Sync your Google Calendar with Thunderbird, schedule appointments, and notify you via text message.

1. Confirm the version of Thunderbird.

Your Thunderbird must be version 2.0 or higher.

The version in Ubuntu's software repository is still 1.5, so you need to install it manually, or you can add the following source:

deb http://gnomefreak.youmortals.com/mozilla-testing feisty main

This contains the latest Mozilla software.

If you are a Windows user, simply installing Thunderbird version 2.0 or higher will suffice.

2. Install plugins

We need to install two plugins:

One is Lightning, which provides calendar functionality for Thunderbird. Click here to download.

The other is Provider for Google Calendar, which provides Google Calendar functionality for Lightning. Click here to download.

Note: After downloading, install them within Thunderbird and not directly in Firefox...

After installation, a calendar interface will appear on the left side.