Mozilla Thunderbird 3 is out!

Mozilla has announced the general availability of version 3 of its popular open source email & newsgroup client, Thunderbird. Thunderbird has been my desktop email client of choice since its early stable releases, both in Linux and Windows. Actually, the only programs I’ve ever used for email and newsgroup management are Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird and Novell/Ximian Evolution. Out of those 3, Thunderbird, although not a strong candidate when it comes to performance, ranks 1st, since it offers the best:

security
reliability
backwards compatibility
extensibility

A few years ago, I had published an approach on how to organize mailing list messages using Evolution. The same tips and tricks apply to Thunderbird, so those of you who deal with many mailing lists might find that old article interesting.

The highlights of the new release include:

Tabbed Email: Provides the ability view individual emails and folders in tabs.
Filtered Search: The new search interface contains filtering and timeline tools
Message Archive: When an email message is archived, it is moved from the inbox into the new archive folder system, de-cluttering the inbox, while, at the same time, enabling users to find email months or years from now.
One-click Address Book: A very quick and easy way to add people to an address book, by simply clicking on the star icon in the messages received from new correspondents.
New Mail Account Setup Wizard: Getting started with Thunderbird 3 is faster than ever with the new account set-up wizard that requires simple information, like email addresses and passwords to get going instead of a user’s IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings.
Smart Folders: Combines individual mailboxes to help manage multiple email accounts in one spot. For example, by selecting the Inbox, users can view all the incoming emails from all their different accounts without having to go to each email account separately.
Add-ons Manager: The new add-ons manager can help users find, download, and install hundreds of add-ons enabling them to customize Thunderbird 3 and add functionality or change the appearance.
Gecko 1.9.1 Engine: The same Web page rendering engine and graphics infrastructure used in Firefox, provides the latest Web Standards support and security enhancements.
Automated Updates: Thunderbird’s update system notifies users when a security update is available and automates the download and installation process to keep users safe.

Now, I am off to test this beast’s new features…

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