ThunderBlog

Everyone knows that the Thunderbird section of AMO is completely unloved. Extensions sit in the sandbox of Thunderbird’s AMO section longer than Firefox ones. There are tons of perfectly good extensions for Thunderbird, but they are ignored by AMO editors and users alike. If you look at the Thunderbird section, you will see it only has 4 recommended addons, and I propose more.

1. Auto Zip Attachments: This extension is really handy if you want to send multiple files. Instead of having to pre-zip all the files, Thunderbird will do it for you when the email is sending
2. LookOut: Let’s face it, not everyone is going to switch to Thunderbird. Outlook now sends all file attachments as winmail.dat and while this is as annoying as ever, Thunderbird can’t show what’s in the file. This extension decodes winmail.dat and displays the real attachment(s) instead.
3. Folder Account: This is wonderful, it allows you to associate accounts with special folders. And while you might say that this is already available, it isn’t. If I am on a folder that is associated with an email address and I click compose, I see my default email account listed as the sender. Folder Account fixes this. It also allows you to see SMTP accounts that don’t have a POP3/IMAP account linked to it.
4. TheadBubble: Another fix if you like having sorting by thread and by date. In Thunderbird, if you get a new email, and you have threading on, you won’t see the new message at the top of your email list. ThreadBubble moves the thread to the top of the email list and highlights it so you can see when a thread has new mail. This is really great for Support accounts and for email in general.
5. ThunderBrowse: Because it’s awesome.
6. SamePlace: I remember reading something about Thunderbird going to have built in support for IM networks, though when I think about it, I doubt what I read was true. SamePlace fills this gap, allowing users to chat on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk and more. It’s brilliantly coded and is completely deserving of a spot on the recommended list.
7. GmailUI: This extension is always hard to find. Partially because it adds nothing to the UI (some of the other extensions listed above don’t add anything either). This extension includes some much needed search handlers and an archiving function. I’d also recommend you look at this page for a list of features.

Extensions that would have made the list but didn’t:

1. Stylish: The Thunderbird version of Stylish is really dumb. The update system doesn’t work, the ability to install userstyles is off (it’s not even attempted to be on), and for some reason, it doesn’t create a statusbar icon and the toolbar button included is huge.
2. Quicktext: I think it’s a great extension that allows you to not have to relay the same text over and over, but I really don’t use it that much. If I did, this would be a different story.
3. Folderpane Tools: I like this extension, it fixes an age old bug. But it’s time to get over ourselves and actually fix Thunderbird.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Site, Thunderbird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.