OT- Thunderbird ugliness, Was: Eudora email client source code released

[Jay Jaeger]

On 5/23/2018 9:28 AM, JP Hindin via cctalk wrote:

> 
> 
> On Tue, 22 May 2018, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
>> so I use Thunderbird on a Linux platform.  It is awfully slow.
>> Sometimes it takes 5 minutes to download 3 messages when I start it up.
>>
>> At home I use Thunderbird with standard Linux smtp and pop servers and
>> it works fine.
> 
> Apologies to hijack this one (I can't tell you how impressed I am with
> both the CHM's efforts and Qualcomm's release, I find these things
> really exciting for our hobby) - but I've been having real troubles with
> TBird in the last few years and my obstinacy has been holding me back.
> 
> I run Thunderbird on a 2016 MacBoook Pro (Sierra 10.12.6, 2.6GHz i7,
> 16GB RAM, internal SSD) where I'm pulling via IMAP from Google (their
> professional company service thingy), but maintain a local 24GB cache of
> eMail.
> 
> It's slower than molasses in january. Moving eMail around between
> 'folders' often has it sit and spin the beachball for 2-3 seconds -
> dozens of times a day. And I just can't work out why - I mean, yes, it's
> a lot of ruddy eMail, but it's a monster of a laptop and it should be
> pulling/moving on the SSD when it's getting stuck before it's even tried
> to send the move message to google.
> 

I use Thunderbird, and for the most part it has worked fine.  But I use
it in a somewhat unusual way.  My gmail address forwards to my normal
ISP address.  I retrieve mail from that using IMAP but I do *not* leave
it on the server.  Instead, I process the resulting inbox with filters,
and distribute the mail to a local folders inbox (named so it floats to
the top of the list) and other places (like Classic, for example, in
categories depending upon subject).

Retrieval is usually fast.  However, until I went to the method I use
now, the IMAP folder and message management made it painfully slow.

My mail profile folder is 10GB, roughly, consisting of 22036 files and
8198 directories.  I use the "Quick Folder Move" add on to make managing
the email in the inbox that is worthy of filing away relatively painless.

JRJ




> I _detest_ the gmail interface, I'd really prefer to continue using a
> client like this - but TBird just isn't getting any better.
> 
> What am I missing here? Are there better options? Is Thunderbird just
> not designed for large mail sets for people who actually work for a living?
> 
> Responses should probably be sent to me directly. And my thanks in
> advance for your opinions, my curmudgeonly behaviour is really eating up
> my time and I'm hoping there's a reasonable fix beyond "Suck it up and
> use gmail".
> 
> Cheers!
> 
>  - JP
>