[HN Gopher] Mozilla Thunderbird Beta now supports Matrix chat
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Mozilla Thunderbird Beta now supports Matrix chat
        
       Author : jakecopp
       Score  : 409 points
       Date   : 2022-04-08 23:26 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (matrix.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (matrix.org)
        
       | crossroadsguy wrote:
       | Is there a hidden feature in Thunderbird, or an add-on, that
       | allows easily sending replies from the email address to which
       | message was received? Without having to have those email
       | addresses already added as accounts/identities.
       | 
       | And also writing fresh emails from specific emails addresses
       | maybe by easily editing the "from" field.
       | 
       | i.e if I had used an email netflix@mydomain.tld to register on
       | Netflix and I am replying to an email received on that then the
       | reply should automatically bo sent from that email.
       | 
       | Apple mail allows this by adding such email addresses in advance.
       | I already have almost 20 in the from list. It's a mess. Couldn't
       | find any other generic client (iPhone or Mac) that does it.
        
         | mkl wrote:
         | I'm just trying this add-on which seems to work,
         | ReplyAsOriginalRecipientUp: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-
         | US/thunderbird/addon/reply...
        
         | Anthony-G wrote:
         | In case any Mutt users are interested, here's how this can be
         | accomplished.                   # When replying to an email,
         | use the To: address of the original email as the         #
         | From: address in the reply (requires that the To: address be
         | recognised by         # Mutt as being one of my alternate
         | addresses).         set reverse_name              # Regex to
         | let Mutt know what other email addresses are used by me.
         | alternates @example
         | 
         | I had been thinking of writing a script to dynamically create a
         | file of alternative addresses from /etc/aliases but this isn't
         | necessary. There's no need to individually list all my
         | alternate addresses as - currently - all name@example.com and
         | name@example.info addresses are me so it is enough to just
         | match the `@example` regular expression.
         | 
         |  _Edit_ : For composing a new message (not a reply), I have
         | this set:                   # When composing a message, edit
         | the headers along with the message body.         # This should
         | make it easier to see that the correct From address is being
         | used         # and to fix this if necessary.         set
         | edit_headers
        
         | surewe wrote:
         | Yup - "Reply with this identity when delivery headers match".
         | Set it to something like "*@example.com", and you're good to
         | go.
        
           | crossroadsguy wrote:
           | That needs more identities to be added in advance. Just like
           | Apple Mail. I want to avoid that.
        
             | kelnos wrote:
             | How else would that work, though? Thunderbird doesn't know
             | what SMTP server and credentials to use without you telling
             | it.
        
               | mkl wrote:
               | It used to work fine with an extension called Virtual
               | Identity. That no longer works (hasn't been updated in a
               | long time, and I'm not sure if it could be made to work
               | again).
        
               | crossroadsguy wrote:
               | It knows the domain already and SMTP credentials are
               | already saved.
               | 
               | I've already set creds for abc@domain.tld, xyz@domain.tld
               | and pr course as usual I can reply, send new emails from
               | these addresses.
               | 
               | But I should also be able to send emails/reply from
               | pqrs/dfg/john/tom/ram/bond/bill/etc@domain.tld. Of course
               | reply will be automatic but sending new email might just
               | require changing the from field.
               | 
               | It can have a setting that "if a from address identified
               | isn't already added as an identity, it should use the
               | SMTP creds of matching domain". It won't work for
               | something like Gmail, Outlook.com (I mean one anyway
               | can't have catch-all on these domains) but would work
               | great for personal emails.
               | 
               | This is what I meant.
               | 
               | Because without such a feature - catchall feature is
               | often rendered very limited. Even iCloud+ supports
               | replying - id you've to send a fresh mail from a
               | catchall/disposable (or service/provider/business
               | specific) email address you're out of luck.
        
               | beagle3 wrote:
               | My thunderbird has an option for "modify from ..." which
               | lets me write whatever I want. On mobile, can't check
               | exact text. I do remember I had to reggae a switch in the
               | preferences to make that option appear, don't remember
               | which one - have been using it for years.
        
               | crossroadsguy wrote:
               | Thunderbird has a mobile app as well? The website says it
               | doesn't.
        
               | beagle3 wrote:
               | I was away from my laptop on mobile writing the message,
               | so I couldn't check what the option was called on my
               | laptop....
        
               | beagle3 wrote:
               | Just checked, it's called "Customize From Address ..."
        
               | dhimes wrote:
               | Cool! Thank you! Works great. Just have to remember to
               | get rid of my signature as it has all my personal contact
               | info lol
        
             | surewe wrote:
             | No it doesn't, you can use a wildcard.
        
