Dear users,
I currently use Thunderbord Portable on my USB drive with satisfaction. But for some weeks I have been wondering if it could be possible to use it from a cloud storage. I know this is a popular discussion already discussed, but I couldn't find a post expressly dedicated, at least about Thunderbird.
I mean:
Imagine that I move my Thunderbird Portable directory (i.e. my whole application) from USB drive to a Cloude storage (Ubuntu One, for example, to which I am registered).
Now I login to Ubuntu One, browse the Thunderbird Portable directory storaged there, and finally double-click to ThunderbirdPortable.exe. What's happen? I imagine that the OS will try to download the .exe, or directly open it, although we know that direct opening is in fact a downloading to a temporary location.
Will Thunderbird regularly work?
What kind of informations will be downloaded to the local computer?
Thank you!
p.s. One could say: -Why don't you try and see what happens?- You're right, but I'd like to hear other's experiences before trying.
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but yes, it does work in some cases, however the real problems start when it comes to use of extensions.
Also the communication needs to be fast.
But try it on ubuntu cloud,and see if it works from your place etc.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
There's really two separate (but linked) parts of Thunderbird and Firefox. First the program, and second the profile.
You can basically save your profile, and restore it to the right place on a different computer. You'll be up and running in no time.
If you are brave, you can try pointing a local copy of the program to a profile that exists on a network drive or in the cloud. That way, the entire program wouldn't have to be sent to you, just the profile. Also, you could use your existing profile just about anywhere.
This will probably cause a separate issue with the Portable versions since they want only one profile and aren't set up to use a profile that isn't in the right places.
Sorry, you're on your own to get over these hurdles.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
on the ubuntu cloud service.
All works same as local. But this is no surprise that way.
Ubuntu One cloud service is similar to something like dropbox.
In fact everything is stored local in a folder on your hard drive. And then it is synched from there to the cloud storage.
If you come to other computer, where all the parts are not on the local drive yet, then all has to be downloaded first and then it can be run.
If run before, then all will crash as it has just some components and not all.
I tried with other services, but this does not work so simple. It needs to load all it need from the cloud store. This will take ages if there are more then just couple of mails in your profile stored.
While the program and its components are pretty fast here, loading of the whole rest makes it unusable.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thank you for your sharing.
So there are troubles in trying to use Th.bird from cloud; most of all in terms of speed and privacy. One important aspect of the Portable Apps is, indeed, that you don't leave traces on the pc.
For Heaven's sake, I have not many secrets, but it's fundamental for me to store all the files and preferences in the same "place", in order to avoid the needing of syncs and so on.
Certainly I will continue keeping Th.bird stored in my removable drive, for the time being, al least until changes in how all this works.
And here I see that it isn't obvious at all to use Portable Apps and Cloud together, although in the new splash-screen of the Port.Apps also the symbol of the cloud is represented.
there have been discussions on that subject earlier here.
Some people claimed they have fun and run portable apps from dropbox. What they forget, is that on the computer you first place the thunderbird into dropbox, sure there all runs, but this is local stored thunderbird and is slowly synched with the cloud service.
If you come to next computer and install fresh dropbox there, then all has to be synched first and sure all will run and just the changed parts as profile will be synched.
This is the same with ubuntu one which behaves very much the same.
When I see how long it takes to start my thunderbird from the usb stick, I can immagine it will take very long time to start it from really remote place. As the software is not build for that, you will receive number of timeouts and crashes etc.
But if you wait long enough, can be hours , then it might work fine again even on a computer which had no copy of it before.
Just try yourselves, you can not make much wrong. On the first computer, where you place it to ubuntu one, it will work fine. On others you need to download it first.
But in contrary to usb stick, you can not loose it in the bus. It still remains there.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Dear Otto,
I apologize for the following little Off Topic.
I didn't notice that Ubuntu One works like Dropbox (copy of the files storaged also in the computer). If you download and use the Ubuntu One Application (which I didn't), you so can manage the storage, and maybe in this case all the files are also copied and synchronized in our pc. But if you don't use this Manager, it seems that you can upload, download and manage your remote files without any copy in a local Ubuntu One folder, only with online operations.
The dependance on a local backup is the reason I don't like Dropbox.
Have you researched using IMAP instead of POP3?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
>you so can manage the storage, and maybe in this case all the files are also copied and synchronized in our pc. But if you don't use this Manager, it seems that you can upload, download and manage your remote files without any copy in a local Ubuntu One folder, only with online operations.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Otto,
your explanation clears up a lot of my doubts about what "Cloud" is.
So it seems that I will have to run Thunderbird from my USB drive also in the future, at least as long as Cloud will continue working this way.
Good: I prefer to store my e-mails and data in my pocket, rather than somewhere in another continent...