Betterbird: Actively Developed Thunderbird Fork
Betterbird. Simply better.

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Betterbird is a fine-tuned version of Mozilla
Thunderbird, Thunderbird on steroids, if you will.

Betterbird is better than Thunderbird in three ways:
It contains new features exclusive to Betterbird, it contains bug fixes exclusive to Betterbird and it
contains fixes that Thunderbird may ship at a later stage. Please refer to this
feature table for examples. This should give
you an impression of where the project is headed.
Easy adoption: You can install Betterbird at the same time as Thunderbird and run them on the same profile.
That means that you can try out Betterbird with zero hassle, and go back to Thunderbird if you don't like it - which is unlikely.
Please read the fine print on our support page. 
More information on why we're doing the project can be found at the FAQ.
Or just see our illustrator's impression:


Which party would you join?


Betterbird 115.17.0 released on 28th October 2024
Today we are shipping Betterbird version 115.17.0-bb35.
Please refer to the release notes for details.
German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Ukranian, Czech, Albanian, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese
localisations available, other languages on request.
A portable version for Windows is also available. There's also a
Mac build for Intel and Silicon Macs in English only, which can be localised using 
Betterbird language packs.



Betterbird 115 "Superstar"

Betterbird 115 has been around since June 2023 in its beta version and since July 2023 in its release version.
Unlike Thunderbird, we're not calling it "Supernova" because that sounds too much like destruction, see
Wikipedia:
"... a powerful and luminous explosion of a star turning the original star into
a neutron star or black hole, or completely destroying it".

One very disconcerting trend is becoming clear: More and more functionality that existed for decades is being removed
from Thunderbird. Of course we will endeavour to restore it in Betterbird:

Total and unread/selected count removed from status bar. Yes, it's
definitely gone! - Restored in Betterbird
Can't select multiple folders any more for bulk processing. Yes, it's
gone in 115 but coming back in 128
No more connecting lines in threaded view: Yes, they are
gone - Restored in Betterbird
The new card view, a poor implementation of a true multi-line view,
can't be threaded. Not so useful.Betterbird still has its "traditional" multi-line view.





Betterbird 128.0esr "preview" released on 6th July 2024
After a beta program for Betterbird 128 of three weeks (22nd June to 6th July 2024), we're shipping Betterbird 128.0esr-bb4 today.
We're shipping this only in English and for Windows.

Betterbird 128.4.2esr-bb16 "preview" released on 07th November 2024
We are constantly updating the Betterbird 128 series with new release in English and for Windows, Linux and Mac.
Please refer to the
release notes for details.


Note that Thunderbird 128 and hence Betterbird 128 is shipping with a broken backend, causing IMAP folder corruption
under some circumstances. Currently, we do not recommend version 128 for productive use.
Show more


History: In December 2023 the Thunderbird team greatly changed the internals of mbox file handling, introducing
a number of regressions.
Soon after, the first
bug was filed,
reporting IMAP folder corruption. Currently,
this bug is tracking the issue.


Symptoms: IMAP folder corruption is easy to notice. The user clicks on a message, and the message
isn't correctly display. Usually some raw message content is displayed, often a MIME boundary starting with --.
Some users report that a different mail from the one that was clicked on in the message list is displayed.
Note that since the Thunderbird folks forced version 128 onto unsuspecting users via an unnecessary update,
they are getting a high volume of reports that people's e-mail can't be displayed any more.


Remedy: Repairing the affected IMAP folder (Right-click, Properties, Repair Folder)
usually fixes the issue. That's fine for users with little data, it causes problems for users with large
folders (more than 1 GB) since the repair downloads all messages again. 
Some Thunderbird users report that they need to repair they IMAP mailboxes multiple times
per week.


Outlook: We were estimating that the problem would be fixed in version 128.3.0 due in October 2024,
but the Thunderbird team have done precious little to address the issue. Unfortunately 128.3.0 is still defective.

As a recap, Thunderbird 102 initially shipped with a broken backend, including causing data loss;
Thunderbird 115 "Supernova-kaboom" shipped with a broken frontend; now in Thunderbird 128 we're back to a broken backend.
Breaking news: Mozilla will support code base for the 115 series until 115.21 in March 2025.
Maybe Thunderbird 128 will be stable by then. We will ship further Betterbird versions in the 115 series, whereas Thunderbird's last version in that
series is 115.16.1 leaving users in a precarious situation.