           | bennyp101 wrote:
           | Holy cow, I too have been looking for this for ages!
           | *@my.domain in there and it works!
           | 
           | Thank you!
        
         | manol74 wrote:
         | You don't need an add-on for that. I have a plain TB 91 setup
         | with three identies configured for three different mail
         | servers. When replying I can choose from the identities, and in
         | the drop down there is another option "Customize From Address"
         | which enables editing the address without creating another
         | identity. It's a bit hidden, but should be there without an
         | add-on. Doesn't work for new mails though, in this case the
         | option is there but disabled.
        
           | OJFord wrote:
           | GP (and I) don't want to configure multiple 'identities'
           | though. I (and probably GP) create new email addresses 'on
           | the fly', for a specific shop I order from once say, and if
           | there's something I need to reply to I want (possibly _need_
           | from their CRM 's perspective) to reply from the address they
           | already have for me.
           | 
           | Embarrassingly largely for this reason, I wrote my own
           | client. (Good fun though, and not the only reason.)
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | Virtual identity was exactly what you are asking for
         | 
         | https://www.absorb.it/virtual-id
         | 
         | Unfortunately it seems to have been abandonded
        
           | crossroadsguy wrote:
           | Damn! It indeed is exactly that. And yes, that's abandoned.
           | But thanks anyway!
        
         | d3nj4l wrote:
         | No disrespect to your question - it is fair and reasonable -
         | but why is the top comment on a post about Thunderbird's Matrix
         | integration essentially a tech support question about a
         | completely unrelated thing in Thunderbird?
        
           | uwuemu wrote:
           | Because it's a niche feature barely anyone will use or is
           | interested in using and so they have nothing to say that
           | would be on topic. But, this being HN, people still use the
           | post to piggyback on with their issues or requests regarding
           | Thunderbird in general.
           | 
           | Actually, this happens faily often. Each time some popular
           | project gets a post like "php 8 released", "net 6 released",
           | typically, what should be discussed is the theme of the
           | release, new features, changes etc., but what the top posts
           | end up being is just people arguing how php is shit and
           | java/kotlin is better than net yadda yadda. Seems to be
           | natural in open discussions, also happens on Reddit.
        
         | satya71 wrote:
         | That's how always used Thunderbird. I can even switch
         | identities when replying, if I want to do that. Also, you can
         | have multiple identities for the same account, if you have
         | aliases.
        
           | crossroadsguy wrote:
           | I can have identities in Apple Mail but that would mean
           | dozens, hundreds of identities have to be added. Add
           | netflix@mydomain, reddit@, hnyc@, amazon@,... and so on.
           | 
           | Except one or two main identities I don't want to pre-add
           | these emails. Because I'm aware it's already possible at
           | least in Apple Mail.
        
             | kingcharles wrote:
             | I do my email address like you. One of the things I was
             | thankful for with Fastmail is that it does this
             | automatically for me (sets the FROM address when I hit
             | reply to whatever the receipt address was). I hate when you
             | hit reply and your mail client sends it from the default
             | address and then the recipient bounces it because it
             | doesn't match anything in their records.
        
               | crossroadsguy wrote:
               | I have indeed heard about it and it's on the radar but
               | not having any trial is a bummer. Btw what's that 600
               | email (alias?) limit?
               | 
               | Also, wouldn't want to buy a domain just to try. On top
               | of that they don't allow domains on their starting paid
               | tier (which already costs 4 times current paid mail host)
               | and my email resource usage doesn't warn more than that.
               | 
               | Can you please tell us how the UI is?
               | 
               | E.g. You registered on Reddit and just used a
               | random/disposable/freshly thought of email address like
               | "reddit@kingcharles.tld".
               | 
               | Now if you receive an email from Reddit or anybody on the
               | email I guess you can just hit reply and it will be
               | replied from that Email -- for this you would have to
               | come back to Fastmail app/dashboard ans add that
               | "reddit@..." as an identity/email or you don't have to as
               | long as the domain matches (and of course it does, that's
               | how you received mail in the first place)?
               | 
               | And what if you're not replying? You're initiating an
               | email to someone but suddenly want to use "another-addr-
               | random@kingcharles.tld"? You can just set it at the time
               | of sending the mail you this email address has to be
               | added as an identity/alias?
        
               | kingcharles wrote:
               | >E.g. You registered on Reddit and just used a
               | random/disposable/freshly thought of email address like
               | "reddit@kingcharles.tld". >Now if you receive an email
               | from Reddit or anybody on the email I guess you can just
               | hit reply and it will be replied from that Email
               | 
               | Yes, that's exactly how it works. I just went and checked
               | it. I have one catchall alias set up with a name of King
               | Charles on *@kingcharles.tld. Anything that comes into
               | that domain like reddit@kingcharles.tld I can reply to
               | and the FROM will be King Charles
               | <reddit@kingcharles.tld> without me having to do
               | anything. [It actually shows it as three textboxes "King
               | Charles", "reddit", "kingcharles.tld" you can edit]
               | 
               | I pay $5 a month which I consider a bargain.
        
