Portable Thunderbird Supernova

Mozilla Thunderbird is a popular e-mail client adopted by individuals and organizations all over the world. Features like email, news feeds, newsgroups, calendars, and PIM chat forms the core of this software, including tons of functionality added by countless extensions. All those features are found within Portable Thunderbird as well — a version dedicated to users who change devices or locations often, sparing the effort of setting up the client again and again.

If you are a long-time user, the application's UI won't be a problem. New users might not feel the same way, as Thunderbird is not known for its revolutionary looks. On the contrary, the same somewhat outdated UI is still in use, forcing newcomers to look for more intuitive alternatives.

Those looking to create a new account using the client might have an unpleasant surprise. Thunderbird recently teamed up with MailFence, an end-to-end encryption service based on OpenPGP. This should be good news for users with privacy concerns, but it has its drawbacks. For example, a new user has the chance of being unable to create a free account using Thunderbird. If you have this issue, you can create an account using another service and then come back to link it.

Getting past the few bad apples, the application still has plenty to offer. The Inbox lets you filter out items, mark or pin emails, add tags, and manage attachments with the help of a compact ribbon.

Individuals with countless friends and contacts should take advantage of the Address Book feature. One can create any number of address books and add user information like name, nickname, email, home address, websites, phone number, special dates, time zone, chat accounts, along with business-related properties such as title, role, and organization.

If you are used to calendars as a time and event management tool, the application is quick to provide not one but as many as you wish. Add events, tasks, and all kinds of important activities you need not forget. Adding new events is not a chore. Choose a calendar type (if any), title, location, and category to begin with. Follow up by determining a start and end period, schedule a reminder, and jot down the description. One can also add attendees to events, and send them notifications or invitations.

Besides managing emails, the program also supports free chatting. Setting up a chat network requires a bit of know-how. Users familiar with chat networks like Google Talk, IRC, Matrix, XMPP, and Odnoklassniki should be able to establish connections fairly easily.

To summarize, Portable Thunderbird does not differ much from its installable counterpart. All features and functionality remain the same, but accessibility and overall management are boosted. In short, if Thunderbird is your client of choice, but you'd want to spend less time tinkering with it, if you change devices, the portable version would serve you better.