Get in touch: If the IMAP folder corruption is affecting you, please get in touch with our
support team,
and we will work through the issue with you.




Betterbird 102 series

As of 26th September 2023, the 102 series of Betterbird has reached "end of life" status
and will no longer receive updates. Please switch to Betterbird 115.


Betterbird Survey 2023
At the beginning of 2023 we conducted a survey among our supporters and users asking two questions: "What do you like?"
and "What do you like to see improved?".
Top answers to the first question were:

Less bugs than Thunderbird (76%)
Better support (57%)
More independence from Mozilla (30%)
Top features: Multi-line view (32%), complex search terms (19%), Windows System Tray ("Systray") (17%),
search in encrypted messages (8%).


Features people like to see in the future:

Account Colours (30%)
System Tray ("Systray") also for Linux (26%)
Different program icons (26%)
Regular expressions in search terms/filters (20%)
Calendar subtasks (18%)
Compose in tab (17%)
Insert menu for plaintext composition (16%)
Search in S/MIME encrypted messages (11%)

The good news is that System Tray support for Linux

and the Insert menu were already included in release 102.7.0.
Regular expressions in search terms/filters followed in release 102.7.1.
As of version 102.11.0, program icons can be customised on both Windows and Linux.
The first part of
Account Colours
will ship in BB 115.5.2-bb20 as a 2023 Christmas present.
Please get in touch via this
GitHub issue
if you can contribute to the implementation of calendar subtasks.


Software Quality
Based on the current situation in version 102, a look at quality assurance, or lack thereof, is appropriate.
Thunderbird has never had an organised quality assurance team, they let the product ripen
at the customer site, at worst causing data loss like for version 102.
The 102 release with mbox and MSF corruption causing data loss and deleted MSF files was nothing short of disastrous.
More and more developers are hired
who contribute more and more changes causing an ever growing number of regressions
(Wikipedia:
A software regression is a type of software bug where a feature that has worked before stops working).
The team tracks bugs found in early deployment of a release, and the trend is astounding,
although version 128 offers a ray of hope:
Version 68: 43,
Version 78: 184,
Version 91: 270,
Version 102: 395 (66 still unresolved),
Version 115: No record,
Version 128: 235 (as of 6 Sept. 2024).




Thunderbird management has discussed establishing a QA team since 2020, but in the end, funds were spent
on hiring more developers. In this context,
this article
seems to mark the beginning of a new era. But will Thunderbird finally catch up with quality and usability issues?
Our project leader wrote an
answer.
Update July 2023: The employee working on the QA team hasn't been seen since May 2023, Bugzilla gives the impression
that new bugs for version 115 aren't triaged and are also not bundled any more.
However, new bugs announced on the Beta Mailing List easily add up to well over 500.


Update April/June 2024: Thunderbird finally hired two QA staff and a release manager, the former not listed on their
About Us page yet. It remains to be seen how
fast the QA staff pick up knowledge of the product. The release manager, whose first big task were the
128 release notes,
didn't fare so well, he forgot mentioning the following hotly requested features:
Folder multi-select works again, Thunderbird now partly implemented account colours (Betterbird's version is far better), 
(check for bugs
1817605 and
1482172
in 
the raw data).
Other news
Want to see Betterbird running on a mobile ARM64 device (Samsung Galaxy Tab S7), click
here.
Note: That's the work of a volunteer, not strictly related to the Betterbird project.


For the much requested multi-line view, see
here for details.



Colours
The red-orange colour scheme is part of the
registered trademark. Red-orange together with a Phoenix-like bird on one hand signify a more aggressive policy and on the other hand a
resurrection from the ashes unleashing
the potential of the product while not being bogged down by annoying bugs.

We've had many requests to change the icons to make them better distinguishable from Firefox to avoid misclicks.
As the colour scheme is part of the trademark, we will not change the default icons shipped with the product
or the icons used in the product. However, Windows and Linux users can change program and system tray icons
as described here.


Due to the current situation in Europe, we were featuring the Betterbird logo at this website in Ukrainian colours
from March to July 2022. The logo in Ukrainian colours is still available for download.