               | traviswt wrote:
               | You can choose it at time of either sending a new email
               | or replying. From the sending identity drop down, pick
               | *@kingcharles.tld, and then it will populate the From
               | field with <@kingcharles.tld> and you type in front of
               | the @ sign whatever you want, no prior setup.
        
         | mdavidn wrote:
         | It's not Thunderbird, but I do this in Fastmail (web or app)
         | using their "masked email" feature. Replies come from the same
         | alias created uniquely for my Netflix account.
         | 
         | https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/4406536368911-Ma...
        
           | AndrewDavis wrote:
           | You can do this without masked email too. I have a wildcard
           | alias setup so *@mydomain.tld are accepted, and I have a
           | wildcard sending identity *@mydomain.tld
           | 
           | If you have a sending identity that matches with the address
           | the email was received, on the app and webui it will reply
           | from that address.
           | 
           | Disclaimer: I work at Fastmail, but not on the webui or app.
        
             | jmcphers wrote:
             | Fastmail does SUCH a great job managing multiple addresses
             | and domains. My favorite feature is the auto-BCC so that
             | when I'm sending from a joint e-mail address I share with
             | my wife, she always gets a copy.
        
               | adamcstephens wrote:
               | Thanks, I didn't know this was an option. Turning on now.
               | :)
        
             | masklinn wrote:
             | > I have a wildcard sending identity *@mydomain.tld
             | 
             | Uh. Neat, I've been adding aliases individually as I needed
             | them.
        
               | OJFord wrote:
               | I did that too when I used Fastmail, was a right pain,
               | wish I'd known!
        
             | ectopod wrote:
             | It never occurred to me to try a wildcard. I was getting
             | sick of adding sending identities in fastmail. Thanks for
             | the tip!
        
             | mritzmann wrote:
             | I am a Fastmail customer for 2-3 years. That was the
             | reason, why I switched to you guys!
        
               | 0ldskool wrote:
               | I've been trying to decide if I should switch from GApps
               | to Fastmail. This is the killer feature I wanted along
               | with unlimited domains, looks like I'll be transferring
               | over soon.
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | > _And also writing fresh emails from specific emails addresses
         | maybe by easily editing the "from" field._
         | 
         | that it has.
        
         | dec0dedab0de wrote:
         | If you don't add them in advance, how could it tell the
         | difference between your addresses, and a mailing list, or if
         | there are multiple addresses.
        
         | donatzsky wrote:
         | You can change the from address to whatever you want when you
         | send an email.
         | 
         | In the "From" drop down, you can choose any of your existing
         | addresses or to customise it.
        
         | gorgoiler wrote:
         | I feel like I had this working in Evolution once?
         | 
         | In reality I found that 99% of the time I only use aliases for
         | _receiving_ and _filtering_ incoming email. On the one day a
         | month I need to _send_ from netflix@mydomain.com, I just sack
         | up and add it as an account alias. Le sigh.
         | 
         | Of course, mutt does this right:
         | 
         | https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/-/wikis/MuttFaq/Header#how-t...
         | 
         | ...but now there's a new problem in that GitLab's deep linking
         | seems to be broken. Yay.
        
         | arendtio wrote:
         | I would love such a feature too. currently I have to either add
         | a ton of identities or do a lot of unnecessary manual copy and
         | pasting.
         | 
         | AFAIK, you can edit the from field for fresh emails, when using
         | the user-defined-from-option below your identities.
         | Nevertheless, when you have a conversation, it would be much
         | easier if there would be an option to use the recipients
         | address.
        
         | cassianoleal wrote:
         | It feels to me that the problem is that email _addresses_ are
         | considered to be the identity. In your (and mine!) case, the
         | _domain_ is our identity, and the individual addresses are just
         | different inboxes. Email clients need an option for that.
        
         | emptysongglass wrote:
         | Firefox Relay solves this by giving you a
         | replies@relay.firefox.com for the Reply-To. Works great for me
         | for a dollar a month.
         | 
         | But of course I understand the desire to selfhost such a
         | solution.
        
       | belkarx wrote:
       | A nice addition to the currently existing embedded clients for
       | IRC, XMPP, Twitter (for some reason?), and Google Talk
       | (infiltration of Alphabet, gotta love that).
        
