Mozilla betas Thunderbird 2

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 15 Dec 2006 at 11:52

Mozilla has released a first beta of Thunderbird 2, the next generation of its standalone email client.

A redesigned visual theme introduces the new Message Tags features - custom tags that can be added to messages and combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organise email - as well as numerous improvements to existing features.

The changes involve: Session History Navigation (back and forward buttons allow navigation through message history); extensions support (extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database); and notification alerts (new mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message text); and find as you type.

When it comes to folders, changes involve: Folder Views (customise the folder pane to show favourite, unread or recent folders); folder summary pop-ups (mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder); and saved search folder performance (search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance).

The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localisation of extensions and the Windows installer, based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, resolves many long-standing issues.

Thunderbird 2 Beta 1 has been released for testing purposes only and is available, with release notes, from mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/releases/2.0b1.html.