Thunderbird Supernova upgrade
My wife and I have both used Thunderbird successfully since the Turnpike email clients became obsolete with Win7. We have enjoyed doing this. I have also made occasional donations over these years to support Thunderbird when appeals have been made. We are both, however, disgusted with the new layout of Thunderbird and have now downgraded back to ver 91. We will continue using this earlier version as long as we can and have no intention of upgrading again to your new monstrosity. The familiarity of a layout is a vital part of using any software and we have not found the new layout, FORCED upon us, at all helpful or in any way "better" than before. Your failure to provide any flexibility in adjusting the new layout to become more familiar to us is dismal - have you not heard the expression "If it 'aint broke, don't fix it"? Not all of us want the latest gismos and features and are quite content to continue with what we have. You could at least have still allowed that possibility in the options provided rather than denying us it by FIAT. If it proves impossible to continue with the earlier version at some time in the future we will find another email client to use instead. Sadly we will then no longer be supporting your work.
All Replies (6)
you mean you can downgrade?
I'm with you on this...if you can downgrade I want to know how
The new version is an effort to both a) improve accessibility, and b) provide new functionality to users who are asking for more modern capability, c) while allowing users who prefer an old look to do so. Unfortunately, doing B is not possible unless some change is introduced.
You might have asked, and people here could have helped you with C, to adjust the new version to your liking.
Well, you're telling the wrong people. This forum is supported by volunteers. We don't get to vote on new features, or any other strategic or tactical decisions. We're just here to help people.
I will share with you that I also found the new layout difficult, and sometimes frustrating. But I decided to try to work with it to discover its strengths. With a bit of experimentation, I found that I can work well with it. So, while we hate to see you go, I encourage you to revisit 115, as a lot of work went into the design. We wish you well.
I'm not sure what you are asking us to help you fix. The developers do not use this forum. It is manned by other Thunderbird users like yourself who offer their free time (unpaid volunteers) to help people solve issues. We are not employees.
re :Your failure to provide any flexibility in adjusting the new layout to become more familiar to us....You could at least have still allowed that possibility in the options
I tried to find any questions you asked on this but I cannot find any.
Yes there are lots of new things but I've managed to set up things so it's more familiar. For example the new layout offers the same old Message List as before but in addition offers a Card View, so in this area you can still use same as before. Nothing has changed.
The Menu Bar still exists eg: File Edit View and I've provided a fix on how to put it in the original location. So nothing has changed.
The new 'Unified toolbar' is pretty much like the old 'Mail Toolbar' - you customise it to add all the usual things like 'Tag', 'Mark', 'Write' etc. Mine now looks very similar to the old Mail Toolbar.
There is now a means of controlling the font size of the general UI without needing to use the Config Editor - now that really is helpful. There's a load more stuff - many unused toolbars or items on them can be disabled if you do not want them. The development is still on-going so a few tweaks are inevitable.
It's like anything new - the developers always set it up as default and then people like you and me need to assess if we want it or find out how to modify things. I've been getting used to it and in most respects it's actually a lot better than I first imagined and I'm no spring chicken :)
Rather than dismiss it altogether, I would suggest you try it and please ask a question if there is something you cannot find or you need to modify to suit your requirements. We are here to help.
All the best.
Thank you all for your replies. I'm not a newbie and have been into computers since 1964, so my posting was not spur of the moment. In reply and clarification: 1. I know this isn't the right forum but Thunderbird support doesn't give a direct link that I've ever found to go to the place that is the right one to use in these sorts of circumstances. The only one I could find takes me to the community in one form or other and in this case took me here. I simply hoped that someone in Mozilla would pick it up. 2. I've been looking several times since the new version was released to see how to go back to something more familiar and up until recently the only advice being offered that I found was a clear set of instructions to get back safely to v. 91. And having done it that is OK by me. One answer stated clearly (at the time I looked) that there was no way to get the original look back inside the new version, only to approximate to it, but if there now is I'll look into it *when I get time* - why should continually checking for a fix take top priority over my other problems when I didn't ask for the change in the first place? Wouldn't it have been better to have offered the "workaround" at the time the change occurred, suggesting that it hadn't been properly trialed and so this "need" hadn't become apparent? 3. The reason why I posted the message (intended for the developers) now is that my wife had only just recently let me know that she had struggled with it and had enough of the new version and wanted to go back. She isn't technically savvy and has no wish or intention to become so - why should she? - and asked me to revert her. It was only this later request that prompted me to (try to) tell the developer how we feel. 4. The pace of change in technology and software is getting now such that it is dictating people's lives. These things are supposed to be tools - easy to use, familiar and reliably constant. Thunderbird isn't the only culprit. The constant need to "adapt" the tool is distracting our time and energy from more important issues. Anyway, thank you all for your suggestions.
Dave Smith said
Thank you all for your replies. I'm not a newbie and have been into computers since 1964, ... 4. The pace of change in technology and software is getting now such that it is dictating people's lives.
Heck, I already felt that way in the 90s and 2000s.
Me using computers since the 70s.