         | saghul wrote:
         | Way back when, when it was still called Google Talk, wasn't it
         | almost just XMPP? Alphabet wasn't even a thing it was still
         | Google. You can take off your tinfoil hat now :-)
        
       | hardwaresofton wrote:
       | The crossover I never knew I wanted but am glad to see
       | 
       | Does anyone know of any services that offer all the backing
       | services for add-ons for thunderbird: WebDAV for filelink,
       | CalDAV, CardDAV, (and now) Matrix?
        
         | jakecopp wrote:
         | I haven't heard of anyone that hosts both Matrix &
         | Mail/Calendar/Contacts.
         | 
         | That would be a really interesting enterprise solution though -
         | effectively replacing Slack/Teams for internal comms!
        
           | rglullis wrote:
           | May I interest you in Matrix (and/or XMPP) for messaging and
           | Mastodon (for social media) on Communick[0]?
           | 
           | I've done some experiments with running an email server as
           | well, but I don't think I would be able to run it as reliably
           | and cost-effectively as the more established players.
           | 
           | > replacing Slack/Teams for internal comms
           | 
           | Also, Mastodon (or Pleroma) can work as a substitute for
           | Yammer.
           | 
           | [0] https://communick.com
        
           | Jiocus wrote:
           | Just add some LDAP services for identity management,
           | authentication and it's fairly close to the project I'm on
           | right now. A cursory look at getting a matrix server running
           | didn't work out yet though, with issues for clients to
           | recognise the server at all. I don't mind sysops work but
           | right now a set&forget solution would spare some needed
           | energy.
           | 
           | The Thunderbird+Matrix integration sounds like a match - I
           | hope that holds up in practice as well!
           | 
           | Edit: as others mentioned, Nextcloud has the features.
        
             | rglullis wrote:
             | Do you mind if I send you an email? I am looking for
             | people/companies that might be interested in having a
             | managed matrix provider.
        
           | dflock wrote:
           | NextCloud does all this, afaik.
        
           | pmw wrote:
           | Fastmail has been that all-in solution. They host
           | Mail/Calendar/Contacts, and they used to host XMPP/Jabber.
           | But unfortunately they made the decision to shut down XMPP
           | (https://fastmail.blog/historical/shutting-down-our-xmpp-
           | chat...) and probably for the same reason won't get into
           | Matrix.
        
             | jakecopp wrote:
             | > For intra-business messaging, most companies seem to be
             | sticking with proven multi-user protocols like IRC rather
             | than XMPP Multi-User Chat (MUC), or are moving to more
             | sophisticated proprietary collaboration platforms like
             | Slack.
             | 
             | That sounds true as of 2015, however Matrix now has a large
             | following in open source & in some governments &
             | businesses. I can't find a list of orgs using Matrix but
             | that would be interesting to see.
        
           | hardwaresofton wrote:
           | Yeah, it might be a hard sell compared to GApps for most
           | businesses but I'd like to think there are is a subset that
           | would want the F/OSS solution!
           | 
           | I wonder if bundling FF Send would also be useful, see
           | there's a filelink provider for that as well which is
           | interesting.
        
           | pid-1 wrote:
           | Unfortunately matrix is a no go for regulated business (read:
           | you might be required to monitor employees and hand over
           | chats to govt.)
        
             | Arathorn wrote:
             | Matrix development is mainly funded by providing
             | deployments for regulated business(!) - ie the French
             | state, German armed forces, UK government, DOD etc. If you
             | search for "audit bot" in
             | https://element.io/enterprise/pricing#features you'll see
             | all the stuff available for enterprisey deployments from
             | Element.
        
               | pid-1 wrote:
               | Thanks!
        
             | feanaro wrote:
             | You might be, but you might also live in a country where
             | this isn't a thing.
        
               | pid-1 wrote:
               | For some subsets the financial sector, that's highly
               | unlikely.
        
             | aspenmayer wrote:
             | There is some development in that area. This is from an
             | Element dev, apparently. Not sure if this is very up to
             | date as it's from about a year ago, but it seems highly
             | topical.
             | 
             | https://brendan.abolivier.bzh/matrix-retention-policies/
             | 
             | https://github.com/matrix-
             | org/synapse/blob/develop/docs/mess...
        
             | ryukafalz wrote:
             | If need be, you can require the use of a Matrix client that
             | doesn't support end to end encryption, or has support for
             | it disabled. Nothing stopping you from doing that, almost
             | all the clients are FOSS.
        
               | mycall wrote:
               | Or add a keylogger/eventstore into the Matrix client.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | rovr138 wrote:
               | Even if End to End encrypted, the client has access to
               | the decrypted content and could log it.
        
         | agilob wrote:
         | >The crossover I never knew I wanted but am glad to see
         | 
         | You can also use IRC and XMPP in Thunderbird.
        
