Mozilla released the latest version of thunderbird, Thunderbird 5.0, after 1 and a half year of Thunderbird 3.1. The major release has the version number 5.0 (and not
4.0!) to match the latest Firefox version 5.0 that was released a week back. The open source cross-platform email client and news reader promises to be efficient fast and better! The post reviews the new features of Thunderbird 5.0!
The new Thunderbird comes with a handful of new features such as drag and drop enabled interface, improved add-on manager and account creating wizard and several fixes. The most apparent change you shall notice is definitely the better, minimal and more modern interface. The Add-on manager, Trouble shooting page and many bug fixes!
Improved Speed: Thunderbird would launch in a matter of seconds now! Thunderbird is more stable and more secure owing to over 300 bug fixes. Thunderbird, being based on Mozilla Gecko 5 engine, the second most popular open source browser engine.
Easy to setup account: You can now easily create a new account from:
File->New->Account
The Troubleshooting page: The troubleshooting page is completely revised to cater more issues that one faces while using Thunderbird!
The New Add-on Manager: The Add-on manager is enhanced. It will open in a new Tab. You can extend the capabilities of Thunderbird with the latest available add-ons. The add-on manager will feature “Thunderbird Collection” and “Featured Add-ons” where you can find recommended add-ons for your browser. You will also find the information about some upcoming extensions. With the Add-on manager you can also customize the email client and install themes. There are theme fixes for Windows Vista and Windows 7 clients.
The Drag & Drop and few minor changes: You will also be able to drag and drop windows, just like in the browser to make them separate windows. You will also be able to re-order the tab. Now you will also be able to view details of attachment i.e. the size of the attachment, included in the email. Plug-ins can now be loaded with RSS feeds by default.
Installation guide: Before you install the new version of Thunderbird you must delete the old thunderbird file to avois erroes and problems. Incase you do uninstall the old directory and encounter a bug, such a bug wil not be entertained by Mozilla.
Download Thunderbird 5 for Linux,Windows and Mac.
Installation for Ubuntu and LInuxMint:
Mozilla Thunderbird 5 also available on PPA, you can install / Upgradeto this latest release via the following PPA :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird
