The third beta of Thunderbird 3 has been uploaded to the Mozilla servers and is now available for public download. The new beta release is available for all supported operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac) and interface languages. The new beta includes some of the core functionality that the development team plans to integrate into version 3 of the popular desktop email client. Probably the most notable change upon startup is the new tabbed interface. Users can now access emails that are opened in the email client by simply clicking on the corresponding tabs at the top.
Another interesting new feature is the quick message preview if multiple email messages have been selected. It basically displays about three lines and the subject of each email in the email window which is a very comfortable way of quickly glancing over multiple emails.
The smart folder mode is another new feature which basically combines folders from multiple email accounts. Instead of having to access multiple email inbox folders or sent folders they can now be accessed combined in the smart folder mode. Other notable changes are better Gmail integration for special folders and foreign languages, the ability to notice properly configured mailing lists and offering ways to respond to these emails and column headings which are can now be configured on a per-folder basis.
The changelog lists 592 new features, changes or bug fixes that the developers had made or added to the new release of Thunderbird.
Interested users should keep in mind that the email client is still a beta version. Caution and regular backups are advised. Users who need email for work should make sure that they have a backup in place in case somethings goes wrong.
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I’m looking forward to it being released, as I’ve heard good news about the proposed updates.
Postbox is a superior product to Thunderbird. Postbox features (search, Facebook integration, topics) and UI are far better and Postbox now supports Thunderbird add-ons.
I switched from Thunderbird to Postbox earlier this year. Postbox is heading in a better direction – powerful desktop mail client with the flexibility and speed of webmail (I use it to manage two gmail accounts – about 20,000 messages total). It has supported tabbed browsing for a while now. Search/organization features are great – I use them constantly to find and sort messages and conversations.
The Thunderbird improvements just don’t seem notable when compared to what Postbox is already delivering. The team continually releases updates as well. www,postbox-inc.com
I’ve looked at Postbox, and it’s for Windows only, plus it’s not open-source. I’ll stick with Thunderbird as it meets my needs.
@scouser73: fyi – Postbox is available for both Windows and Mac.
The reason why I downloaded Thunderbird is because they have awesome add-ons for my mac computer.
Since beta 3 came out, the add-ons I downloaded aren’t compatible anymore, unless the maintainer updates it.
So what I’m trying to do here is to go back to beta 2 so I can use those add-ons. How do I do this? Where can I download Thunderbird 3 BETA 2? (NOT thunderbird 2.0.0.22)
I went to mozillamessaging.com already and they always lead me to download beta 3. suckers! >.<"
Thanksss :]