         | dflock wrote:
         | NextCloud does all that, I think?
        
         | rglullis wrote:
         | How much would you be willing to pay for it?
         | 
         | I provide Matrix hosting (as well as XMPP and ActivityPub
         | Mastodon) on Communick [0].
         | 
         | At the moment I'm more focused on taking these services to
         | offer custom domain hosting, and personally I've been staying
         | away from servers and using DecSync [1] + syncthing to get my
         | calendars and contacts on my devices [2], so I haven't thought
         | about adding a DAV server to the mix on Communick. But if you
         | tell me there is any actual demand, I would definitely consider
         | it.
         | 
         | [0] https://communick.com
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/39aldo39/DecSync
         | 
         | [2] https://raphael.lullis.net/thinking-heads-are-not-in-the-
         | clo...
        
           | hardwaresofton wrote:
           | I was about to ask the same thing -- I run a service that
           | offers DAV and was wondering if I should add CalDAV and
           | CardDAV (I've been wanting to do it for a while) and offered
           | this bundled service...
           | 
           | You might want to send that question jakecopp 's way though!
           | :)
        
             | rglullis wrote:
             | Oh, so you are the guy from Vadosware? That's cool, I
             | really liked your idea of using AirTable to power the
             | landing page of your site.
        
               | hardwaresofton wrote:
               | Oh I am -- thanks for visiting the site! -- it was
               | Baserow[0] and since then I've actually _finally_ gotten
               | a chance to try out NocoDB[1][2] as well!
               | 
               | I'm a heavy Thunderbird (+ maddy[3]) user, and have been
               | wondering lately if I'm missing anything by not having
               | CardDAV/CalDAV
               | 
               | [0]: https://baserow.io/
               | 
               | [1]: https://nocodb.com/
               | 
               | [2]: https://nomorepizzaparties.com/accounting.html
               | 
               | [3]: https://foxcpp.dev/maddy/
        
         | qbasic_forever wrote:
         | NextCloud is what I think of when I think of self hosting a
         | webdav, caldav, etc. setup.
        
           | hardwaresofton wrote:
           | Ahhh but I wasn't thinking of quite self Hosting but a
           | managed service... do businesses use Nextcloud in that way I
           | wonder.
        
             | emptysongglass wrote:
             | Hetzner offers this [1]. For less than 5 EUR a month you
             | get 1 TB of storage plus their managed Nextcloud!
             | 
             | [1] https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-share
        
               | indigodaddy wrote:
               | Hi I went through the faq and it wasn't mentioned, but
               | does the "storage share powered by nextcloud" Hetzner
               | service, include all the other features of nextcloud as
               | well like chat, etc?
        
               | emptysongglass wrote:
               | I last used it at a start-up a few years ago (I self-host
               | everything now) so my memory is a bit hazy but yes, I
               | remember the option at that time to add and enable any
               | apps you wanted available from Nextcloud's app catalog.
        
               | RcrdBrt wrote:
               | Yes, it does
        
               | indigodaddy wrote:
               | Thanks for verifying guys!
        
               | rsolva wrote:
               | Thanks for sharing, I have been looking for a reasonably
               | priced managed NextCloud solution, but had a hard time
               | finding any. NextCloud should focus more on promoting the
               | actors that offers a simple way to get started. I tried
               | contacting several of their premium partners listed on
               | their webpage, but none of the scandinavian ones offered
               | anything ready to use.
        
             | captn3m0 wrote:
             | There are managed NextCloud hosts.
             | https://nextcloud.com/providers/
        
       | _1tan wrote:
       | Is there a practical way to run Thunderbird on Android?
        
         | LinAGKar wrote:
         | No
        
       | moonchrome wrote:
       | Didn't Mozilla drop Thunderbird to community ?
        
         | dade_ wrote:
         | There were several options explored, but Thunderbird is now a
         | new subsidiary owned by Mozilla.
         | https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/mozilla_thunderbird_h...
        
       | hestefisk wrote:
       | This is quite cool... thanks Tbird team!
        
       | FounderBurr wrote:
        
         | beebeepka wrote:
         | My name is not nobody, Mr burr.
         | 
         | I have been using it for email and calendar for many years.
         | Don't wanna call you names but your contribution here calls for
         | it
        
       | foresto wrote:
       | I imagine this could be useful in workplaces that already use
       | Thunderbird and want to introduce Matrix without the support
       | burden of new desktop software. Potentially cool?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | eredengrin wrote:
         | Yep, also nice for parents who already use Thunderbird and now
         | (well, once it exits beta) I can perhaps convince them to use
         | matrix more consistently.
        
