Thunderbird Adds Native Microsoft Exchange Email Support

bnchrch

While its been a long time since Ive used Thunderbird, I just wanted to take the time to publicly say thank you.

Many HNers probably wont (or cant) remember the world of desktop mail clients but basically during the height of MSFT dominance there was only one real mail client: Outlook. Which Microsoft was starting to monetize heavily, ignore UX, and keep it windows only (cant blame them for that).

Then Thunderbird arrived on the scene, an OSS mail client that beat the pants off of Outlook in features, spam detection, IMAP support and a bunch of other things.

And it was free.

And you could use it on any machine.

This was a huge moment for OSS.

We owe a lot of credit to Mozilla and Thunderbird for rescuing us from a closed source world.

shevy-java

Personally I do not use thunderbird, but one elderly relative requires thunderbird. So I am all in favour of thunderbird getting better. Not everyone is able to use emails in a much simpler way. I actually, back when I was using gmail still, had some +4000 unread messages. I simply can not keep up with regular mail.

briffle

Before Thunderbird, Eudora was fantastic. We ran it at a college I worked at for most of the staff and faculty, and it was a very sad day when Qualcomm shut it down.

kstrauser

Eudora was nice, but it wasn't available for Linux/BSD, and it wasn't open source.

ginko

>cant blame them for that

Of course you can blame them for that.

MrZander

[delayed]

jchw

I generally like Thunderbird... but something is weird. What ever happened to Sync? It was around the corner for next release like two years ago. And I'm not complaining about Exchange support, but I am a bit sad that JMAP is nowhere to be found yet.

cosmic_cheese

Nice to see, but unfortunately it's not uncommon for orgs using Outlook/Office to disable Exchange client support and require use of the official clients. It's highly unlikely and maybe not even possible, but I'd like to see desktop and mobile mail clients implement some kind of workaround.

shevy-java

Is this good?

This is a genuine question. I am not sure whether this is good or not.

It seems to only extend existing options? Or is there some trade-off?

null

[deleted]

ivanbakel

What I'm most curious about, and what the docs are light on detail about: does this mean Thunderbird complies with remote deletion requests (which IIRC, the Exchange protocol suppports)? I have the impression that Microsoft makes this a requirement for Exchange implementations, which is why third-party devices and apps like Apple's Mail cooperate with those requests.

seethishat

That would be Active Sync:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients/exchange-...

Not sure how Mozilla went about the implementation, but I do agree it would be a concern to verify before using.

You can perform the following Exchange ActiveSync tasks:

    Enable and disable Exchange ActiveSync for users

    Set policies such as minimum password length, device locking, and maximum failed password attempts

    Initiate a remote wipe to clear all data from a lost or stolen mobile phone

    Run a variety of reports for viewing or exporting into a variety of formats

    Control which types of mobile devices can synchronize with your organization through device access rules

graemep

Do you mean recall? https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/recall-an-outlook...

That only works within an organisation, right?

Otherwise you just get an email. I got one recently.

ivanbakel

No, Exchange ActiveSync (as the other commenter correctly identified it) really allows an admin to wipe your device - ostensibly of mail, but often of all other data as well.[0]

If your Outlook server disables IMAP & POP3, then the ActiveSync protocol is AFAIK the only way to get in-app emails on your phone. Admins do this so that they can forcibly wipe the device if they "need" to.

0: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/clients/exchange-...

graemep

I was not sure which you meant.

Jeff-Collins

"Great news! This makes Thunderbird much more versatile for business use."

"Native Exchange support is a game-changer for Thunderbird users."

"Thrilled to see Thunderbird improving integration with Microsoft Exchange

yellowapple

Fantastic news! I've been hoping for Exchange support for a long while.

zipy124

Guess this means I can cancel all my OWL subscriptions.