Betterbird clone

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tanstaafl
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Betterbird clone

Post by tanstaafl »

I ran across a comment in a bug report about "a new soft-fork of Thunderbird called Betterbird" that fixed the person's problems. Anybody use it? Its lead by Jörg Knobloch, a former maintainer of Thunderbird.

"Multi-line view
Many people have asked us to finally implement a multi-line view, so we're happy to announce that we are shipping this in version 91.1.1-bb14. To enable it, use the global option "View > Layout > Multi-line View On All Folders" or deselect the subject column in the column picker of the message list/thread pane for a particular folder. Let us know what you think."

https://www.betterbird.eu
https://github.com/Betterbird has the changes made to the ESR build of Thunderbird
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.c ... 690395#c33
KingLek
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by KingLek »

I have downloaded it at have run it (ran it?). Looks good, though dies throw a red flag on install, but that was fine. Put one of my email addressed on it. Then realized this was going to take a while and have not had the time yet to go back and play with it. Especially as it will not recognize Thunderbird as another email client in order to import data over. I will work on it more as i have time as i am frustrated by the cliches in Thunderbird since the move to 91
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tanstaafl
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by tanstaafl »

Some but not all of the fixes implemented by BetterBird have been included in Thunderbird according to the engineering manager. For example, Thunderbird didn't use its fix for "such as when opening attachments, "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" not working". They also rejected the multiline view enhancement, stating they plan on implementing a better solution later on.

I'm not aware of Thunderbird giving credit to any fixes submitted by BetterBird upstream. It might be in some bug reports but they don't seem to give credit in release notes etc.

There is a sub-forum devoted to BetterBird at https://www.thunderbird-mail.de/forum/b ... etterbird/ . Its in German so most people need to use google translate to read it.

https://www.betterbird.eu/#featuretable compares Thunderbird and BetterBird.
wsmwk
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by wsmwk »

It is not standard practice to give credit to third parties in release notes, nor anyone for that matter, for patch authorship. Never has been as far as I know. Perhaps you are thinking of security vulnerabilities where credit is given to those who discover (report) the security vulnerability. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/ ... sa2020-33/ has examples.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by tanstaafl »

I'm aware its not standard practice, but its a unusual situation, so I thought it was worth mentioning. It wasn't meant as criticism. AFAIK there hasn't been any other project which has had as one of its main goals to provide bug fixes and enhancements to Thunderbird and submit them upstream.
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by wsmwk »

No worries - I didn't take it as a criticism.
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smsmith
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by smsmith »

tanstaafl wrote:They also rejected the multiline view enhancement, stating they plan on implementing a better solution later on.
I really wish they'd get a move on with this one. I know, I know, it's free, I should help.
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CorkHead
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by CorkHead »

tanstaafl wrote:Some but not all of the fixes implemented by BetterBird have been included in Thunderbird according to the engineering manager. For example, Thunderbird didn't use its fix for "such as when opening attachments, "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" not working". They also rejected the multiline view enhancement, stating they plan on implementing a better solution later on.

I'm not aware of Thunderbird giving credit to any fixes submitted by BetterBird upstream. It might be in some bug reports but they don't seem to give credit in release notes etc.

There is a sub-forum devoted to BetterBird at https://www.thunderbird-mail.de/forum/b ... etterbird/ . Its in German so most people need to use google translate to read it.

https://www.betterbird.eu/#featuretable compares Thunderbird and BetterBird.
I've returned to Thunderbird after spending some years in the Outlook patch - I've grown so used to the multiline view that I just had to try BetterBird and I have to say I like it. I would like to donate something (from each according to ability etc etc). But who should I donate to? ThunderBird? BetterBird? both? If both, what proportion to each?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by tanstaafl »

The Thunderbird project is doing well financially. "2021 was a very successful year for Thunderbird. Our income, which is sourced almost entirely by user donations, totaled $2,796,996. That represents a 21% increase over donations in 2020, and it’s more than twice the amount we received in 2018." They're going to release another major version (102) soon, which will give them more publicity.

I suggest you donate just to BetterBird. I suspect they get few donations as few people know they exist. I first heard of them in a comment in a Thunderbird bug report where somebody mentioned it had been fixed by BetterBird.
lenny2
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by lenny2 »

Betterbird works very well. I would like Thunderbird to borrow from it to create an official portable version.
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BuddhaNature
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by BuddhaNature »

You can get a portable implementation of Thunderbird from here: https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/ ... d_portable

I don't think that is 'official' but certainly Thunderbird knows about it and it has been portable-ised by PortableApps for years.

If you do decide to give Thunderbird Portable a try do search out and read the support documents on the PortableApps website on how to install and use a portable app.
OS: Windows 10 Pro. x64
lenny2
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by lenny2 »

Betterbird v102.0 beta8 are out https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/
Tin Smith
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by Tin Smith »

Has anyone tried the non-beta release of Betterbird v102.0 yet?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by tanstaafl »

I can't find it on the web site. I suspect they need another day or two.
Tin Smith
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Re: Betterbird clone

Post by Tin Smith »

Thanks. I was sure that I had seen it. Maybe a beta? Oh well. Thanks again.
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