       | badrabbit wrote:
       | > Almost complete end-to-end encryption support
       | 
       | Now that is a shocker! I tried hard to find e2e supporting GUI
       | clients and Element was the only viable option.
       | 
       | I have grown to hate these "obese" webapps. I say that because
       | they don't freaking need 4GB ram to send messages between people!
       | I have Teams and several browsers already fighting to the death,
       | I am forced to open slack to multiple groups in my browser except
       | now those tabs are 3GB+ and if I run Element, same thing! Man I
       | miss IRC.
       | 
       | Sorry for the rant. I am sure Thinderbird with Matrix won't need
       | no more than 2GB /S
        
         | zaik wrote:
         | XMPP clients like Gajim or Dino don't use a lot of RAM and
         | support modern E2EE (OMEMO).
        
           | badrabbit wrote:
           | My problem with omemo is it is too opportunistic. But thanks
        
             | zaik wrote:
             | What do you mean by opportunistic?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | d3nj4l wrote:
         | Fluffy.chat supports E2EE and is cross-platform:
         | https://gitlab.com/famedly/fluffychat
         | 
         | (Though it might not fit your needs completely, as it's written
         | in Flutter, and Flutter is pretty bloated too...)
        
       | ananonymoususer wrote:
       | This should be an add-on vs. being integrated in the app. Better
       | still would be a wholly separate app. Thunderbird is for email.
        
         | Jiejeing wrote:
         | I am not a matrix fan, but I have to point out that thunderbird
         | has had IRC and XMPP support for ages so it is not out of
         | character to add another open instant messaging service (using
         | IRC or XMPP on thunderbird felt underwhelming, though, I was
         | never sure who was the target for this).
        
         | eyelidlessness wrote:
         | As a not-current-user, I can't in good conscience +1 the should
         | part of this. But I was definitely baffled by why this app
         | would have this feature built in.
        
         | rovr138 wrote:
         | They've had a chat client for quite some time.
         | 
         | They just added a protocol.
        
       | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
       | Not...sure...if...want?
       | 
       | I use Thunderbird, and I appreciated past "baked-in" additions
       | like PGP support, but, I kinda just want my email client to be an
       | email client.
        
         | tomjen3 wrote:
         | Thunderbird also has support for Usenet out of the box. I think
         | the product sees itself more as a complete communication
         | program than just an email program, even if that is what most
         | people use it for.
        
         | Toadtoad wrote:
         | It's been a chat client for such a long time that I think it
         | makes sense to add Matrix support, which is a much more modern
         | protocol than the others supported. I think we've all just
         | forgot that it has chat features, since it only supported
         | protocols like Google Talk, IRC, and XMPP.
        
         | mdaniel wrote:
         | From looking at the diff, it seems to be in the same vein as
         | the IRC, XMPP, Google Talk(!), and some weird network I've
         | never heard of "Odnoklassniki"
         | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odnoklassniki)
         | 
         | https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/instant-messaging-and-c...
         | 
         | So, in other words: it merely expands the already shipping chat
         | clients to be just one more
        
           | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
           | Fair enough, I guess. I never realized Thunderbird already
           | supported those. I always had HexChat, Pidgin, or Fractal for
           | IRC/GTalk/Matrix at the ready instead.
        
             | mdaniel wrote:
             | It has a good (at least for my purposes) RSS reader, too,
             | which is actually my primary use for it lately
             | 
             | https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-
             | feed...
        
             | jokoon wrote:
             | Thunderbird supports irc?
        
               | TingPing wrote:
               | It's called Chatzilla, it's not great nor widely used.
        
               | aaronmdjones wrote:
               | On the contrary; Thunderbird's chat has built-in IRC
               | support which you can use without installing something
               | like ChatZilla [1][2].
               | 
               | It's not very good, though, including warts such as
               | automatically attempting an SASL login with your
               | credentials, even if you've never registered a services
               | account on the IRC network [3].
               | 
               | [1] https://i.imgur.com/LQrzpoy.png
               | 
               | [2] https://i.imgur.com/X8idAGl.png
               | 
               | [3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1618061
        
       | wellthisisgreat wrote:
       | I don't want to setup my email with TB just to try it out, can
       | someone please explain how this works?
       | 
       | We can chat from within TB client using Matrix? So we'd need to
       | be using Matrix (instead of Slack for example) to take advantage
       | of this? Or is there some kind of built-in Matrix chat inside TB?
       | 
       | Also a question for people who use TB - is it possible to use it
       | for teams? So to "delegate" emails for example, or "comment" on
       | emails?
        
         | riidom wrote:
         | To your first question, you can setup new mail account, new
         | chat account, etc. so it's separated anyway.
        
