Thunderbird 3 and Lightning beta w/ Google Cal

I know this is a really specific question, but I'll try it anyway.

Does anyone here have experience:
1. Using Thunderbird as a primary email client...
2. ...with the Lightning (calendar) add-on, and
3. With a Google Calendar sync-ed to Lightning?

That last part is key. I have an Android smartphone, and I want my "desktop" calendar to sync with my mobile phone.

I've been using Outlook, and I've grown increasingly frustrated with it. It seems like I'm using the 'scanpst' utility every other day to repair my email file. So far it has always worked (unlike my experience with Entourage crashing, which was fatal, but I digress). But I'm losing my patience.

Before I take the plunge and switch to Thunderbird, it would be great to hear first-hand experience with Thunderbird(+Lightning+Google Calendar add-on)...

...if anyone here actually has that experience

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4631/

I haven't done it myself, as my Google Calendar is my personal stuff, and my work one is connected separately and that's what I use Lightning for

I love my Nexus One (AT&T, have to for work. Boo.) Now if I could only get the Android 2.2 release on it, I'd be a happy camper...

 

CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Donut tree.

 

I don't want to root my phone quite yet And Cyanogen doesn't have the actual 2.2 source yet, AFAIK. Just some patches that make it "almost" 2.2.

 

I DL-ed Thunderbird and got it set up for a trial run . . .

NOT fun. I wasted several minutes armwrestling with Tbird's auto-configure wizard. Even when I clicked [manual config], it still insisted on butting in. I finally had to disable my wireless connection just to defeat it. My work email is POP3, not IMAP, you insistent but stupid chunk of code! Then it was time to wrestle with addons. Yay.

Sigh. I haven't used Thunderbird in years, and frankly I was hoping they'd be a little further along by now. I may save my sanity and stick with Microsoft until I can give Office 2010 a shot.

 

Many email systems can do both, and are configured to be that way. If Thunderbird is detecting it, it quite likely supported it. Thunderbird just scans the ports of the likely mail server and chooses the preferred service. I greatly prefer IMAP to POP... IMAP allows access from multiple locations, like Thunderbird and your phone, and the changes are universal. Read the message on one device and it's read on every device. With POP, you have to read the message on each separate device.

 

Absolutely. When the auto-config utility determined IMAP, my first thought was "cool!"

It was only when it didn't work that I got annoyed.

 

Oh. See, that's where you go hunt down your sysadmin and kick him in the junk. IMAP is just better... there is NO excuse, at all, for running POP only in this day and age. It costs NOTHING to do SSL encrypted IMAP connections.

 

And they can bump up my mail quota while they're at it.

I didn't have time for the headache at work today, but I'm taking some time right now to get Thunderbird exactly right. It can't possibly be worse than Outlook at handling large mail files (I don't know for certain, but I think that's one of the issues I'm having with Outlook). I kid you not, I've been using the outlook repair tool so often, I put it in my taskbar

As for Thunderbird -- I guess I've gotten used to Office 07 and 10. The old-school Mozilla interface was a bit of a shock. I'm usually a pretty utilitarian person, but I guess I'm not immune to eye candy. I'll trade it for a little stability, though...