Email clients?

Colonel Panic · 2024-01-02 13:25:44

I've struggled and failed to set up both Thunderbird (recently) and Betterbird (today) because I couldn't get past the OAuth2 bug, so I've made the decision to revert to an earlier version of Thunderbird instead which doesn't have the same bug and is working fine with the normal password option on setup (as it always did). I'm willing to take a chance with whatever security issues there may be with the older version of Thunderbird in order to have an e-mail client that actually works at all.

This article discusses the OAuth2 bug in relation to GMail, but I can confirm that Fastmail has the same problem.

https://superuser.com/questions/1499159 … redentials

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-01-02 15:05:34)

johnraff · 2024-01-03 05:00:12

That Superuser question (not really an article) is 4 years old, so just how old a version of Tbird are you proposing to go back to? Of course you tried the fixes on that page?

I don't have any Gmail accounts set up on my TB or else I might be able to help a bit more. (I remember Yahoo prompting me about a change in login procedure a couple of years ago, but following their guidance for "legacy" setup or something worked out OK.)

Colonel Panic · 2024-01-03 07:09:19

Thanks for replying John. At the moment I'm using Thunderbird 91 (just over two years old). Perhaps I should have been clearer in my post to say that I don't use GMail in Thunderbird though (I use Fastmail instead).

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-01-03 07:28:03)

johnraff · 2024-01-03 09:11:09

Thunderbird 91 doesn't suffer from this problem?
(I'm on Debian 11, using TB 115.6.0 )

Colonel Panic · 2024-01-03 11:28:53

johnraff wrote:

Thunderbird 91 doesn't suffer from this problem? (I'm on Debian 11, using TB 115.6.0 )

Hi again John,

No, but I've just lost my settings in it so I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone else as a solution.

P.s. I have now tried the fixes on that page and Thunderbird's working again but I've got a message telling me to change my password if I want to use third-party calendar apps (which I don't). I know I've dealt with this before but my memory's failing me at this point.

[Edit: after digging a bit deeper and following Fastmail's own instructions I found an old Mailspring account which was causing the CarDav (third-party calendar app) messages. I've deleted it now and all is good.]

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-01-03 18:10:01)

johnraff · 2024-01-04 04:55:26

^Good news!

I've been using Thunderbird ever since I was on Win 98, and am quite happy with it. It's a bit bulky and complicated but once you finally get things configured the way you want (fonts took me ages) it seems to do a good job.

Colonel Panic · 2024-02-20 17:37:58

For those who don't like Thunderbird's latest interface (I've been struggling with it myself), there is a promising new e-mail client called Epyrus. It's the work of athenian200, someone who posts on the Pale Moon forums, and is based on the Thunderbird 52.9.0 codebase;

http://www.epyrus.org/download.html

Well worth a look anyway IMO. It's a bit more involved to set up than Thunderbird is now, but it's still fairly user-friendly.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-02-20 17:40:19)

marens · 2024-02-20 23:35:35

Colonel Panic wrote:

For those who don't like Thunderbird's latest interface (I've been struggling with it myself) ...

Thunderbird can easily look like you want.
If you are not familiar with CSS, there are people who know TB perfectly and have answers ready for most of our questions.

I learned for many years from the best:
https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforTb

The latest version is TB 115.6.0 and it looks the same as in my old screenshots:
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 42#p129942

Colonel Panic · 2024-02-21 07:43:41

marens wrote:

Colonel Panic wrote:
For those who don't like Thunderbird's latest interface (I've been struggling with it myself) ...
Thunderbird can easily look like you want.
If you are not familiar with CSS, there are people who know TB perfectly and have answers ready for most of our questions.
I learned for many years from the best:
https://github.com/Aris-t2/CustomCSSforTb
The latest version is TB 115.6.0 and it looks the same as in my old screenshots:
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 42#p129942

Thanks marens. It's an absolute mess on mine, which it never used to be, so SOMETHING must have changed.

As I keep saying on here, Your Mileage May Vary.

I will look into your suggestions, but for now Epyrus does what I need an e-mail client to do.

johnraff · 2024-02-22 03:11:02

The Tbird changes were horrible for me too, but eventually I got it back to something close to what I was used to.
https://superuser.com/questions/1787317 … -to-fix-it
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 45#p129945
And a recent upgrade (115.7) has fixed that remaining annoyance (not opening folders at the newest post) so things are pretty much OK again.

Last edited by johnraff (2024-02-22 03:16:57)

Mx. Alba · 2024-02-22 08:50:21

I'm on Team Mozilla, avid user of both Firefox and Thunderbird.

Colonel Panic · 2024-02-24 10:43:52

A quick update; I'm in Fedora at the moment and the advice given in John's link worked very well because it was easy to see the layout menu and then to set the "Classic" layout and (re)-enable the toolbars.

Thunderbird in Gentoo was a harder project and I couldn't even find the Edit menu in that one. I may go back and try again later.

For me though it reinforces the necessity of having other software options to go to (such as Epyrus), so that if things do go wrong at least you're not left without an important service such as e-mail. I've used Sylpheed Claws in the past too, although that's harder to set up than Thunderbird and there also seemed to be some kind of delay (as long as a day or two) in receiving messages sent from Claws that there wasn't in Thunderbird.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-02-24 10:48:58)

Colonel Panic · 2024-09-18 08:46:25

A further word on Betterbird (hey it rhymes). I've just set up the latest version in Mint and as long as you specify the "Normal Password" authentication option, it all works well and messages are displayed in the old (i.e. pre-Supernova) way. I have no hesitation in recommending it as an e-mail client.

Just one thing though; if you download it, be aware that the British and American English versions are the same one and not listed one below the other. I didn't realise this at first and got the German one instead, which led to some interesting sessions trying to translate words like "Posteingang" and "Entwürfe."

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2024-09-18 12:22:26)

Colonel Panic · 2025-10-01 17:59:16

Someone's created a script that installs Betterbird automatically and then sets it up in the desktop menu;

https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbi … terbird.sh

and here's where I saw the script;

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php … rd#p833467

[EDIT: I've given up on Betterbird sadly as it has a weird bug which sends messages to a local folder instead of posting them as I intended. I am now using Ice Dove UXP (32-bit) instead, and occasionally Epyrus and older versions of Thunderbird as well.

Last edited by Colonel Panic (2025-12-15 09:15:17)

Colonel Panic · Yesterday 22:00:36

A new version of Epyrus has just been released (built with gtk3). I've just downloaded it and it seems to be working fine - no sign of a .deb file yet though.

http://www.epyrus.org/download.html

#21 2024-01-02 13:25:44

Re: Email clients?

#22 2024-01-03 05:00:12

Re: Email clients?

#23 2024-01-03 07:09:19

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#24 2024-01-03 09:11:09

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#25 2024-01-03 11:28:53

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#26 2024-01-04 04:55:26

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#27 2024-02-20 17:37:58

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#28 2024-02-20 23:35:35

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#29 2024-02-21 07:43:41

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#30 2024-02-22 03:11:02

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#31 2024-02-22 08:50:21

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#32 2024-02-24 10:43:52

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#33 2024-09-18 08:46:25

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#34 2025-10-01 17:59:16

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#35 Yesterday 22:00:36

Re: Email clients?

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