         | ptman wrote:
         | It's a matrix client that you use to connect to a matrix home
         | server
        
       | mdaniel wrote:
       | The nitty gritty:
       | 
       | https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1712721
       | 
       | https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/15485902a00b
       | 
       | https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D141266 (the unified
       | version of those two links)
        
       | user3939382 wrote:
       | If anyone from the Thunderbird team is reading this can you
       | please default the timezone in preferences to match the OS.
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | Thunderbird has a proper bugtracker.
        
           | user3939382 wrote:
           | This bug has been in there for 10 years.
        
             | solarkraft wrote:
             | Ah, classic Mozilla.
        
               | usr1106 wrote:
               | Classic open source user. They take the free (as in beer)
               | software and complain that nobody works for them.
        
               | Epiphany21 wrote:
               | Mozilla makes money hand over fist and they squander it.
               | This is unrelated to their finances or the source model
               | of the product.
        
               | jodrellblank wrote:
               | They didn't do that, though.
        
               | jhasse wrote:
               | Mozilla takes donations, so it isn't necessarely free.
               | Also Mozilla is wondering why no one wants to use their
               | software, this is one of the reasons why.
        
               | syncbehind wrote:
               | >Mozilla takes donations, so it isn't necessarely free.
               | 
               | This is a wild take. Taking donations doesn't invalidate
               | the fact that it is available to everyone for free. By
               | definition donations are voluntary. No part of
               | Thunderbird is behind paywalls of any sort.
        
               | chanux wrote:
               | Wonder why they didn't think about feature funding. As
               | in, letting people donate to specific features.
        
               | TingPing wrote:
               | Donations are a small part of their income.
        
               | 0xdeadb00f wrote:
               | It's a reasonable request though. Something that
               | definitely shouldn't cost them much to fix.
        
               | pizza234 wrote:
               | Hard to know! Composing emails in tabs seemed easy
               | without internal knowledge, but the code turned out to be
               | a trainwreck, to the point that even a funded attempt
               | failed. I doubt it will ever be fixed.
        
         | inferiorhuman wrote:
         | I'd settle for ungimping the new messages badge, bringing back
         | the older (more compact) tree widget (or at least making it
         | easily styled), or at the very least fixing the whole
         | compacting a folder makes it disappear until restart thing
         | (especially since Thunderbird is now very aggressive about
         | suggesting I compact my folders).
         | 
         | I upgraded from ~60 to 91 and it's been nothing but
         | regressions. I couldn't possibly care any less about a chat
         | client when the actual text editor still doesn't let you do
         | something as basic as toggle word wrap. It's almost as if
         | Mozilla's completely forgotten about core competencies.
        
           | mycall wrote:
           | > toggle word wrap
           | 
           | Do they accept PRs?
        
             | throwanem wrote:
             | I don't know how building Thunderbird is now, but last time
             | I tried it I came away with the distinct impression that
             | ascending a character in Nethack is probably easier.
             | 
             | I've never ascended a character in Nethack...
        
               | paull39 wrote:
               | Hey that's unfortunate to hear. There might be some
               | changes soon in the documentation how to build
               | Thunderbird. The build process might become easier soon
               | too. For the current process to build Thunderbird check
               | out https://developer.thunderbird.net/thunderbird-
               | development/bu.... If you do find the time check it out
               | and open issues with your problems here
               | https://github.com/thundernest/developer-docs. Thanks!
        
               | inferiorhuman wrote:
               | You know the last time I dared to even think about
               | potentially engaging the Thunderbird team I regretted it
               | pretty severely. The new messages badge was changed to an
               | unread message count. The official response on the PR
               | (that someone else had opened) was along the lines of
               | "screw you, we know best how to use an email client" and
               | even making it configurable was not in the cards.
               | 
               | In that context why on earth would I bother trying
               | digging into documentation of questionable quality to
               | figure out an archaic build process? Mind you in the
               | decade or so since that issue was raised the badge has
               | been made configurable and can show up to 99 unread or
               | new messages. Nobody ever has more than 99, right?
               | 
               | Trying to dig into the theme stuff was... interesting.
               | The documentation is exceptionally sparse, but the
               | tooling itself was terrible. Things fail silently which
               | means that you often have to restart to render any
               | changes to your theme (instead of uninstalling or
               | reloading it). Of course you'll probably also have to
               | manually reload the theme since it won't persist across
               | restarts if there was some sort of silent failure.
               | 
               | All in all interacting with Thunderbird feels more like
               | interacting with a black box than an open source project.
               | So no thanks, I'll pass on that kind of user hostility.
        
