Ghacks veterans know that Mozilla has synced the release schedules of the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client. Whenever a new stable version of Firefox gets released, a new version of Thunderbird is just around the corner. Both Firefox and Thunderbird have not really shown to many exciting new features ever since the development teams switched to high gear in the form of the rapid release process.
Thunderbird 8 has just been released. Existing Thunderbird users may have already noticed the update when they have stared the desktop email client today. Users who have not can check for new updates by going to Help > About Thunderbird in the main menubar of the email client. This triggers an automatic check for new updates in the program itself.
So what’s new in Thunderbird 8? The beta release notes, which have been published last month list the following improvements:
- Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default
- Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
- Improved accessibility of the attachment lists
- Several user interface fixes and improvements
- and numerous other platform fixes
The big new feature is the blocking of automatic installations via third party software programs. This is actually the same feature that made it into Firefox 8 released a few days ago. In addition, Thunderbird users now get a one-time dialog when the update in which they can manage installed add-ons. The email client will suggest add-ons that may not be compatible giving the user the choice to disable them to improve stability of the email client.
The official download site is still listing Thunderbird 7.01 as the latest stable version. It may take some hours or maybe even a day until the new Thunderbird 8 version is published on the official website. Download portals such as Softpedia or MajorGeeks are already hosting the new version, so grab it from there if you are in a hurry.
Update: The calendar add-on Lightning for Thunderbird has been released in version 1.0 as well today.
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Installed TB 8 earlier and all Add ons were updated.
Works well, as always! :)