With the release of Firefox 7 came also the release of Thunderbird 7. The email program made a big jump from version 3 all the way to version 7, even skipping a version to sync with the Firefox browser.

Existing Thunderbird users should get update notifications right in the email client. They can then update from within without having to download the client from the official website. Users who have not received the notification of the update yet can check for it manually by going to Help > About Thunderbird.

The release notes list several changes and feature enhancements.

• Thunderbird is based on the new Mozilla Gecko 7 engine
• Several user interface fixes and improvements
• Several fixes to attachment handling
• Ability to print a summary of selected email messages
• Platform improvements to Address Book
• Fixed several security issues
• Numerous platform fixes that improve speed, performance and stability

Nothing major as you can, mostly under the hood improvements or changes that the majority of users might not even recognize.

The Welcome to Thunderbird page after updating or installing the new version lists additional features. I’m not sure if they all made their way into this version or if they have been available before. Thunderbird 7 starts up faster and is more responsive according to that feature listing. A new troubleshooting information page is listed there as well. It looks exactly like the page of the Firefox web browser.

New users can download the latest Thunderbird version from the official Mozilla Thunderbird project homepage. It is available there for all supported operating systems and languages.

Are you using Thunderbird? Let me know what you think of the latest update.

Bugzilla lists seven bugs that have been fixed in the new release. Two of the bugs have been rated as major, four as normal and one as minor. Three of the bugs affect only the Windows operating system, one each the Mac and Linux system, and two all supported operating systems.

Thunderbird 3.1.2 fixes the following issues in Thunderbird 3.1.1:

Several fixes to improve stability.
Several fixes to the user interface.

The new release is already listed on the official Mozilla Messaging website from where it can be downloaded directly. Thunderbird users, with Thunderbird 3.1x installed are already receiving update notifications in the email client.

A manual update check is available by clicking on Help > Check for Updates.

Interested users can take a look at the official release notes, or the Bugzilla listing that lists all fixed bugs in the release.

Downloads are provided for all supported operating systems and languages and it is only a matter of finding the right location. This can be confusing, here are a few direct links:

Windows US Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.19
Linux US Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.19
Mac US Mozilla Thundebird 2.0.0.19

And the links to the folders that contain all language versions:

Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 Windows
Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 Linux
Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 Mac

The new version can be installed as usual. There are no release notes yet, they will most likely be published later today on the Mozilla Thunderbird website.

Update:

Thunderbird 2.0.0.19 fixes seven security vulnerabilities.

The release is already available for all supported languages and operating systems. Neither the Check For Updates nor the official website reveal that a new version is about to be released.

This includes the release notes which still show the information about Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.17. The release notes usually get updated almost simultaneously with the updates going live.

There has been only two security fixes in this version of Thunderbird but 21 bug fixes which should get rid of some bugs that caused headaches for some users of Thunderbird. The rumbling edge website has a detailed list of all the fixes of this version with links pointing to explanations if needed. The security fixes have been the following:

Fixed: MFSA 2007-18 – Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (Critical)
Fixed: MFSA 2007-23 – Remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer (Critical)