Download Mozilla Thunderbird 3.3a1

The Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail program can be used, among other things, for reading and sending e-mail, reading and posting to newsgroups and reading RSS feeds. In terms of additional features, Thunderbird is equipped with a junk mail filter, a spell checker, the ability to tag messages and a search function. Furthermore, the program can be expanded with addons† The development team released the first alpha version of Thunderbird 3.3 a few days ago, codenamed “Miramar”. The corresponding announcement looks like this:

Miramar Alpha 1 Release Notes

Miramar Alpha 1 is a preview release for the next major version of Thunderbird that is being built on top of the next generation of Mozilla’s layout engine, Gecko 2.0. Miramar Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only and is intended for developers and our testing community.

This release does not represent the final product. Some of the features listed below are highly experimental and will likely change before the final release. They may come with crashes and bugs and may potentially cause data loss in profiles (configuration data, preferences, downloaded mail).

Please do not use Miramar Alpha 1 in a production environment.

Please see below for a list of features and enhancements found in Miramar Alpha 1, as well as known issues and frequently asked questions. Your feedback is essential to the project and makes Thunderbird better with every alpha release. Give us your feedback on Miramar Alpha 1 at our GetSatisfaction site. Alternately, if you have specific problems, you can file a bug in Bugzilla.

What’s New in Miramar Alpha 1

Miramar Alpha 1 is built on top of the Gecko 2.0 platform. The main goals of this release is to find out about possible problems caused by the changes in the underlying platform. Notable changes include:

• New Addons Manager and extension management API (user interface will be changed before final release).
• Attachment sizes now displayed along with attachments.
• Several user interface fixes for Windows Vista/Windows 7.
• Support for Mac 32/64 bit Universal builds (Miramar Alpha 1 will no longer support PowerPC on Mac).
• Over 190 platform fixes to improve performance and stability.

For a more detailed list of bug fixes, see the the full bug list†

Extensions and Themes

Extensions installed under previous versions of Thunderbird may be incompatible and/or require updates to work with Miramar Alpha 1. Please report any issues to the maintainer of the extension.

When you install Miramar Alpha 11 all of your Extensions and Themes will be disabled until Miramar Alpha 1 determines that either a) they are compatible with the Miramar Alpha 1 release or b) there are newer versions available that are compatible.

Known Issues

This list covers some of the known problems with Miramar Alpha 1. Please read this before reporting any new bugs.

All Systems:

• The attachment reminder feature is broken when composing emails (Bug 613195).
• If you are unable to view content for your RSS feeds in the Wide View Layout, you may need to disable the Lightning Calendar add-on if you have it installed or switch to Classic View and restart Thunderbird. (bug 531397)
• In some cases, using ‘Save As Template’ from the File menu may not work. You can still Save As Template from the email Compose window or drag the message into the Template folder. (Bug 532050)

Mac OS X:

• Builds running on Mac OS X 10.5 will hang if they crash, and not bring up the crash reporter. This has been fixed for future alpha releases.
• Import of Eudora mail has been disabled for this release if running in 64-bit mode (Mac OS X 10.6). Work is ongoing to restore this in future alphas (Bug 537872).
• Attempting to use GSSAPI in 64-bit mode (Mac OS X 10.6)may crash Miramar (Bug 604653).

Troubleshooting:

• Poorly designed or incompatible extensions can cause problems with your email client, including make it crash, slow down message display, etc. If you encounter strange problems relating to parts of the email client no longer working, the email client not starting, windows with strange or distorted appearance, degraded performance, etc, you may be suffering from Extension or Theme trouble. Restart the email client in Safe Mode. On Windows, start using the “Safe Mode” shortcut created in your Start menu or by running thunderbird.exe -safe-mode. On Linux, start with ./thunderbird -safe-mode and on Mac OS X, run:
  cd /Applications/Thunderbird.app/Contents/MacOS/
  ./thunderbird-bin -safe-mode
  When started in Safe Mode all extensions are disabled and the Default theme is used. Disable the Extension/Theme that is causing trouble and then start normally.
• If you encounter strange problems relating to email, feeds or newsgroup messages, it is recommended that you try creating a new profile and attempting to reproduce the problem before filing bugs. Create a new profile by running Thunderbird with the -P command line argument, choose the “Manage Profiles” button and then choose “Create Profile…”. Migrate your settings files (Emails, feeds, etc) over one by one, checking each time to see if the problems resurface. If you do find a particular profile data file is causing a problem, file a bug and attach the file, being sure to remove any private information as necessary.

Frequently Asked Questions: