Who doesn’t love Firefox? Probably only this guy. But what about it’s cousin, Thunderbird?
Thunderbird
Thunderbird has always been a program I wanted to embrace, with only 1 real problem: NO MINIMIZE TO TRAY! For what it’s worth, if you’re using Windoze, you can download Minimize to Tray. The lack of a Linux version of Minimize to Tray has long kept me from using it. It sounds really stupid I know, and it IS stupid. Thank goodness that doesn’t matter anymore!
FireTray
That’s right folks. As the name might imply, FireTray is a Firefox extension. I saw no mention of it’s compatitbility with Thunderbird – but out of desperation I decided to try to install it. Lo and behold, it worked.
It’s the usual install process. Find the extension, but instead of clicking the Install button, right click and choose “Save link as” then save the .xpi to your desktop. In Thunderbird, go to Tools > Add-ons, then click Install and browse to your .xpi file. Thunderbird will not give you the option to restart(I don’t think) but you will have to restart Thunderbird to get the tray icon. You can adjust the preferences for the extension – I recommend checking all three boxes for super tray goodness.
FireTray should keep Thunderbird running in the tray(duh), notify you of new mails, and still provide you with a mail client that is 1 million times better than Evolution. HA!