               | throwanem wrote:
               | It is unfortunate, I agree. You'd think that after
               | playing the game off and on, sometimes quite intensively,
               | for three _decades_ now, I 'd have been able to finish it
               | _once_ at least.
        
           | ttybird2 wrote:
           | _" I couldn't possibly care any less about a chat client when
           | the actual text editor still doesn't let you do something as
           | basic as toggle word wrap"_
           | 
           | It should be easy to do as well, given that they have an
           | option for it in about:config.
        
         | red_trumpet wrote:
         | What is the current behavior? I never noticed any problems, is
         | that just ignorance on my side?
        
       | outsb wrote:
       | I played around with Matrix, but it seemed to have a far too
       | disproportionate number of furry porn channels for anything I'd
       | want anywhere my e-mail
        
         | ghostly_s wrote:
         | a friend wants to know what server this was...
        
           | CameronNemo wrote:
           | Probably matrix.org. there are some sketchy rooms on that
           | instance.
        
         | miloignis wrote:
         | Matrix is a federated protocol, so it depends on what server
         | you use (including self-hosting your own). Not using it because
         | a server has a lot of furry porn rooms would be like not using
         | email because hotmail has furry porn.
         | 
         | For what it's worth, I've self-hosted a matrix server for years
         | for my family and friends, have participated in a reasonable
         | number of rooms on the flagship matrix.org server, and have
         | never run into any furry porn.
        
         | 0des wrote:
         | Don't go on the internet.
        
       | Vladimof wrote:
       | As much as I used to love Mozilla, I don't know if I can trust
       | them with my e2ee (chat/etc) client...
        
         | Anunayj wrote:
         | don't trust, verify! Thunderbird is open sourced!
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | Code involving encryption is critical and also notoriously
           | easy to get wrong. There aren't very many people on the
           | planet who could do a meaningful audit of something as
           | complex as Thunderbird.
        
           | sundarurfriend wrote:
           | Or more likely, pay someone to verify it for you!
        
       | emptysongglass wrote:
       | This is really great for family members and friends you want to
       | turn on to alternative protocols for chatting. My wife already
       | uses Thunderbird for email and calendar. Now Matrix is just a few
       | clicks away.
        
       | kuon wrote:
       | I really like thunderbird, and I used it for a long time, but now
       | I am using mutt.
       | 
       | I realized that I was spending a lot of time in the terminal
       | anyway (using vim as my daily driver) and it did fit me.
       | 
       | What I really like, is that you can script everything, create
       | macro... It is hard to setup (too me like a week to tweak), but
       | now I can do everything a lot faster with less overhead that what
       | I did with thunderbird.
       | 
       | I still recommend thunderbird for less tech savvy users and I
       | hope it will have a bright future.
        
         | kdtsh wrote:
         | I've wondered for a while, how does mutt work for HTML-
         | formatted email and other MIME types? I compose my own emails
         | with plain text, but plenty of my colleagues as well as the
         | various mailing lists, official emails, and other services that
         | I receive communications with use email which looks like a web
         | page, and I can't really give that up.
        
           | BlueTemplar wrote:
           | You are not worried about security issues ?
           | 
           | E-mail _really_ needs a client with (html-less) markdown
           | support !
        
             | Avamander wrote:
             | Nobody stops you from sending text/markdown MIME type. It
             | wouldn't even be hard to render both HTML and plaintext
             | from markdown. "Just do it"
             | 
             | The hard part is to fix anything in most common e-mail
             | clients, let alone add something new. One example being
             | Thunderbird - notoriously stale tickets, undocumented
             | codebase and nearly impossible to get anything merged.
        
           | Karunamon wrote:
           | What I do is have HTML messages piped through 'w3m --dump'.
           | 99% of the time this results in a usable representation of
           | the message. The other one percent of the time, it's just
           | another couple of keystrokes to load the content in your web
           | browser.
        
           | kuon wrote:
           | By default I use lynx, which is a bit better than w3m with
           | some content (might be my config), otherwise I have a
           | keystroke to load the message in firefox, but with newsletter
           | adding "view in browser button" more and more, I nearly never
           | use it.
        
         | Anthony-G wrote:
         | I don't know why you're being downvoted. Having used Mutt for a
         | while around the turn of the millennium, I returned to it about
         | 5 years ago and I could have written this comment myself.
         | 
         | In my time using graphical mail clients, I've used Outlook
         | Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, Sylpheed and Thunderbird.
         | Thunderbird was my favourite of them all and I wouldn't
         | hesitate to recommend it to others.
        
           | mikro2nd wrote:
           | Probably being downvoted for being completely irrelevant to
           | the topic at hand (Thunderbird doing Matrix).
           | 
           | (Not downvoted by me, so just guessing here.)
        
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