thunderbirdAlthough the current generation of Internet users may not believe it, email has not always been web-based like it is today. Desktop email clients used to be the only method for accessing email. One of the more popular free email clients from back in the day was Mozilla’s Mail and News. After Firefox was spun off of Mozilla, the Mail and News app followed suit and Thunderbird was born. Given the widespread use of web-based email these days, are desktop email clients a dying breed?

Desktop email clients offer certain functionality not seen in similar web-based offerings even though the gap is rapidly closing. Thunderbird, like Firefox, has the ability to use plug-ins to extend the functionality of the application. Unfortunately, unlike Firefox, there are no must-have Thunderbird plug-ins. This is most likely attributed to multiple things but mainly the lack of desktop email users. Web-based clients are ubiquitous!

One of the most prized features of desktop email clients is the ability to read email while offline – something not currently possible in most web-based emails services not bearing Gmail in their name. The only other potentially killer desktop email client feature to consider is the ability to tie multiple email accounts in to a single, unified inbox or potential client integration with specific desktop applications in order to extend client functionality. Outside of those features there just is nothing else sexy about desktop email clients.

Thunderbird is an excellent email client straight out the box. But while it does email well, it is not charismatic – there is nothing about Thunderbird to get excited about. Why would anyone evangelize a product they are not passionate about?

Postbox, a newcomer to the email scene, is based on Thunderbird and makes extensive use of tabs in the UI – far greater than Thunderbird has ever opted to go. While it is on the right track in terms of desktop email, offering some innovative and unique features, it too does not do enough to make a substantial amount of people switch in order to have a lasting affect on the industry. Although Postbox development has scratched a few itches here and there, it will not be replacing web-based email any time soon.

Is desktop email a dying breed or can it be saved if the ship changes course? Glyn Moody from CompterworldUK seems to think Thunderbird in particular may be salvageable so long as the development mindset changes from positioning the product as an email client to turning it in to a messaging program.

The more Facebook and Twitter spread, the more people will be turning to these opt-in networks for their communications; email, as a result, will dwindle in importance, turning into a kind of digital wasteland inhabited mostly by those too poor, uninformed or lazy to move on, and by spamming parasites who prey on them. I don’t imagine that Thunderbird wishes to become the software of choice for either.

This implies that Thunderbird needs to change from an email program to a messaging program that embraces these new forms of opt-in communications. A way must be found to integrate tweets, Facebook messages, RSS feeds and whatever else comes along in the next few years, into a coherent and navigable stream of messages.

While I am doubtful that turning Thunderbird in to a messaging platform capable of understanding various social networks is the answer, I do like the premise of modifying Thunderbird’s paradigm as a potential saving grace. The developers need to do something to make desktop email exciting again and this idea might be one way to do just that.

Unfortunately, for the average user, especially the mobile user, web-based email is a much better solution than being tied to a desktop email client. In a corporate environment, with the requirement to do calendaring, appointments, tasks and whatnot, desktop email will always win.

But even though applications like Thunderbird are capable of accessing server-side email through IMAP, people are so entrenched in web-based email these days it will be nearly impossible to pry it from their hands unless a truly revolutionary desktop email product hits the scene.

As far as I am concerned I find web-based email, Gmail in particular, far more worthwhile than their desktop-based cousins. If you are looking to access web-based email from a desktop client then maybe something like Mailplane is right up your alley. Otherwise, desktop email clients are a dying breed and will be soon following the same path those crusty old dinosaurs took – extinction.