betterbird-better-feature-image

Betterbird – A Better Thunderbird?

Overview

Thunderbird is a free and open-source cross-platform email client developed by the Mozilla Foundation and operated by subsidiary MZLA Technologies Corporation. Many DCT readers use Thunderbird as their default email program. Betterbird is a fork of Thunderbird that the project refers to as a “fine-tuned” version of Thunderbird, and “Thunderbird on steroids”. The project’s goals are to make Betterbird better than Thunderbird in three ways: First, by having new features exclusive to Betterbird. Second, by containing bug fixes exclusive to Betterbird. And third, by containing fixes that Thunderbird may ship at a later stage.

Soft vs Hard Forks

Betterbird is a “soft” fork of Mozilla Thunderbird. A “hard” fork is a copy of a project at a point in time, Changes are then made to the fork. Both the old version and new fork exist but they drift further and further apart over time. An example of this is the Pale Moon browser, which is a fork of Firefox version 52, while Firefox is currently at version 106.0.2. In contrast, a “soft” fork is a split from the original project, but it is still dependent on the original project. Betterbird, being a “soft” fork, follows the Thunderbird Extended Support Releases (ESR) and, therefore, stays in sync with Thunderbird’s updates and security improvements. Additionally, Betterbird is 100% compatible with Thunderbird and follows the same dot release of Thunderbird.

Betterbird History

Betterbird is headed by Jörg Knobloch, Thunderbird’s first employee, and Thunderbird’s former maintainer. When the Thunderbird project switched from a non-profit to the for-profit MZLA Technologies Corporation, Jörg voiced his concerns with some of the new policies, MZLA ousted him from the Thunderbird Council and banned him for life from the entire Mozilla community. Detailed information is located in this PDF. Jörg then started the Betterbird project.

Data Storage

Thunderbird stores all personal data, messages, address books, and configuration settings in a folder called a profile or the profile folder. You can switch between using Betterbird and Thunderbird on the same profile without problems. I have both Betterbird, and Thunderbird loaded on my computer; I can open either program. Since they both read the same profile, all the data is the same, the settings are the same, and even any loaded add-ons are the same. Only one program can open a profile at a time. In fact, the programs look so similar that it is hard to tell which one is open.

Neither Thunderbird nor Betterbird is designed for portable use. The profile contains absolute path names. Moving the profile causes issues. Thunderbird does not offer an official portable version. Betterbird has a portable version, but, since it uses the Thunderbird profile, Betterbird uses a special launcher program. If using the portable version, Betterbird recommends setting preference “extensions.startupScanScopes” to “5” in the Config Editor to maintain compatibility with add-ons and themes.

Feature Enhancements Of Betterbird

Betterbird offers a list of feature enhancements compared to Thunderbird which can be seen in the following table:

betterbird-feature-enhancements

Some of the more significant features Betterbird offers over Thunderbird are:

  • Multi-line View, a view- similar to what Outlook offers. From the menu, the multi-line view is turned on by selecting View / Layout / Multi-line view on all folders

betterbird-multilineview-1

Here, we see an example of the standard single-line view:

betterbird-multilineview-2

And here is an example of Betterbird’s multi-line view:

betterbird-multilineview3

  • Complex Search Terms offer searching with complex searches. While Thunderbird is limited to one set of search terms, Betterbird allows multiple groups of search terms. From the menu, a complex search is performed by selecting Edit / Find / Search Messages

betterbird complex search a

Thunderbird is limited to a single group of search terms:

betterbird-comples-search-1

But, in Betterbird, multiple groups of search terms can be used:

complex-search-terms

  • Quick Filter Untagged Messages. In the Quick Filter widget, turn on tags by selecting the Tags icon

Betterbird Quick Filter 1

An additional tags toolbar will display. From this toolbar, messages to display with all tags, individual tags, or a combination of tags can be selected. As in Thunderbird, tagged messages can be selected:

betterbird-quick-filter-2

But, in Betterbird, you can select untagged messages:

Betterbird Quick Filter 3

  • File Attachments. When composing a message and attaching files to it, Betterbird allows the option to choose from the last five recently accessed files. Note: I looked but did not see a method of changing this to a different number

Betterbird File Attachments

Bugs Fixed

Betterbird has fixed many bugs in Thunderbird. Here is the current list of bugs fixed in Betterbird but not currently in Thunderbird. Since these projects are open source, Betterbird’s bug fixes and enhancements are available for Thunderbird to incorporate. Here is the list of changes that Thunderbird has accepted. And here is the list of changes that are pending acceptance by Thunderbird.

Updating

Unlike Thunderbird, Betterbird will not automatically update itself. If there is a new version, a notification is displayed and the upgrade needs to be downloaded and installed. The notification is in the About box (Settings / Help / About Betterbird).

betterbird-update-1

Also, the update notification is on the start page if the standard start page is set to be used in the settings.

betterbird-update-2

Support

The Betterbird project is a small group, but I sent two questions to the support email address. Both times, within a short amount of time, I received replies from Jörg.

