters.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846