SoftMaker (makers of SoftOffice) moving away from eM Client to Thunderbird

[mwb1100]

SoftMaker has been bundling the eM Client software with some versions of SoftOffice to provide e-mail functionality.  They have apparently decided to end that arrangement and will be bundling a customized version of Thunderbird in future versions of SoftOffice:

  - http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofwtb_en.htm

As part of this they are also dedicating some development resources to Thunderbird and will be contributing fixes/enhancements to that project.

Seems like good news for Thunderbird. I'm not sure how I'd feel if I had gotten used to the eM Client.

[Curt]

Instinctively I welcome this.
And Yes, I use eM... because I have paid for it!

The license for eM Client that you received as part of SoftMaker Office Professional 2012 is perpetual; you will only stop receiving free updates for it at some point.
The manufacturer of eM Client will offer a discounted upgrade to its own version of eM Client to SoftMaker customers.

Should the new 2016-version also have a new name?
SoftBird  or  ThunderMaker  or... ?  

[brahman]

I wonder if all their enhancements to Thunderbird will also be freely available (and where)?

[4wd]

Should the new 2016-version also have a new name?
SoftBird  or  ThunderMaker  or... ? 

My vote:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

BirdMaker

[SoftMaker]

The enhancements we have developed so far are all in add-ons. This lets our users enable them selectively, and it ensures that updates for the unchanged Thunderbird still flow in from Mozilla.

If the Thunderbird developers want these enhancements, they can have them for their core code. They just need to ask.

The developer that we are funding will now work on Thunderbird proper, and these improvements are automatically in Thunderbird (if accepted by the maintainers).

Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH

[mwb1100]

Thanks for posting, Martin Kotulla.  I hope that this works out to benefit both SoftMaker and Thunderbird.

[brahman]

OT to Martin of Softmaker:

I bought your SoftOffice suite a few weeks ago, but quit using it because your spreadsheet does not have a function wizard feature.

Do you have plans to include it in the 2016 version?

[J-Mac]

I switched from Microsoft Office 2010 to SoftMaker Office Pro 12 but recently switched back due to a few notable bugs and excluded features that turned out to be too much to accept.

One biggie is that in PlanMaker - similar to Excel - it insisted on saying I was using the German version - but only with regard to the date format. I would have to change it every time I entered dates in any spreadsheet. Support insisted that it should be using the Windows Regional settings on my computer, but that is US English and PlanMaker agreed - except for the damn date format! Also, PlanMaker always puts date columns in "latest date first" or descending order, which is the opposite of Excel. Besides that, while PlanMaker does use functions like Excel, it doesn’t recognize formulae already created in Excel when you import Excel spreadsheets, thus all my existing formulae were considered invalid and I would have to recreate them in a manner that PlanMaker understood - which was not always easy to do.

Bottom line, I wouldn’t always remember to fix all PlanMaker's little bugs before sending the spreadsheet out and recipients inevitably got confused! I reinstalled Excel last week.

Jim

[Curt]

An "enhanced" Thunderbird?

Over time, some design decisions have been made about Thunderbird's user interface that we don't agree with.

SoftMaker has developed several extensions for Thunderbird that integrate it better with SoftMaker Office and revert some controversial design decisions made by Mozilla. With the SoftMaker extensions, Thunderbird sees the return of a regular menu bar and a proper title bar for the application window. The extensions also offer new functions for efficient filing and navigation in folders with large volumes of e-mail.

Additionally, SoftMaker has developed an import filter for eM Client databases. The filter enables fully automated migration of e-mails, address books, calendars, and tasks from eM Client to Thunderbird.

We will ship these extensions together with the upcoming SoftMaker Office 2016 and Thunderbird

http://www.softmaker.com/english/ofwtb_en.htm