New extensions portal for Thunderbird and SeaMonkey launches
Up until now, Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey users, used a single portal for extensions for their products. Even users of Firefox-based browsers could point their browsers to https://addons.mozilla.org/ to search for, download, and install browser extensions.
Today's launch of https://addons.thunderbird.net/ changes that.Thunderbird and SeaMonkey users cannot use Mozilla's Add-ons website anymore to download extensions for the email client or web browser as they need to use the new website instead. Redirects are in place to make the migration as smooth as possible for users.
One core factor for the decision to fork the Thunderbird and SeaMonkey extension repositories was that Mozilla plans to remove legacy extensions from its platform in the near future (meaning 2018 likely).
Considering that Thunderbird and SeaMonkey do support legacy add-ons still, and will for the foreseeable future, it was clear that something needed to be done about it to provide users with options to download compatible extensions.
Another factor that played a role was that Thunderbird development and management was split from Mozilla even though the project remained under the umbrella of Mozilla Foundation. With Thunderbird and SeaMonkey becoming independent products, more independent than they have been before, it was clear that the projects wanted full control over the add-ons platform.
The new platform is a fork of the old Thunderbird and SeaMonkey listing on Mozilla's Add-ons website. In fact, when you try to open any Thunderbird-related link on Mozilla's site you will notice that you are redirected automatically to the new site.
Everything works identical to how it was before; even user reviews, ratings, old extension versions and such have been carried over. The functionality is identical at this point in time and users who used the old platform before will feel at home right away. You can even sign in with a Firefox account just like before and developers can do the same to manage their extensions for the platforms.
Thunderbird and SeaMonkey users who have installed extensions in clients at this point in time don't need to change anything. Mozilla redirects update URLs automatically so that new updates will get picked up just like they have previously.
The two main entry points for Thunderbird and SeaMonkey extensions are:
- SeaMonkey: https://addons.thunderbird.net/seamonkey/extensions/
- Thunderbird: https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/extensions/
The new add-ons site is managed by the Thunderbird Council and it runs on Mozilla infrastructure. Mozilla helped the Thunderbird Council with the forking and making sure that everything worked after migration.
Closing Words
The migration to an independent platform ensures that Thunderbird and SeaMonkey extensions remain available online. While it would also have been possible to leave the directories untouched on the Mozilla Add-ons website, doing so was not really an option because it would not give the Thunderbird Council full control over the platform and because of the removal of legacy features on Mozilla's Add-ons website which might have impacted functionality.
Now You: Do you use Thunderbird extensions? (via Sören Hentzschel)
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!