Bottomline

Should you use Betterbird instead of Thunderbird? Betterbird fixes many bugs and offers some enhancements while still staying 100% compatible with Thunderbird. If you will use any of the enhancements or benefit from the additional bugs that have been fixed, then yes, give Betterbird a try. If you need an email client that auto-updates itself, then stick with Thunderbird.

22 thoughts on “Betterbird – A Better Thunderbird?”

  1. Thank you, Dave. I never knew! I am going to install it in parallel and try it out. I have been using TB for decades. But lately, many of the add-ons I had used stopped working. So, I had been using ver. 68.0 for a few years. Time to check this out.

    1. Harry, I do not think running Thunderbird v68 and Betterbird v102 is a good idea if you are using the same profile. Going back and forth between TB & BB could cause problems. If you plan on running both in parallel, I’d upgrade TB to v 102.x first.
      John

  2. Well, if people cannot access the site to download it, and it gives them: “Secure connection failed”, that is too bad! They should get their act together because all other sites load fine.

  3. Well, guess what! How childish can you be?!!!! If you use Firefox to download Betterbird, it says it cannot do so due to security issues. I used Edge and it took me to the site rightaway! More the reason for me to ditch Thunderbird!

      1. Hmmm…I wonder why. I just tried again and the same result! Ok, I was wrong in my assumption. I need to investigate further. Thanks, John.

  4. Thanks. I have the installer, thanks to Edge. My Firefox works fine, otherwise. It is not worth my time to troubleshoot it merely for this one reason.

  5. Sadly, some folks get frustrated too quickly and forget that glitches can happen at any time. I am speaking from experience, so before jumping to conclusions, try and retry. Even a simple reboot can often solve problems (use my opinion), Mindblower!

    1. No, I did not give up too quickly and the first thing I do is reboot, as I make a living in I.T. I am on the road . So, I could not try it on my other computers. Suffice to say, I saw no value in wasting my precious time as I got what I wanted – the installer using Edge.

  6. Some of my co-workers just switched from Thunderbird to Betterbird mainly because of the more frequent updates, as you mentioned.

    Secondarily, my team-mates frown upon the ethics displayed by the Mozilla/Thunderbird leadership team and their culture — forcing out their prior co-founder/CTO and CEO (who went on to start Brave browser) and, as you linked to, forcing out/banning the original primary contributor of Thunderbird, who of course went on to start Betterbird.

  7. Where did you find a contact email for Betterbird? I have not been able to find any contact details at all, and I have some questions. It doesn’t seem to be working as advertised, or at least how I was expecting it to.
    Thanks

  8. Thanks, found it. I also found the forum (in German), which basically solved the problem for me. I couldn’t get Betterbird to read Thunderbirds emails. Turns out is was a flatpak permissions issue. Dunno, but for me it doesn’t seem to work as well as TB, except for the find command. Think I’m gonna stick to TB for now. It just seems to work better for me. BB refused to open an html link in an email, refused to play an mp4 attachment, and wouldn’t let me choose an application to open it with. Basic stuff that TB has not problem with. But that’s just my experience.

  9. Bonjour,
    – dans à propos de Betterbird: il manque le lancement possible de la dernière mise à jour
    – il manque aussi l’extension account colors permettant de colorer le fond d’1 ligne horizontale sur 2 de messages pour plus de lisibilité
    – il serait bien d’afficher les lignes verticales de la partie des messages séparant expéditeur, sujet, date, taille, …
    Merci

    Hello,
    – in about Betterbird: it lacks the possible launch of the latest update
    – the extension account colors also lacks to color the background of 1 horizontal line on 2 messages for greater readability
    – it would be good to display the vertical lines of the part of the messages separating the sender, subject, date, size, etc.
    Thank you.

  10. Thunderbird was the best, by far better than Outlook. But for the last few years, updates have been giving me issues. Patches and updates have fixed the issues, but it could take months before things work as they should. Plus when an update is done something may be fixed but something else may break.
    The latest issue I am having is emails sent by Thunderbird are bounced back to the person replying to my email as not deliverable. My Internet Provider claims that my email software is the issue and told me to use their web client, yeah like that’s going to happen when I have gmail, yahoo, twc to name a few of the accounts.
    The bottom line is, I am going to try Betterbird. Finding out the background on what happened at Thunderbird is disturbing and kind of explains why things seem to be unstable on updates. Knowing the person in charge of Betterbird WAS in charge of Thunderbird when it is reliable is another plus.
    For all that read this, if something works well please donate a few dollars to the developer. I have donated a few dollars for the “free” software I use, and if I continue to use it, I have donated a few dollars again at future dates. These few dollars are less expensive than paying big bucks to buy or a subscription price that keeps coming back to haunt you. I am not saying to donate to everyone, but for those that help us with software or resources like a web page that WE DO USE REPEATEDLY, please consider even a few dollars, they do add up and can help in adding new features later.

  11. Hey Russ,
    Thanks for the comment. I hope that Betterbird works out better for you than Thunderbird.
    Yes, if you find a free software project beneficial, even a small donation helps the developer continue the project.

    SHAMELESS PLUG, we at Daves Computer Tips also benefit greatly from donations. If you find DCT beneficial and want to help us continue, there is donation link on all our pages.

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