Betterbird elsewhere on the web

Source code, Downloads

Our GitHub repository
github.com/Betterbird/

Arch Linux packages(English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese)
aur.archlinux.org


FlatPak
flathub.org/.../Betterbird
github.com/flathub/eu.betterbird.Betterbird



Winget
winstall.app/apps/Betterbird.Betterbird

Chocolatey
community.chocolatey.org/packages/betterbird

Windows 11 Downloads
Betterbird on Windows 11 Downloads


Softpedia
www.softpedia.com/.../Betterbird.shtml

Forums ...


Reddit (handle with care)
www.reddit.com/r/Betterbird/

Articles, opinions ...

Interview with the project leader (in German)
linuxnews.de


Article "The email client Thunderbird could have been"
betanews.com -
downloadcrew.com


Daves Computer Tips
Thunderbird vs. Betterbird


YouTube Videos about Betterbird

June 2022,
March 2023,
August 2023,
and more



Search on Google, more stuff appearing all the time:
www.google.com/search?q=betterbird





Examples of Betterbird being better in version 115.17.0-bb35

FeatureBetterbirdThunderbird
Features exclusive to Betterbird
Multi-line view like in Outlook, Lotus Notes and Postbox
Yes!
Requested since 2003. Thunderbird 115 now has a "cards view".
Vertical tabs (by alta88)
Yes!
Bug on file
Account colours
Yes!
Waiting since 2018
Attachments on top (by alta88)Yes!
Bug on file
Header pane resize (by alta88)
Yes!No, but limited add-on support
Secondary sort indicators (by alta88)
Yes!Secondary sort not obvious and unknown to users
More window layouts (by alta88)Yes!Only standard layouts
Edit headers of message (by alta88)Yes!Add-on needed
Change threading of messages (by alta88)Yes!No. No longer available via add-on.
Reversed threading
Yes!
Waiting since 2005
Manually sort foldersYes!Add-on which provided the function no longer working
Complex search terms
Yes!
No, requested since 2005
Regular expressions in search terms
Yes!
No, requested since 1999
Quick search, folder search and filters ignore diacriticsYes!
No, requested since 2009
Quick Filter button negation incl. untagged messages (by alta88)
Yes!
No, development stalled since 2016
Global search in PGP and S/MIME encrypted messagesYes!
No, requested since 2003
Quick filter and folder search in PGP and S/MIME encrypted messagesYes!
Not working ☹️
Windows system tray
New messages count and folder listNew messages count
Linux system tray
Yes!
Waiting since 1999
Minimize to system tray on LinuxYes!
Bug on file
Open news message by IDYes!
No, requested since 2000
Menu bar on top where it belongsYes!
Supernova, kaboom!
Total and unread/selected count in status barYes!
Supernova, kaboom!
Connecting lines in threaded viewNot ideal, but yes!No, Supernova, kaboom!
Various improvements for feeds (by alta88)Yes!Supernova, kaboom!
Configurable display of addresses in message listYes!
Nope, request from 2011, add-on that did it broken now
Better and configurable multi-select
Yes!
No, shows summary, requested since 2006
Optional tab restoreYes!
No, requested since 2009
Printed attachment listShowing correct detailsNo details ☹️
Startup FolderCan select folder for startupRestores last opened folder
File Attachments
Can attach recent files
No recent files
Attach files via Windows soft-linkYes!
No, requested since 2005
Global search results can open to list viewYes!
No, requested since 2010
Activity ManagerOpens in tabOpens in stand-alone window
Unix Movemail supportYes!
No, removed by mistake from version 91
Open links from compose windowYes!
No, requested since 2011
Ability to disable IMAP accountYes!
No, requested since 2011

Bug fixes so far exclusive to Betterbird(*)
Works well with more than 500 foldersOf course!Loses message summary files (MSF) ☹️
Correct handling of non-breaking spaces (Ctrl+Shift+Space)(for French typography)Yes!
No, requested since 2006
View > Repair Text EncodingFixing subject and remembering repaired state
Not fixing the subject, need to re-apply
Visual feedback during Quick Filter SearchOf course!Supernova, kaboom!
Windows system notificationsOf course!
Supernova, kaboom!
Various other bugs (see
release notes)Fixed!Waiting, hoping, ... 🥱


Of course the Thunderbird team is busily adding a whole bunch of much welcomed new stuff and improvements, but
making sure that everything remains in working order falls by the wayside. Thunderbird is shipped with
unnecessary regressions, so things that used to work stopped working.
Best example: 91.3.2 shipped with broken Calendar printing 😩
(*) We supply our changes to Thunderbird, but it is unclear if/when "upstream" will accept them.







