Goodbye Thunderbird, you've become as bad as Firefox

[ByebyeTB]

After some 26 years with Thunderbird, I've had enough from v.128. Mid-summer TB began deleting emails and failing to store sent mails. Any attempt to place mail in folders or delete unwanted mails caused it to hang for 20-30 seconds. Last straw was deleting of all my sent mail over past four months. I posted my problems among similar snags on the TB forum, but there were no replies.

All I want is a system to receive, store and send my messages, and TB did this perfectly for years. I neither want nor need this constant 'improvement' and new gizmos. In this regard I think TB has suffered the demise of Firefox, death by a thousand well-meaning 'improvements', which caused me to ditch it a couple of years ago. I've turned to my supplier's (paid-for) offering which is just what I needed. And it's less than we were gladly donating to Mozilla each year.

Good luck to everyone, hope your experience is happier than mine.

[0987654321a]

Hear, hear! I couldn't agree more with everything you've said. Thunderbird has lost its way with all these unnecessary 'improvements,' and it's frustrating that long-time users like us are left to deal with the consequences. The quicker people stop using it, the quicker it will perish, and maybe then they’ll realize that all we wanted was a simple, reliable email system without the bloat. It's a shame that a once-great product has taken this turn, but moving to something that just works is the best decision.

[ThePillenwerfer]

Whilst I agree with your sentiments the question has to be asked:  Why if you were happy with older versions of Thunderbird did you "up-grade" them?  I installed version 45 years ago and never changed it until I had to because it couldn't deal with OAuth2.  I then moved to 115 and will use that until protocols change so I no longer can.

I've been around computers long enough to have learnt the pattern.  Software starts out a bit rough and ready and gradually improves until it becomes really good but the developers can't then leave well alone and end-up spoiling it.

Ideally Thunderbird would do what MicroSoft did years ago when they had Outlook for business and Outlook Express for private use.  Some sort of Thunderbird (and Firefox) Light would be far better for a lot of us.

[ByebyeTB]

Being ancient and non-techie I auto-installed the updates as they arrived, as I do with all my kit, because I assume that they include security patches etc. Someone with similar problems received a suggestion to allow the app/program to bypass the firewall and this did indeed halt the delays (but not the deleted emails). 

When I saw the suggestion to disable my firewall I realised TB had reached the end of the road.

Your idea of a 'Lite' version is a good one, eg FF and TB as they used to be. But too late for me.

[ThePillenwerfer]

Seamonkey is pretty much Firefox and Thunderbird as they were in the good old days. 

[ByebyeTB]

Thanks PW, I didn't realise Seamonkey was still around though I never tried it as TB was fine. I had another look and unfortunately it too is open source and seems to be on Mozilla base ... I've had enough tinkering and I'm happy to pay Fastmail for its simple but reliable service. We were paying more in donations to Mozilla anyway.

[ThePillenwerfer]

Seamonkey is based on older versions of Firefox and Thunderbird but with newer bits that are needed for security and to use modern protocols 'under the hood.'  As a user you'd still think you were using things from years ago.  Its developers seem to realise that people use it because they like it so don't change in into something they may not.

I'm happy with Thunderbird 115 after spending ages tweaking it to my liking, something not everybody is willing to do of course.  I'm also happy with Firefox at present but have concerns about how it will be in the future.  Seamonkey is lacking in some newer functions that I do want but there could well come a day when I'd rather manage without them than put up with what Firefox may have in store.

If you've found something else and happy with it that's all that counts.

[Agentvirtuel]

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