Mac OS X tips - Thunderbird
From MozillaZine Knowledge Base
Setting Thunderbird as default mail client
In Panther, Apple seems to have dumped the Internet panel in System Preferences, where you used to be able to set the default browser, mail reader, etc. You can select Thunderbird as the default mail client in the preferences for Mail.app; after that you need never use it again. ;)
Setting Thunderbird as default news reader
You can use Classic's Internet control panel to set this. [Is there a better way??]
Importing local folders from Mail
There is not (yet?) a formal import tool, but you can do it manually: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040401075611985