I feel as though I have been waiting for Thunderbird 3 for ever - but now it is finally out there. This article in Network World discusses some of the new Thunderbird direction and features.

I have installed on top the default Kubuntu Thunderbird 2 (after backing up the .mozilla-thunderbird directory) a couple of days ago, and, apart from a couple of small problems, it has worked well.

One of the issues I still have with Thunderbird is the inability to import email and settings from other versions of Thunderbird - particularly the email filters. I used a text editor to copy and paste the filters into the new file, but they did not seem to be working.

Thunderbird 3's filters can now be set to run when the mail is checked, or run manually, or both. The filters copied over were all set to only run when the mail was checked, making them hard to test. I small problem, but I seem to spend too much time recreating settings in Thunderbird, and find the filters particularly annoying. Why, for example, can you not apply a filter to all mail accounts?

Of course, if I waited untill Kubuntu is updated in April, I'd probably avoid these problems. It's the price you pay for early adoption.

Anyway - enough of a moan. I installed the Lightning extension, and got my calendars back. You can now right click an email and convert it to a task or event - one thing I really liked about Outlook.

The new account wizards are much better as well - they will automatically check what security the mail server supports, and use the most secure. It defaults to the IMAP protocol - if this is not what you want, you'll need to add an account manually. Thunderbird 3 does have local caching of email, so you don't need a POP account to work offline.

If you use Gmail and Google Calendar, you're in luck. Thunderbird 3 with Lightning makes adding these very easy - but it will try to download and cache your Gmail mail - not a good idea for long time users. This can be turned off in the account settings.

The search and tabs make finding and organizing mail much easier - these and other features have been reviewed at length elsewhere.

Thunderbird email client