[Wiltshire] Moving to Linux

[Andrew Meredith]

On 03/02/10 15:16, John Carlyle-Clarke wrote:
> In some of those Windows migration cases, the best route is to use the
> Windows version of Thunderbird, since it seems to be able to import
> contacts and mail from most common Windows clients.  Thunderbird shares
> the same profile format between its Windows and Linux versions, so once
> you have gone from {Outlook,Outlook Express,Windows Mail,Windows Live
> Mail} to Thunderbird for Windows, you can then copy the profile to your
> Linux install and point the Linux Thunderbird at it.
>
> Also, Thunderbird uses a standard format (mbox IIRC?) that other clients
> can read too, but that probably doesn't help you on the contacts.

Sorry to meetoo, but just to say that John is quite right here.

I have done quite a few migrations of this sort and installing TB and 
doing an "Import Everything" leaves you in a very good position to 
migrate the whole shooting match in one hit to the new workstation. It 
brings in contacts, account settings and emails in formats that are 
readily reusable on a Linux box. Even if you don't plan on using TB on 
Linux, you still get a great head start as the account settings are 
available in a nice easy to read format, the emails have been converted 
to rfc822 format (aka mbox) and the contacts can be exported from TB in 
all sorts of different formats, including ldif for bunging in an LDAP 
server if you wanted.

Good luck and you do gruds work my son ;-)

Andy M