TBS, I keep a portable version of Thunderbird on my flash drive for those terribly unfortunate times when I have to use a PC. It's really seamless running from flash drive.

If you are one of those people who is forever pissed off at how poorly Mail handles IMAP folders, then Thunderbird is a really good option. But if you value the integration aspect, then you just have to stick it out with Mail.

HTH.

We use Entourage at the office. My boss asked me if I knew anything about Thunderbird, and I didn't. I figured I'd ask around here, knowing how many of you guys are particular about email apps.

So Thunderbird is better for portability?

Chrome47,

I used to use Thuderbird when I used my charter account for personal email. It is versitile and I loved it. Unfortunately, I no longet use it because I use gmail now, an it works much better with the web interface (or at least it does for me).

I am stuck in a corporate canned version of Outlook for the office. So I cannot use T-Bird for that purpose either.

I recommend giving Thunderbird a try.

I used Thunderbird in an XP office instead of the dreadful Outlook Express. My favorite features:
- Spam Filter: it learns as you go, it requires no extra install and it works for me
- Search Folders: I work at a non-profit where many of us are involved in multiple projects. I'd get an email from Bob that had to do with Project A, B, & C, and one from Mary about B & D, and one from Joe about A & D (I know, the poeple in my office have ATROCIOUS email habits). However, I could throw all my mail into one big folder and then use search folders to find stuff. One for each co-worker. One for each project. Fast & Clean.

CONS:
- As soon as you want to do something other than email, TBird starts to suck wind.
- It's easy to try and make it more than it is or should be by installing every extension out there.

I've been wanting to switch over to it since I can't run kontact on a windows box. Were stuck with lotus Notes at the office and it has to be the absolute worst e-mail/calendar program ever written, its completely useless. But I need/want something with the integrated calendar/todo list like what notes/outlook/kontact has, is there anything for tunderbird (I tried the mozilla calendar and it was very basic).

I switched from Mail.app to Thunderbird a few weeks ago, Mail was becoming unusable with the numerous IMAP accounts and several thousand emails ive got stored.

Thunderbird is also not a perfect solution, no intergration with OSX addressbook (but its coming soon, a patch is in there for 2.0) and also on my Powerbook it seems to freeze up when coming out of sleep. I enjoy the fact I can sync my profile between my USB key, Windows PC and Mac quite easily just by copying the files over, never will I have to suffer with my Mac being out of sync with my Windows thunderbird install for mail filters and stuff.

Generally it a matter of personal preference, but give it a try at least :)

I want to agree with the general opinion on Thunderbird: it's a very good IMAP client. If you need something other than that out of your mail reader, it may not be what you want.

I use Thunderbird as a "backup" mail client *- I keep Portable Thunderbird on my USB stick for having an email client handy when I'm at other computers. I don't use it at home, where I prefer either Evolution or Gnus. Evolution is a bit more featureful (supports ldap address books, plus a bunch of PIM stuff I don't use), whereas Gnus is more keyboard-friendly and integrates well with my workflow.

It's really not too shabby, but much like Firefox, it feels more at home on Windows than it does on Mac OS X.

I still use Mail, but I keep a copy of Thunderbird around for certain things that it does better. Try deleting or moving a few hundred emails on an IMAP server with both Mail and TB, for example. Mail gives you time to go out, maybe get some coffee, read the paper...

I don't know if you still need to be invited to join Gmail...but if you do, I've got plenty of invites available for anyone who would like to use it. I love it. I've not tried Thunderbird...I'm going to look into it, but it would take a lot to get me to bother to switch again....just too much hassle :)