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Thunderbird is a full featured stand-alone email client based on the design of the mail module in the Mozilla suite browser, which in turn was derived from the old Netscape Communicator Messenger module.
New in version 3.0.4:
• Several fixes to improve stability and security, see the Security Advisory.
• Several fixes to the user interface.
New in Thunderbird 3.0:
New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
* Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.
* New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
* When typing in the Global Search field, Thunderbird autocompletes against your address book. You have the option of searching everywhere or filtering against different parts of the email such as by subject or by sender.
* User Experience Improvements
New Mail Account Setup Wizard
• The new Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts.
Redesigned Mail Toolbar
• The Mail Toolbar is redesigned to include the new Global Search bar. Buttons such as reply, forward, delete, junk are part of each email message. You can add those buttons back to the main toolbar by customizing the toolbar.
Tabbed Email Messages
• Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
Smart Folders
• The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is now on by default.
New Message Summary View
• Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
Column Headings
• The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
Message Archive
• You can now file messages from your Inbox or other folders into the new Archive folder system.
Activity Manager
• The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place.
New Add-ons Manager
• The new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins. Note that few Add-ons are compatible with this beta at the time of release, as Add-on developers need to upgrade them.
Improved Address Book
• If someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends' birthdays. You can also add a photo for contacts in your address book.
Improved Gmail Integration
• Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.
Performance Improvements
IMAP Folder Synchronization
• Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / 'Synchronize & Storage'.
Tabs and Search
• Thunderbird 3 changes the way you do email with tabbed email, and a new set of search tools helps you find your emails faster.
Tabs
• If you like Firefox's tabbed browsing, you're going to love tabbed email. Tabbed email lets you load emails in separate tabs so you can quickly jump between them. Perhaps you're responding to an email and need to refer back to an earlier email. Tabbed email lets you keep multiple emails open for easy reference.
• Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a new tab window. Right-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a tab in the background.
• When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
Search
• The new search interface in Thunderbird 3 contains filtering and timeline tools to pinpoint the exact email you're looking for. Thunderbird 3 also indexes all of your emails to help you search even faster. Your search results are displayed in a tab so you can easily switch back and forth to your search results and other email.
Message Archive
If you think you're going to need an email in the future but want it out of your inbox without deleting it, archive it! Archiving helps you manage your inbox and put your email into a new archive folder system.
• Selecting the Archive button or hitting the 'A' key will archive your email.
Customize Your Email Experience
• Thunderbird is flexible to suit your personality, to give you the features you need, and to fit your work style. Change how Thunderbird looks or add as many features as you want.
Thunderbird Look & Feel
• With Personas, lightweight "skins" allow you to change the look and feel of Thunderbird in an instant. Hundreds of skins are available from the latest movies, famous landmarks, and Japanese tattoos. You can also choose from several Themes that dress up all the different icons in Thunderbird.
Easier to Get Started
• Setting up Thunderbird 3 is much easier. Several of the new features will also ease you through your day.
Mail Account Setup Wizard
• Prior to this new feature you had to know your IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings. Now all you need to provide is your name, email address, and password and the new email account set up wizard will check our database and find the email settings for you.
One-click Address Book
• One-click Address Book is a quick and easy way to add people to your address book. Add people by simply clicking on the star icon in the message you receive. Two clicks and you can add more details like a photo, birthday, and other contact information.
Attachment Reminder
• The new attachment reminder looks for the word attachment (and other words like file types) in the body of your message and reminds you to add an attachment before hitting send.
Activity Manager
• The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place. There's no more guess work. You only have to look in one place to see everything that's happening your email.
Secure and Protect Your Mail
• Thunderbird's security and privacy measures ensure that your communications and identity remain safe.
Cutting Out the Junk
• Thunderbird's popular junk mail tools have been updated to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird "learns" and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.
Robust Privacy
• Thunderbird 3 offers support for user privacy and remote image protection. To ensure a user's privacy, Thunderbird 3 automatically blocks remote images in email messages.
Phishing Protection
• Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.
Automated Update
• Thunderbird's update system checks to see if you're running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 40 different languages.
Open Source
A• t the heart of Thunderbird is an open source development process driven by thousands of passionate, experienced developers and security experts spread all over the world. Our openness and active community of experts helps to ensure our products are more secure and quickly updated, while also enabling us to take advantage of the best third party security scanning and evaluation tools to further bolster overall security.
Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / 'Synchronize & Storage'.
System requirements:
Thunderbird 3 no longer supports versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000 (e.g. Windows 95, 98, ME and NT) and Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4 Tiger. Linux requirements have also changed. Do ensure that compatibility mode for unsupported Windows platforms is disabled for the Thunderbird executable in Windows.
Thunderbird is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
The Thunderbird developers' mission objective is to produce a cross platform standalone mail application using the XUL user interface language. The intended customer is someone who uses Mozilla Firebird (or another standalone browser) as their primary browser and wants a good, solid email client to go with it.
Thunderbird incorporates the three-pane mode familiar to users of OS X Mail and Outlook Express, et al., It's fast, reasonably easy to configure, and will be familiarly intuitive to use for folks who like three-pane email clients. It's also freeware, and one of the most sophisticated free email clients.
Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.
Mozilla Thunderbird 2 is reloaded and more powerful than ever. Its now even easier to organize, secure and customize your mail.
Keep Your Vital Information Organized
Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.
Advanced Folder Views
Thunderbird 2 offers a variety of ways for you to organize and display your folders, whether by favorites, recently viewed or folders containing unread messages. As always, you can also set up RSS and newsgroup folders to stay on top of news and your interests. Thunderbird 2 also allows you to maximize your message view pane by opting for a folder drop down menu instead of the traditional sidebar.
Message Tagging
Thunderbird 2 allows you to “tag� messages with descriptors such as “To Do� or “Done� or even create your own tags that are specific to your needs. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
Message History Navigation
Thunderbird 2 offers message history navigation that allows you to click “forward� and “back� much like in your Web browser. You can now quickly toggle between messages and folder views.
Improved Search
Thunderbird 2 features a find as you type pane that speeds up searches within displayed messages. Thunderbird also offers quick search, which starts showing search results as soon as you start typing in search terms.
Saved Searches
Do you find yourself searching for the same subject or message content over and over? Thunderbird 2 saves you time by allowing you to store this search as a folder. Rerunning the search is just a matter of clicking on the saved search folder in the folder pane.
Stay Informed
Thunderbird 2 has been updated to provide more informative and relevant message alerts containing sender, subject and message text for newly arrived messages. Folders provide a pop up summarizing new messages in that folder.
Easy Access to Popular Web Mail Services
Thunderbird 2 makes it even easier to integrate and use various Web mail accounts from one inbox. Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.
Secure and Protect Your Mail
Mozilla has bolstered Thunderbirds acclaimed security and privacy measures to ensure that your communications and identity remain safe. Its like having your own security guard online.
Phishing Protection
Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.
Robust Privacy
Thunderbird 2 offers improved support for user privacy and remote image protection. To ensure a users privacy, Thunderbird 2 automatically blocks remote images in email messages.
Cutting Out the Junk
Mozilla has updated Thunderbirds popular junk mail folders to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird “learns� and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.
Open Source, More Secure
At the heart of Thunderbird is an open source development process driven by thousands of passionate, experienced developers and security experts spread all over the world. Our openness and active community of experts helps to ensure our products are more secure and updated quickly, while also enabling us to take advantage of the best third party security scanning and evaluation tools to further bolster overall security.
Automated Update
Thunderbirds update system checks to see if youre running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 30 different languages.
Get Your Mail, Your Way
Thunderbird allows you to customize your email to suit your specific needs whether its how you search and find messages or listening to music right out of your inbox.
Outfit Your Inbox
Thunderbird users can increase Thunderbirds functionality and appearance using hundreds of add-ons. A Thunderbird add-on can let you manage contacts, place voice over IP calls, listen to music, and keep track of birthdates all from your inbox. You can even change the appearance of Thunderbird to suit your tastes.
Message Templates
Thunderbird 2 allows you to easily set up message templates to save you time â€" especially if you have to send the same mail message repeatedly.
Add-ons Manager for Extensions and Themes
The new Add-ons Manager improves the user interface for managing extensions and themes, making it even easier for you to customize Thunderbird 2. Install, uninstall, enable and disable your add-ons in a single place.
Junk Mail filtering
Thunderbird provides effective tools for detecting junk mail, that analyze your email and identify those that are most likely to be junk. You can automatically have your junk mail deleted or you can put it in a folder you specify, just in case you like reading junk mail.
Your Mail, Your Way
View your email the way you want it. Access your email with Thunderbird's new three-column view. Customize your toolbar, change its look with themes, and use Mail Views to quickly sort through your email.
Safe and Secure
Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security features such as S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, support for certificates and security devices.
Versatility
Thunderbird gives you IMAP/POP support, a built-in RSS reader, support for HTML mail, powerful quick search, saved search folders, advanced message filtering, message grouping, labels, return receipts, smart address book LDAP address completion, import tools, and the ability to manage multiple e-mail and newsgroup accounts.
Expandability
Thunderbird lets you add additional features as you need them through extensions. Extensions are a powerful tool to help you build a mail client that meets your specific needs.
Thunderbird is a good e-mail client with an impressive features set, but it puzzles me why a one trick pony email application has to be an 11 MB download and a bloated 34 MB when expanded -- not including user profile folders and such? I mean, Opera, which incorporates a full-featured Web browser, an email client and chat client/newseader into one application, is just 4.5 MB to download and 9.5 MB expanded. ThunderBird has fewer features than Eudora, but is about six times as large.
Thunderbird will not allow a virus or worm to execute automatically. You can see what attachments have been sent to you without a virus being able to execute, and you would have to save a file to your system and deliberately run it before it could cause any harm.
Commendably, Thunderbird's mail files are in the standard plain text "mbox" format, which many mail programs can use or import. Some proprietary mail programs have a function to import from Eudora, which also uses the "mbox" format; this function should read your Mozilla mail files properly.
System requirements:
Operating Systems
• Mac OS X 10.2.x and later
Minimum Hardware
• Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
• 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
• 200 MB hard drive space
Version 3.0b3 also available.
Mozilla Thunderbird is freeware.
For more information, visit:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
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