Thunderbird for Macs: what has been the users experience?

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As some might have noticed, I upgraded macOS from Mojave to Big Sur a few days ago.

Things have been mostly OK since I managed to make the upgrade, but the Big Sur version of “Mail”, the email client that comes with macOS, has shown a tendency to act up and has a new screen format that is no improvement, in fact is somewhat redundant and even confusing, compared to the one it has had since Sierra at least, when I got my first and present Mac.

So that is why I am asking: has anyone here had a good experience using Thunderbird in a Mac recently? Even if the experience has been good overall, what have been the problems and drawbacks?

P.S. I have not used, do not use, or plan to use Outlook.

By the way, my email service is AOL. Not my choice, but that is where my email was sent by Verizon when they farmed off the email business after they acquired AOL. That recently they sold off to some financial company. I am reluctant to move on to another email service, because I expect it to be a major hassle when my email address gets changed as a result of the move.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP, did you know that you can use ‘Hide My Email’ feature with iOS and MacOS if you are an iCloud Plus member ?

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Alex, This is not quite on topic, which is how well Thunderbird works with Big Sur, but I’ll bite: I don’t use iCloud because I suffer from a peculiar allergy to anything with “Cloud” in it.

But I do not care if others use iCloud and “Hide my mail” if they wish, except that in “Hide my mail” there is something that perhaps you or someone else could explain, because to me it looks like a contradiction with the purpose of this thing that is as, stated earlier in the article, to “cut down” the number of unwanted emails one gets. The contradiction I see is this:

“With Apple’s new Hide My Email feature, you can generate random, unique email addresses when you need to provide your email address on a website. It will then forward mail to your actual inbox, while reducing the number of lists your legitimate email address appears on. ”

So, the way I read this, “Hide My Email” does not stop the spam, phishing and other delightful kinds of email from getting into one’s inbox, it just does not let the spammers and phishers know one’s real email address. But one still gets all of their junk. True?

Now I would really like to hear comments about how well Thunderbird works with Big Sur.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I keep trying to like Thunderbird for my Imac to no avail. (I also just downloaded Big Sur but from Catalina).  For one thing on the Mac the Thunderbird font for everything is excruciatingly small.  I have googled this and there is no simple fix.

Also, as I mentioned previously it is impossible to use POP3 for gmail accounts – I googled this and it seems to be a glich in Thunderbird.  You may not have this problem with AOL — or you may prefer to use IMAP.

Maybe it’s just me but in general I found Thunderbird to be awkward and not to my liking although it has received rave reviews on this site.  Why don’t you download Thunderbird and try it out.  You can always delete it if it is not to your liking.  If you try it out I will be interested in your opinion.

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Thunderbird has worked flawlessly for me for years, on both Windows (7, 8.1, 10) and Macs from maybe as early as Mountain Lion (?) to currently on my new M1 MacMini running Big Sur (I have never used the MacOS built-in Mail App). It handles multiple email addresses, each in their own folders and allows sending from the email address of choice on an individual email basis. It accommodates both POP3 and IMAP (some email providers, GMail being one, require setting things up on the provider’s server as well as within Thunderbird).

The GUI can be customized to the User (layout, columns for information, menu bars with useful functions, etc).
Note: I do not use the built-in calendar, tasks, add-ons. My Macs provide the calendar synced across all my Apple devices.  But they are available if desired.

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OscarCP

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Thanks, I am having a series of problems with “Mail”, the latest is that “Mail”, that used to be very quick at putting in the mailbox the mail almost as soon it was received, since the upgrade to Big Sur it has stopped doing that; now it suddenly stops responding to requests to get the latest emails from the AOL server. And then, hours later, it suddenly brings in all that arrived while it was unresponsive. I know this because I tested it by emailing to myself, so I knew I had messages coming.

As a result, I had no choice but to install Thunderbird, which was actually quite easy to do. As soon as that was done I could open an account in my ISP email server, giving away only the most essential information: email, user ID and password. Now I am trying to familiarize with it by pushing and pulling on things to see what happens.

So my original motive for starting this thread has changed to understanding what one can do with Thunderbird, besides sending and receiving email, what are the common problems, what the things best avoided, etc.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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