Add to Chrome
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Add to SafariWhen comparing Lightning Calendar vs Calcurse, the Slant community recommends Calcurse for most people. In the question“What are the best calendar apps for UNIX-like systems?” Calcurse is ranked 4th while Lightning Calendar is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Calcurse is:
E.g. CalDAV. Via its load/save hooks.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Free, open source
Lightning Calendar (just as Thunderbird) is completely free and open-source meaning that anyone can use it as well as look through the code or even use the code for their own projects.
Pro Easily keep track of tasks
Bundled in with the calendar options is a tasks option that makes for an easy way to keep track of tasks in the same location as ones events.
Pro Cross-platform
Wherever Mozilla Thunderbird can be installed, the Lightning calendar can follow:
Windows
Linux
MacOS
Pro Supports arbitrary backends
E.g. CalDAV. Via its load/save hooks.
Pro Efficient
Uses very few resources, starts in the blink of an eye.
Pro Scriptable
You can use it in scripts via its command-line interface, and run scripts from it via hooks. So you can automate everything away, instead of being forced to use a GUI. A powerful feature.
Pro Fully customizable
Shortcuts, data sources, you name it. As real software should be.
Pro Simplicity
Cons
Con Available only as part of Thunderbird
No standalone version of the calendar app is available. And if you're just interested in Lightning Calendar and not Thunderbird, the app will have additional functionality and interface elements that will get in the way of using the calendar.
Con Does not always clear old events from the display, even when the event has been deleted
When accessing Google Calendar, every check shows that the event does not exist anymore.
Con No full CalDAV support
CalDAV support is more hackish than working reliably. E.g. certain fields are not supported, or alarms can lead to duplication of events or changes being reset. As CalDAV support is not truly built-in, and the extension does not have a high quality.
Con Requires third-party gmail integration
And it's not supported in 60+. Use the old versions if you want anything to work.
Con Not for all the versions
You have to downgrade Thunderbird just because Lightning didn't upgrade to the last beta version.
Con Long term availability/ support
Although Thunderbird has an impressive track record and many years of reliable service, its continued existence has been doubtful more than once). For now, all seems good, but it would not be surprising if tomorrow it turns out Thunderbird "has left the building".
Con GUI makes you feel like it's 1995, and not in a nostalgic way
Con Not made for app users
If you come to any professional or console software, expecting it to just behave like your Windows GUI apps, … you’re gonna have a bad time.
You will need to know what you want, and actually tell the program so, by configuring it. So that then, it will fit you like a glove instead, of you having to fit into a dumbest common denominator mold. Like all professional software.
Con No built-in help
The “help” function only tells you that you can use help on the program’s functions. But not what functions there are! How can you know what to ask for when you don’t know what there is? It’s like a text adventure game or Family Feud all over again.
Con Keybindings also used by certain graphical terminals
The keybindings of either program have to be changed in that (rare) case.
