Computing & Information Services
Download Reed's Thunderbird
You can download Reed's customized Thunderbird from this page for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. The current version is 2.0.0.9 for Mac OS X and Windows, and 2.0.0.0 for Linux.
If you already have downloaded an un-customized copy of Thunderbird, you will need to configure it instead. If you have already downloaded and installed a previous version of Reed's Thunderbird, it is safe to install the new version over it as an upgrade.
Select Your Operating System
Download Reed's customized Thunderbird for your specific operating system:
Initial Setup on Linux
Linux users may find the following instructions helpful.
- If you downloaded Thunderbird from Reed's server, decompress and unTAR the archive with the following command:
$ tar xvjf thunderbird.tar.bz2 (or whatever your Thunderbird file is named). - The decompressed package should now be in a directory called thunderbird, which you can move to a desired location with the command:
$ sudo mv thunderbird/ / Desired/ Directory/ NameHere - If you do not have sudo installed, you will need to switch to the root user to modify anything below /usr or /opt. To do this, type:
$ su -
Enter password
# mv thunderbird/ /opt/lib/ - Make a symbolic link from /opt/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird (the executable file) to somewhere your PATH will search for commands, e.g. /opt/bin. Make sure the directory you choose is in your PATH by running the command echo $PATH;.
If it isn't there, you may need to edit your ~/.bashrc or similar file). You can accomplish this with the following command:
$sudo ln -s /opt/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird /opt/bin/thunderbird - Run Thunderbird by typing in:
$thunderbird &
Now Linux users may set up Thunderbird with the following general instructions pertaining to all operating systems.
[Back to Top]Setting Up Reed's Customized Thunderbird
- After your download finishes, launch the installer and if necessary, input any requested information such as where to install the program (if on Windows). Mac users will just need to drag the Thunderbird.app file to their Applications folder and then launch the program. Once the installer has finished, Thunderbird will ask whether you wish to import any account settings from other programs. You may select "Do not import anything".
- After the Import screen, you should be presented with an Account Wizard for creating a new account. On the first screen, you will be shown options for the type of account that you wish to set up. For Reed e-mail, choose "Reed users: Choose this to set up your Reed IMAP account".
- After clicking Next, you will be asked to fill in some identification information. The Your Name field should be filled in with your full name, while the Network Username field should be filled in with your network username, typically the first seven letters of your last name (or fewer if you have less than 7 letters) followed by the first letter of your first name.
- After clicking Next, you should be shown a "Congratulations" screen with a summary of all your entered information. If anything looks amiss, click Back to correct it. Otherwise, click Finish.
- After confirming your information, the Account Wizard will close, and Thunderbird will try to contact the mail server to retrieve new mail. You will be prompted for your network password, which will be the same that you would use to log into webmail.
- Thunderbird should now be set up correctly. At this point, you may want to learn more about using Thunderbird.
License and Distribution Information
The Mozilla Project releases Thunderbird, version 2.0, under the Mozilla Public License (MPL) v1.1. You can find complete, uncustomized versions of Thunderbird on Thunderbird's official homepage.
The Reed College 1.5.0.4 variant of Thunderbird installs by default, the Display Quota extension. For more information about this extension, please visit the extension page.
The MPL requires us to provide a change log detailing any modifications we have made to customize Thunderbird for Reed's mail system. It may be found at the following location: http://web.reed.edu/cis/files/thunderbird/current/ChangeLog.txt.
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