Well, I am at the end of being able to function with Thunderbird…
I love this program… the customizable looks, the extensions, the features, the security (adaptive SPAM filtering is very nice in TB)… all really good. But, here’s my dilemma; the calendar (Mozilla Calendar) is not integrated properly and there is no way to sync it with a palm-pilot. I have had the calendar blow-up at least 3 times… and for some reason, this time seems to be for good. I can no longer create or import any entries and the program seems hosed. I suppose this is just a user problem (more like a Winblows problem), but for me, all that matters is that I can’t get the thing to work, and even when it does, it doesn’t have the functionality I need.
Before everyone goes and tells me there is a palm-sync extension out there, they need to check out what it is really for… all it does is sync Palm’s address book.
Frankly, for mail… there’s nothing I would rather be using. But because the calendar is not integrated, there is no way for me to keep track of who emails what invites to which meetings if I simply use it for mail. I would end up having to use something else and import the invites into that anyways… so that doesn’t really solve my requirements.
On the plus, everyone in my company is using it, along with Mozilla calendar… they publish their calendars to a webdav server and we can all see what we’re doing. I guess I am going to be on the outside for a while because I feel it’s more important for me to have a sync’d calendar than for everyone else to be able to see it.
Being a consultant, I live by my calendar. So if a meeting isn’t in my calendar, it might as well not be scheduled. Not being able to sync my calendar with my Palm (integrated into my phone) makes both my Palm and the calendaring software useless.
There’s a lot to be said for open-source development, but the lack of progress in this area is very disheartening. Until they get calendar, whether it is Mozilla calendar, or Sunbird, fully integrated into Thunderbird, it is pretty-much useless to me.
I am going to make the painful switch back to Microsloth LookOut and do all my own calendar scheduling on a local machine just so I can sync with my Palm.
�Scott Keoseyan – 16 MAY 05
