Mozilla releases Thunderbird 3 Beta 4

The Mozilla developers have released the fourth beta for version 3.0 of their popular open source email and news client. Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.3 platform and includes over 200 changes from the previous beta 3 release. According to Mozilla, many of the changes have set the groundwork for further future changes.

The preview release features a new Global Search field with auto-complete and advanced filtering tools. The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and a users email provider. The new Mail Account Setup Wizard provides the email settings for a range of popular mail providers, meaning that a user will only need to provide their name, email and password to setup most new accounts. Other improvements in Thunderbird 3 include performance improvements to IMAP folder synchronisation and a Smart Folders mode in the folder pane that lets users combine special mailboxes, such as the Inbox, from multiple accounts.

More details about the release, including a list of known issues, can be found in the release notes. Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The developers also note that Thunderbird 3 no longer supports Windows 95, 98, ME, NT and Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4. A final release date for Thunderbird 3, has yet to be announced.

See also:

• Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 is Now Available, release announcement from Mozilla.

(crve)