ThunderBayes provides a toolbar button similar to Thunderbird's Junk button with which email can be classified as Spam or Ham. Clicking the button causes two things to happen: (1) it sends the source of the selected messages to SpamBayes to be classified and (2) it optionally moves the messages to a folder of your choice (this can be configured in the extension options). It includes portables versions of SpamBayes and Python 2.6, and provides a simple preference page in the Thunderbird Account Settings where the SpamBayes POP3 proxy and message filters can be configured.

This "++" edition brings Thunderbird3 support, the latest SpamBayes versions built in 2009 directly from the subversion server with stability patches [Changelog], SpamBayes adds SSL support so you do not need anymore stunnel to use secured pop access, Python has been upgraded to 2.6 with more libraries, has a lot of bug fixes and a few new features.

Everything needed to run ThunderBayes on Windows is included in the XPI file. Non-Windows users must have Python 2.2 or later (2.5 recommended) installed. It works great with the Python 2.3.5 that ships with Mac OS X 10.4 (it should work fine with earlier versions of Mac OS X as well).

A better changelog is available once installed.

ThunderBayes 1.0.1 is the latest original release, it is still working under Thunderbird2 but with a few critical bugs in the account manager that only geeks could resolve. It is no more updated since 2007, includes a 4 years old version of SpamBayes, Python is missing libraries and it is unfortunely broken in Thunderbird3 refusing to install.

ThunderBayes 1.0.1++ is an unofficial continuation of the project. Since Miller's version, SpamBayes has been upgraded to the latest SVN releases so you can try out the very cutting edge software, Python has been upgraded to version 2.6 and includes new and up to date libraries to work with ZODB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, safepickle, etc... The process is renamed to sbpython++ because Miller did not published its source so I have coded a new one, some SpamBayes patches to enhance its stability and much more!

The process named sbpython++ running in the background under Windows is a Python interpreter. In ThunderBayes, SpamBayes is bundled as produced, in opensource files .py executable by Python. If you are willing to use you own installed SpamBayes server you should disable it in the ThunderBayes options but if do you prefer a portable version, you are good to go with sbpython++.

The Linux compatibility should have been preserved but not tested. The main difference with Windows is the missing Python portable so you are forced to install it with the libraries on your system. But anyway to my knowledge this is not a big problem because Python is bundled by default in the majors distributions and Miller's code support Linux.

Messages classified: 6264

Good: 1047 (16.7%)
Spam: 4786 (76.4%)
Unsure: 431 (6.9%)

Classified correctly: 5833 (93.1% of total)
Classified incorrectly: 0 (0.0% of total)

Manually classified as good: 0
Manually classified as spam: 0

Unsures trained as good: 0 (0.0% of unsures)
Unsures trained as spam: 0 (0.0% of unsures)
Unsures not trained: 431 (100.0% of unsures)

Spam correctly identified: 100.0% (+ 0.0% unsure)
Good incorrectly identified: 0.0% (+ 0.0% unsure)
Total cost of spam: $86.20
SpamBayes savings: $4699.80