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What does Thunderbird actually do?
I happily have my email with gmail. Does Thunderbird download all my mail to this laptop? I don't really want that.
It just that, while making a webpage, if I use mailto then try it, up pops Thunderbird and wants to be configured. I don't want thousands of emails on my laptop
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
Rep:
Thunderbird can be set up to leave the messages on the server and just download headers or to download the messages and remove them from the server and everything in between.
Thunderbird is an email client. You may prefer webmail but having a proper email client does have its advantages including being able to retry both send and receive if your internet connection is broken and being able to view and interact with more than one mailbox at a time.
Distribution: Debian /Jessie/Stretch/Sid, Linux Mint DE
Posts: 5,195
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Downloading e-mails to your local machine is a nuisance. I use Thunderbird as IMAP client which leaves all mails on the server and just downloads the headers. It is much faster to use than webmail. And new messages pop up immediately. You can use Tbird as an IMAP client for gmail. Try it and see the difference between webmail and an e-mail client. You can use the same mail boxes you already have in gmail. You could even use Tbird on some machines and webmail on others where you have not installed gmail.
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
Rep:
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlinkels
Downloading e-mails to your local machine is a nuisance.
Right up to the point that your mail provider goes down, or somebody slaps a pointless DMCA take-down on your account (for example), and you want to reference a message.
Sorry, I agree that IMAP is generally a better solution, but it's worth considering what you use and why.
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