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Mozilla.org is planning to abandon the venerable browser suite motif it inherited from Netscape. Mozilla 1.5, currently in alpha, will probably be the last suite version of Mozilla, after which there will be a switch to a leaner, browser-only product based on the current Mozilla FireBird development browser. 
In order to accommodate the many Mozilla users who depend on Mozilla's Mail module for email, Mozilla .org has developed a standalone email client application called ThunderBird, and a very nice one it is too. I downloaded ThunderBird 1.0 over the weekend and checked it out. I'm impressed. This is a very complete and up-to-date email client in the three-pane mode familiar to users of OS X Mail and Outlook Express, et al. Indeed, while it's early days yet, I think I like ThunderBird better than any other three-pane email client I've tried. It's fast, attractive, and easy to configure. Mozilla.org's stated goal with ThunderBird is to produce a cross platform stand alone mail application using the XUL user interface language. The intended user is someone who uses Mozilla Firebird (or other standalone browser) as their primary browser and wants a mail client based on Mozilla that "plays nice" with the browser. In addition, by focusing solely on standalone mail, the developers say thay think they can "make some dents in the overall footprint and performance of the mail client by removing components and chrome we don't need. On top of that, the UI becomes much cleaner as a stand alone application as opposed to being part of the Mozilla suite." 
In addition to the feature set found in Mozilla Mail, Thunderbird has some new features and improvements that include:
• The ability to customize your toolbars the way you want them. Choose View / Toolbars / Customize inside any window.
Mozilla ThunderBird also uses mbox email box files, which can be opened with a text editor, and should be able to be converted to open in other email clients like Eudora (I haven't tried this yet). There is no import function from other email clients as yet, but I presume that it's possible to import email archives and address lists from Mozilla Mail. Like Eudora 6.0, ThunderBird has a highly configurable junk mail filter, and there is a nice search engine. 
So far, I haven't found much not to like about ThunderBird other than that I'm not really partial to the three-box UI, preferring the more minimalist interfaces of Eudora and Nisus Email. The only significant complaint I have about Mozilla Thunderbird so far is that it's humongously big -- an 11 megabyte download in its OS X version, and the uncompressed disk image is a whipping 33.2 MB, which is also about the size of the application file. By comparison, the Eudora 6.0 installer, unstuffed, is only 3.3 MB, and Apple's whole Safari browser disk image is only 6.2 MB. Indeed, the Mozilla FireBird (34.3 MB) and Mozilla ThunderBird (33.2 MB) disk images combined are much larger than the old Mozilla suite application DM (48 MB). Hopefully, they will be able to pare it down a bit in subsequent versions. Mozilla Thunderbird is beta freeware
System requirements:
For more information, visit:
RE: Your iBook battery problems Services From dxtr Hi Charles, I believe a retraction is in order and I quote "But some people (e.g. me) don't like nor support haxies and therefore don't use ICeCoffEE at all or use an older, non-APE version. " end quote What version of Window Shade, a very good haxie, is on all your OS X computers? I understand the older version non-APE but no haxie support from you? What's wrong with APE. Please be specific. "I don't like them" is not a reason.
seeya
Hi dxtr;
A retraction is not in order, but an explanation and correction are.
I ain't got nothin' against haxies. I have APE installed on both my OS X 'Books, with no problems, and I love WindowShade X. However, I do get fairly frequent letters from people who don't like haxies for some reason or another.
Apparently someone at DEVONTechnologies doesn't like them either, because the caveat you cited about APE came from the release notes for one of the Service Pack items, and I overlooked editing out the parenthetical "(eg: me)" interpolation.
Now fixed in the article, and my apologies to readers and to Unsanity Software for the error and any understandable misunderstanding.
