Ubuntu Linux allows for easily changing the user interface language to suit your preference. However, once done, the Mozilla Thunderbird email client unfortunately (in my case) follows along, making Email reply headers switch from this:
-------- Original Message -------- From: sam@email.com Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 9:33 AM To: bob@email.com Subject: Good morning!
...to this (in the case of German):
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: sam@email.com Gesendet: Donnerstag, 16. Dezember 2010 09:33 An: bob@email.com Betreff: Good morning!
Also, responses change from "Re: " in the subject header to "AW: " (Antwort, answer) causing many/most email clients to be unable to sort the replies correctly (English Thunderbird will group only "Re: " prefaced replies under the main message while treating the "AW: " responses as separate threads.)
You can force Thunderbird to use English (or any other supported language) while keeping the rest of your operating system under a different language by doing the following:
- Download and install the desired English-language .xpi file.
- From Thunderbird, go to the Edit Menu -> Preferences, and from there select the Advanced Tab and the Config Editor. From there, make these two changes:
- Change the value of intl.locale.matchOS to false.
- Change the value of general.useragent.locale to the language code you wish Thunderbird to use (en, or en-US for American English).
- Close and restart Thunderbird. It should now be using English.