Download Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 RC1

A few days ago the first release candidate of the 2.0 series of Thunderbird appeared. This version can be downloaded via this ftp folder for Linux (10.90MB), Mac OS X (19.16MB) and Windows (6.41MB) and comes with, among other things, an improved user interface and support for Windows Vista. Mozilla Thunderbird is the standalone version of the mail and news software included with Mozilla SeaMonkey. The mail program is an open source and cross-platform mail and newsgroup client with features such as a junk mail filter, spell checker and the possibility to further expand the functionality via add-ons. What exactly has changed and what still needs to be changed can be read below:

What’s New in Thunderbird 2

• Message Tags: Create your own tags for organizing email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
• Visual Theme: Thunderbird 2’s theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability and maximize screen real estate.
• Session History Navigation: Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.
• Advanced Folder Views: Customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.
• Easy Access to Popular Web Mail Services: Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.
• Improved Support For Extensions: Extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database.
• Improved New Mail Notification Alerts: New mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message preview text.
• Folder Summary Popups: Mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder.
• Saved Search Folder Performance: Search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance.
• Find As You Type: Finds and highlights message text as you type.
• Improved Filing Tools: Recent folder menu items for moving and copying messages to recently used folders. Move / Copy again functionality.
• Updates to the Extension System: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
• New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.
• Windows Vista Support: Many enhancements and fixes for Windows Vista.

Known issues

• AllSystems
  • Some firewall software may silently block Thunderbird from running. This often happens immediately after Thunderbird has been installed or updated from a previous version. There are configuration instructions available for most popular firewall programs to help you ensure that Thunderbird is allowed to connect to the Internet.
  • The default dictionary is English-only. Non-English dictionaries can now be installed as extensions from: addons.mozilla.org.
  • The mail views toolbar button is no longer a default toolbar button. Users of this feature must add it back to their default toolbar in the mail 3-pane window: View / Toolbars / Customize.
  • In order to take advantage of Thunderbird’s ability to adjust the online state based on your network connectivity, you must first change the value of network.autodial-helper.enabled to false.
  • When switching between using a Global Inbox and using an Inbox for a POP3 account, be sure to make copies of the messages into another folder.
  • A compatible version of DOM Inspector is now available for Extension and Theme developers at:
• Mac OS X
  • There is no Talkback on Intel-based Macs when running natively or under Rosetta. The Apple Crash report program should launch in the event of application crashes.
• Linux and Unix
  • If Thunderbird is installed to a location with spaces in the path, it may not be able to set itself as default mail client and may keep prompting at startup. The work around is to install into a path without spaces.
  • GNOME integration does not work properly with Fedora Core 3. Users of Fedora Core 3 will need to download and install linc-1.0.3-3.1.i386.rpm. After installing the RPM, perform the following command in the directory in which you installed Thunderbird (you will need write permission): touch .autoregThe next time you start Thunderbird, GNOME integration should be functional.