What is Thunderbird?
Thunderbird is the mail client recommended by riseup.net. It is Free Software and is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. You can download Thunderbird from the thunderbird website. As Free Software, Thunderbird is part of the digital commons, a kind of common treasury for all. Outlook, on the other hand, is Microsoft’s tool for world domination.
Thunderbird has many features, including: IMAP and POP support, multiple accounts, quick search, spell as you type, advanced spam controls, RSS, virtual folder views, message filtering, addressbook, and support for OpenPGP encryption.
Setup Thunderbird
Start the Account Wizard
The first time you run Thunderbird, the account wizard will walk you through setting up an account. If the wizard does not open, you can do this:
1. Choose the menu item Edit > Account Settings…
2. Click the Add Mail Account… button.
Step 1
You will see a prompt. Enter in your name, email address and password.
Click Continue.
Step 2
Thunderbird will pull the settings from Riseup’s servers.
Now you need to decide if you want to use IMAP or POP.
- IMAP: It will by default pick IMAP, so if you want IMAP you can simply click Continue.
- POP: To switch to POP, click edit. Then click the dropdown menu that says IMAP and change it to POP. Now click Re-Test Configuration. It should show you using POP. If so, click Continue.
Step 3
If this does not work, you may have entered your username or password wrong. Click Start Over and try again. Otherwise…
You’re Done!
It should automatically check your mail now and every few minutes after. Have fun using Thunderbird!