Re: Thunderbird Lightning

[Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff Crosby wrote:
> All,
>
> I have been using Outlook for email & PIM.  Have been thinking of moving to
> Thunderbird for some time - I heard there was a calendaring/todo/etc addon
> coming that would make Thunderbird a full PIM.
>
> Last night I discovered it exists:  Lightning.  Any of you Thunderbird users
> using it?  Issues?
>
> I could see our company abandoning MS Office altogether and replacing with
> OpenOffice & Thunderbird.
>
>   
As with any comparison, your mileage will vary.  I currently use three 
add-ons in Thunderbird: Lightining, ReminderFox and Contacts Sidebar.

Lightning is a pretty good calendaring system, and it seems to support 
the standard emails you get with calendar attachments.  That being said, 
there are quirks: when I first get an event in GMT, it seems to store it 
successfully, but later (typically when I close Thunderbird and reopen 
it) it loses the timezone conversion so the time is off.  I'll get an 
event for 15:00 GMT and it initially shows as 9:00AM, but if I then 
close Thunderbird and open it, the event "moves" to 3:00PM (15:00) CST.  
It's a nasty quirk that I haven't had the time to pin down entirely.

Other than that, though, the reminder capability is pretty good and the 
calendar is serviceable.


ReminderFox is a really nice ToDo function.  You create lists of todos, 
and can add your own lists.  The nice thing is a little "tied string" 
symbol in the status bar: you hover over it and a list of your current 
todos pops up.  You can decide which todos show up in this popup list.


Contacts Sidebar puts your contacts in a small sidebar to let you access 
them easily. 

Joe