Charles Re: Haxies From dxtr Hi Charles, I did not think you disliked haxies. Glad to see it confirmed. I have most if not all of Unsanity'es wonderful little haxies installed and have had ZERO problems with them. I would be very interested to get Devons' take on the problems. I use Calc Service but none of the others so I'll have to download the service pack to see their comments.
seeya
Hi dxtr;
It's no hardship to download the ServicePack. It's all of 280k, and worth having in your Services Menu.
However, they did not elaborate on the haxie objection more extensively than what I cited. Others have suggested from time to time that haxies can cause system stability problems, but aside from a soon-fixed issue with FruitMenu and one of the OS X updates, I've not noticed any problems.
Charles RE: Your iBook battery problems From Robert Emslie Dear Charles, I have a Pismo 400 running 10.2.6, and overnight battery drain while in sleep mode amounts to 10%, approx. 1% per hour... This might not be news to you, but you could reset the NV RAM through Open Firmware... I did that a couple of days ago, and my 3 year old battery gives me roughly 2-3 hours of operation (Energy Saver prefs set to "Longest battery life" and display dimmed down)... Here's the walk-through: Restart your iBook with option-command-O-F pressed until you get to the Open Firmware prompt, where you type this:
reset-nvram {enter}
After the second command, the Mac restarts and you might want to zap the PRAM at this point. Hope it works...
Best regards,
Hi Robert;
Yes, I noted the Open Firmware wrinkle in The Road Warrior on MacOpinion last week. I intend to get around to trying it. I have no complaint about battery life when I'm using the iBook -- 3.5 hours plus taking no energy conservation measures. However, I've experienced the overnight battery drain with the machine asleep in OS X on both the Pismo and the iBook. If the Open Firmware reset fixes it I'll be delighted.
Charles
From Jonathan Tyzack Hi Charles, "3. Copying perhaps. I don't notice that moving and deleting is faster. In fact there is a lag when deleting with a keyboard shortcut in X that doesn't obtain in OS 9. Plus, opening files is virtually instantaneous in OS 9; sluggish in X -- at least on the G3s." Perhaps I should have qualified that as being more to do with the much better multi-tasking in OS X. Moving/deleting is "faster" because once I start it (with significant numbers of files) I can ignore it totally whereas in OS 9, if you swapped to another task, you would have a noticeable impact on performance, either in that task itself or in the deletion/moving of files... as for opening things, can't say I have noticed much difference there myself. FWIW, I include a FYI on top of your review to people installing WordService (or any other Service for that matter) - there is a bug in OS X that means Carbon apps like the Finder, which theoretically can support Services, will lose this ability if there are more than about 60 or 70 on offer in the menu (which is why installing WordService can tip it over the edge as it offers so many excellent features). Personally, the gains that WordService brings far outweigh any need I have for Services in the Finder, so I don't much care about this, but from the reviews I have seen at VersionTracker I thought people ought to be forewarned that if this happens to them, it is an Apple issue and not a DEVONtechnologies one so you know who to complain too ;-) Cheers, Jonathan P.S. If you use iCal, another great freeware Service to try out is the CalendarCreator service (search MacUpdate.com or Versiontracker.com) which will try to create an iCal entry for you from selected text (e.g. if someone sends you a message saying "meet you at the cinema on Thursday at 7pm," CalendarCreator will create an entry in iCal on Thursday, 7pm containing that text. Also, if you haven't already got it, OmniDictionary (from the ever excellent OmniGroup.com) is also an invaluable tool that offers a Service.
Hi Jonathan;
I agree that its multitasking prowess covers for a lot of OS X's slowness sins. I am doing more and more multitasking, the longer I use OS X.
Thanks for the tip about the Carbon App/Services bug. Tex Edit Plus's developer Tom Bender and I were recently corresponding and scratching our heads as to why I can't get Services to work in TE+ on my machines. You appear to have supplied the explanation. Since the Services menu refuses to appear in the Finder on my computers as well, and only works in Cocoa applications.....
I haven't tried iCal or OmniDictionary. Thanks for the reports.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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