Mozilla Thunderbird

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Mozilla Thunderbird
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What is Thunderbird?

• E-mail client
• Usenet newsgroup reader
• RSS client
• Comparable to
• Outlook Express
• Eudora
• Netscape Communicator

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Supported Platforms

• Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP
• Linux
• Mac OS X
• OS/2
• Solaris

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Thunderbird Is Free

• Thunderbird is a free, open source program
• Maintained by the Mozilla project
• Downloadable at http//www.mozilla.com/thunderbird
  /

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About the Mozilla Project

• Launched by Netscape in 1998
• Large, open source community of developers and
  testers
• Development roadmap available to the public
• Frequent releases
• Advocate for standards on the Net

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Features

• Multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts
• POP and IMAP protocols
• HTML mail formatting
• Import and export e-mail accounts and messages
• Spell check as you type
• Deleting and detaching file attachments
• Advanced message filtering
• Folder retention rules
• Customizable
• E-mail stored as plain text

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Features Not Included

• Calendar, notes, and task management
• Support for HTML e-mail (e.g. Hotmail)

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Junk Mail Filters

• Adaptive junk mail detection learns what is
  junk and what is not junk
• Will use your mail providers spam filters
• Marking a message as junk is as easy as
  clicking a button

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Anti-phishing Protection

• Thunderbird alerts you when a message might be a
  scam

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Security

• S/MIME
• Digital signing
• Message encryption
• Certificates and security devices
• Attachments never run without permission
• Does not allow scripts to run by default
• Does not display pictures by default

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Automatic Updates

• Automatically downloaded in the background
• Prompts you to install them when ready

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Customizations

• Customizable toolbar
• Extensions
• Themes
• Three unique message views
• Mail views to sort your e-mail

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Extensions

• Small program add-ons that extend the
  capabilities of Thunderbird
• Available on Mozillas website
• Made by third parties, so they may be risky

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Sampling of Extensions

• DictionarySearch Look up a selected word in an
  online dictionary
• Contacts Sidebar Display address book in a
  sidebar
• StockTicker Show favorite stocks in a
  customizable ticker

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What Dont I Like?

• When copying or moving messages, folder
  navigation is clumsy and error-prone at best
• When in the midst of selecting a folder to move
  or copy a message to, there is no way to create a
  new folder

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Cool Geek Trick

• Set up a multi-boot system with Windows XP and
  Linux
• Install Thunderbird for Windows and set up your
  e-mail account
• Install Thunderbird for Linux
• Copy and tweak the preferences file to access the
  folders and e-mail messages stored on the Windows
  partition