Thunderbird and Lightning (very, very frightening ... or not so much) in Ubuntu

Here's my problem. I need a calendar app that rudely beeps to tell me when to go to meetings and such.

In Ubuntu, that means the Evolution mail client, which has an extensive calendar function, or so I'm told.

But I don't run Evolution. I use Thunderbird to manage my mail, and Thunderbird doesn't have a calendar function ... or does it?

Allow me to digress briefly: I first tried the Orage calendar app from Xfce, which I already have on this Ubuntu box because I have Xfce (but not the full Xubuntu) on it. But Orage, while working generally well for what I need it to do, for some reason is incapable of playing sounds to alert me to ... my alerts.

I did a bunch of Googling, checked bug reports. Nothing about Orage and a lack of sound in Ubuntu.

So I moved on.

I learned about Mozilla's Sunbird project, which is a full-fledged calendering app, and I also learned that there is a Thunderbird add-on called Lightning (Thunderbird and Lightning ... get it?) that brings Sunbird's calendar features to the Mozilla mail client.

Well, I downloaded the add-on, added it to Thunderbird ... and I was unable to create an event. Full stop.

So I backtracked. I removed the add-on and did what I should have done in the first place: I went through the Synaptic Package Manager and added the lightning-extension package, which brings along with it the calendar-timezones and calender-google-provider packages. (Presumably this means Google's calendar can somehow feed off of this ... I'll explore that later.)

I'll repeat for the West Coast audience: If you're running Thunderbird in Ubuntu, downloading and installing the Lightning calendar add-on from Mozilla won't work. Instead use the version in Ubuntu's repository.

Since I generally run Thunderbird all the time for my mail, having my calendar/alerts in there is the perfect solution.

Once I installed the three packages, I started Thunderbird. Right away the app asked whether or not I wanted to import my calendar settings from Evolution. Since I have nothing there, I declined.

Once in Thunderbird, I had Lightning. It works. I did a test event, sound worked, and I'm ready to start creating recurring events and alerting myself to their imminence (and/or eminence).

All this makes me think about the huge value we as users get from Mozilla. I'm waiting for music-manager/iTunes-killer Songbird to get better, and I'm already benefiting from Sunbird in the form of Lightning. ... and that's all on top of Thunderbird and Firefox. Very nice, indeed.

The quick version: To add calendar functionality to Thunderbird in Ubuntu, don't add Mozilla's Lightning add-on directly. Instead, add it through Ubuntu's own repositories, in my case using Synaptic to add the lightning-extension package and its dependencies. Then you'll be calendar-ready in Thunderbird.

The take-away: Don't want to use Evolution (I prefer a true cross-platform application for e-mail, and Thunderbird fits that bill very well) but want calendar functionality in your mail client? Thunderbird and Lightning seem to play well together.

Follow along: Developers of Sunbird and Lightning update things at the Calendar Weblog.