Thunderbird - Spread the Word

Sometimes a piece of software can be so useful and easy to set up that you might end up taking it for granted and not thinking about it that much, even though you use it every single day. For me an example of this is the excellent Mozilla Thunderbird, an email client from the same people who make Mozilla Firefox. While Firefox is very well known, and now commands 20% of the worldwide browser share (well done to everyone involved!), maybe Thunderbird gets a bit overlooked. I've been using Mozilla Thunderbird happily for years now and always found it easy to use and reliable. So I was delighted to see that a new site has been set up to help "spread the word" about Thunderbird which can be found at: http://www.spreadthunderbird.com/. If like me you find Thunderbird really useful you can sign up to become an "affiliate" and place a handsome looking badge on your site to refer people. You won't earn cash from doing this but you will earn "points" that bring you kudos, visibility for your website, and most importantly the knowledge that you have helped. The badges come in all shapes and sizes, from the small (as in the left sidebar if you are viewing this directly on the website) to the very large.

This is a good example of how you can help open source software, you don't necessarily need to write code, you can do things like contribute documentation, or as in this case simply make people aware of a good application. Open source software will become ever more important in the current uncertain economic climate. A decision to use an open source product over a proprietary one may well prove a wise move. If an organisation backing an open source product is lost, the source code is still published, someone else can take it over. This is not always the case with proprietary software. A small contribution like hosting a badge on your blog can help as it gives those product access to advertising and awareness and remember that you can let people know about Thunderbird, it makes an ideal (and more capable) replacement for Microsoft Outlook Express, and as it has a system to add in extra functionality it can be used as a replacement for Microsoft Outlook. It is cross platform too. If you are using Ubuntu it is also very easy to add support for encrypted email with the Enigmail package (it may be nearly as easy on other platforms too but I haven't tried it). You can also use it to handle multiple email accounts at the same time, subscribe to Usenet news and RSS feeds.

A question that sometimes come up is why now just use a webmail client? This probably just comes down to personal preference, but I personally find webmail clients (which I do use frequently) can be a bit clunky and not as convenient to use as a mail client. After all, web browsers were designed to view web pages not emails, so the experience of a webmail client can sometimes be a bit slower and more awkward to use. It can be useful through to keep the emails themselves on a server though rather than downloading them locally, fortunately IMAP makes that possible so you can have move between using email clients and webmail sites on different machines.

So if you like the sound of Thunderbird, click on the big blue button above to be taken to the Thunderbird site. If you already use it then have a look at the FAQ page of SpreadThunderbird to see how you can help.