Mozilla updates Thunderbird to version 9.0

Mozilla has announced the arrival of version 9.0 of its open source Thunderbird news and email client. The update is based on the new Gecko 9 rendering engine and adds support for theming in the compose and address book windows using Personas, which are lightweight skins.

Other changes include better keyboard support for handling attachments, and several user interface improvements and fixes. An opt-in system for users to automatically send data about performance and usability back to Mozilla has also been added. On Windows, Thunderbird 9.0 users can now hide the menu bar – pressing the alt key will make it reappear. Six security holes, one of which is rated as critical, have been closed in the update.

More details about the update, including a list of known issues, can be found in the release notes. Version 9.0 of Thunderbird is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 51 languages from the project's site. Existing users can either upgrade using the built-in update tool or wait for the automatic update notification.

Mozilla has also released Thunderbird 3.1.17, a stability and security update to the 3.1.x legacy branch that addresses a critical vulnerability on Mac OS X. All users are advised to upgrade.

Thunderbird binaries are released under the Mozilla Thunderbird End-User Software License Agreement and the source code is released under disjunctive tri-licensing that includes the Mozilla Public License, GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1.

See also:

• Firefox 9 improves JavaScript performance, a report from The H.
• What should Mozilla do?, a feature from The H.

(crve)