Thunderbird to Mail
As you may recall, I changed web hosts recently, moving my site to my account on Dreamhost. Since I was going to be changing mail server settings anyway, I decided to take the opportunity to try out a differeny email application. I use my Gmail account for about 90% of my email. My domain account (jeremyflint.com) is used for a few things such as my online bill payment stuff, some online shopping accounts, etc. I also have my work account, but have cut out 99% of my personal e-mail there.
Before I became such an avid Mac user, I had a Dell laptop. My email client of choice was Thunderbird. I had been using it since version 0.4 (I think) and had become very familiar with the UI and the features of the app. When I goy my Powerbook almost 2 years ago, I decided to stick with Thunderbird. Migrating my mailbox from the Dell to the Powerbook was a piece of cake.
For a while, things were great. As my e-mail began to accumulate, I noticed Thunderbird starting to get sluggish. The load time began to slow down, as did the time to reply to a message or look up a contact. The fact that I had to open my e-mail client to look up an address or e-mail list also began to bother me as I started looking at ways to simplify and speed up my processes.
So back to the present day. I switched my site over to Dreamhost and decided to make use of their IMAP service. I launched Mail.app (or Mail, as it is more commonly referred to) for the first time ever and I was immediately pleased. The application is very lightweight. It loads quick, replies quick and leaves a very small footprint on my screen, which is always a plus. Now that I am on the Intel Core Duo, it performs even better. Maybe once Thunderbird gets a Universal version out for Mac OS X, it will get a good speed boost. Until then, I am sticking with Mail.
I definitely agree with Paul. A had to get rid of that default Mail icon.
May 15th, 2006
and get rid of those horrid icons with:
http://andrewescobar.com/mailstamps/