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3.0 11/21/2009

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Ron Hunter

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Nov 29, 2009, 4:04:04 PM11/29/09
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This one needs some work.
Because I was having problems getting the Compact Headers 1.0 extension
to work on my Desktop machine (Win7 64bit), I decided to just move the
profile to a safe place, and start up with nothing, just as if I were a
new user, who had just loaded Thunderbird. I am very unhappy to report
that if I were, said new user, I would conclude that this program was
utterly useless. First, it wanted to ask me for my email address, then
proceeded to try to automatically configure my email account. It
ASSUMED that I was using an IMAP account, and proceeded to configure it
as such. I use POP3, but that option was not given. It churned away a
while, and concluded with an IMAP account, and a smtp server for
outgoing mail. Neither, of course, worked. Worse, when I attempted to
configure it manually, it took over, and started trying to configure an
IMAP account.

So, here's the bottom line. If you don't have an IMAP account, forget
TB3 unless you have an old profile to work from! Also, forget importing
an old TB profile. Not an offered source. I am amazed that testers can
let a program get THIS FAR and never even test the 'new user experience'.

WAKE UP!

If I sound a bit stressed, it's because I am. Not everyone has an IMAP
account. Not everyone has an old TB profile. New users without IMAP
access can't use TB3, I guess.

Terry R.

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Nov 29, 2009, 5:12:11 PM11/29/09
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On 11/29/2009 1:04 PM On a whim, Ron Hunter pounded out on the keyboard

Like I had mentioned in our FF discussion, Mozilla doesn't seem to be in
touch with the users. Their agenda doesn't appear to be what users want
OR need.

Since I only use TB for newsgroups now (and only the last js enabled
build at that), as I lost interest in TB as a mail client and decided to
use IMAP/gmail for its accessibility anywhere.

Terry R.
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Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

JoeS

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Nov 29, 2009, 7:11:50 PM11/29/09
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Don't get so excited Ron,
Yes it was tested (not by me specifically) and a bug was found and fixed.

Does this sound like your experience:
> If you create a new account with autoconfig, than the default is IMAP. If you
> change this to POP3 and click "Go", than the incoming server could not be
> found. I've tested this with my web.de and my arcor.de account.
>
> Reproducible: Always
>
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1. Complete the account informations and click the "Next" button.
> 2. Wait until the account informations are received
> 3. Click the "Edit" button and change "IMAP" to "POP3"
> 4. Click the "Go" button and wait.
> --> The incoming server doesn't change and you get the message "Could not
> automatically configure incoming server, still trying for outgoing server."
> 5. Type now in the incoming server by hand (under "receiving") and click "Go".
> --> Now you will get the "Your configuration details have been found!"

That was in: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=490985
marked fixed 2009-09-01
Yes IMAP is assumed, but you should be able to change it.

Just as an aside, if you don't like the quality of testing, you could get involved yourself.
That's not a personal attack BTW, just an observation.

The one time I did try to test auto-configure, I didn't find it very intuitive myself.


--
JoeS Using TB3
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_3.0_-_New_Features_and_Changes
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Thunderbird/Thunderbird_Binaries

Ron Hunter

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Nov 29, 2009, 8:08:08 PM11/29/09
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I tried the steps you mentioned as part of my error analysis, in an
attempt to get it to work, and while I did get my POP3 account to be set
up, I never got rid of IMAP in the title, and never got smtp configured
correctly.
I applaud the attempt to automatically set up email, but if it doesn't
work, then it is really a detriment, rather than a useful feature.
As for testing, I have done that in the past, but the supremely painful
experience of dealing with Bugzilla itself caused me to stop.
Worse, no one ever seemed to really FIX anything.

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