but it's hard to avoid the conclusion "it's a bit shit innit ?"
I'm sure it's a zillion times better than windows at managing a computer. But boy is it hard work trying to *do* anything in it.
I'm writing this having spent the better part of a day - unsuccessfully - trying to make a tiny change to a Thunderbird plug-in. I have the source. I've learned how it vaguely clicks together. But every step of the way I'm hitting out of date documentation, and things which just don't work. XULExplorer for a start.
I have just finished the tutorial
formatting link
only to discover that DOM Inspector (the de factor tool the say to use) is obsolete - with no hint as to whether it will ever work again.
I will make my change - old school if necessary (back to coding with notepad). And then tell nobody about it.
Remember (given that Thunderbird has spend the last couple of years becoming incompatible with various add-ons, far more than just the maxver hack) that TB60.x is fast approaching, which will leave all the old extensions behind like FF58 did ...
I must admit it's almost a poster child for what's wrong with the penguinistas view of life.
If - under pain of death - I had to pick the single most used/valuable app on Windows, it would be Outlook (then Word, Excel etc).
And the one thing Outlook does *without compare* is handle email and calendar seamlessly enough for corporate use.
If there's one killer app the FOSS community should have put all their genius into, it's a match for Outlook. Instead Thunderbird has been slowly run down (hence the "without compare" ...).
Oh well, 2019 is another chance to be the year of the Linux desktop.
I don't know if it'd be any better for your purpose than TB, but Fossamail takes the older extensions. It's sort of EOL but still has occasional private builds. ftp://archive.palemoon.org/unpublished/38.8.0a1/
If you say so - I don't use Windows, so can't tell. However, after Eudora became too long in the tooth, I wrote my own email client and it's not that easy to do a good job.
Thunderbird has got nothing to do with Linux. It works on Windows and Android and, for all I know, on Apple as well. Your issue is with Mozilla Foundation.
Incidentally, Microsoft has just tried to install (uninvited) a "Feature Update" on my 10" tablet which I bought for £38. It's taken the best part of a day with plenty of intervention on my part because it required
6 gigabytes! of free space on a 32Gbyte device. £38 is beginning to seem expensive for an otherwise excellent machine.
I spent about 30 hours over 6 days playing with Linux and getting frustrated. I spent a fraction of that time getting used to my first Windows computer - Windows '95. It was easy, made to be easy and I saw no reason to be smug about it. Bit of a jump from MS DOS and the cold unforgiving world of the DOS Prompt and Wordstar Professional on an Amstrad 1640 but it was easier than Linux. Still, whatever.
This is a common issue with the Linux fanboys, once you have sworn the oath to the Mighty Penguin, you have to give up any thought or positive attitude towards any other OS (even though they often just 'have to' use Windows for some critical role).
But they are often dinosaurs, old mainframe coders who consider having to *learn* an OS (and enjoying the experience) de-rigueur and consider anyone one with a life as an infidel.
They are like blacksmiths talking to an ordinary Joe about their front gate and telling 'Joe' to 'just heat up some iron and make your own'.
Yup, that and the likes of needing to access the iTunes Store, or run Sage or a myriad of 'Windows Only' apps, let alone vehicle diagnostic software or even wanting to upgrade the BIOS / OS / maps on their motherboard or Phone or GPS. ;-(
Similar situation with Libre / Open Office. It's pretty good, especially for anyone working on their own (= Linux fanboys ) but as soon and you want it to play with the outside and especially Cooperate world, it often falls short. Document change control anyone?
Whilst I'm ever hopeful you are right (as a long time Linux player / waiter), I think the Linux world is too busy forking 1000 'Me too' distributions and not doing what they should have been doing earlier on and that's all cooperate on one 'Core Linux' that the ordinary Tech user, developers and manufacturers could hang their hat on.
Look at the massive industry Apple made by merging a music app with a portable .mp3 player and a Music store, making it *easy* for 'ordinary people' to do something they previously couldn't (even though all the bits existed separately).
Mr Shuttleworth tried that with Ubuntu but then went too far with the Unity DE and phone and then gave up on both. Same with the Steam machine ...etc etc. Luckily Mint was there to pick up the slack. ;-)
There is no question of the suitability of Linux in non UI roles (servers, TV's and routers etc), or for those who just want a free (of cost, few care about any other kind) OS to use as a WP / Web terminal, but even Linus himself admits keeping up with all the different desktop type hardware is nearly impossible, especially without more people 'buying into' the whole thing.
So, rather than trying to help people (when most Linux geeks know it's never going to work), they form a circle around their baby and even those of us who actually would like the option and / or are trying to use it, get fought off.
The more Linux becomes user friendly (and whilst you can stay in the GUI it's certainly getting there to some degree), the less we will need the geeks and they will them become truly extinct and Linux may then blossom. ;-)
Perhaps that was a while ago. I tried Linux a few years back and couldn't be arsed to mess around too much. Windows 10 made this laptop virtually unusable so I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon on it. Been fine for months. Wine lets me run some windows stuff which I use. Fairly happy with Linux at present. Must admit though, I don't get emotionally attached to an operating system.
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