Thunderbird 78.2.2 email client update is out
The Thunderbird email client team has released a new version of the program for all supported operating systems. Thunderbird 78.2.2 is a bug fix update for the most part but it introduces a new feature and changes as well.
The update is already available via the email client's automatic updating system. Thunderbird users may select Help > About Thunderbird to start a manual update query. The client will pick up the update then and install it on the system.
The new version is also available on the official Thunderbird project website. Just download it and run the installer to update the existing installation to the new version.
Note: Versions prior to 78.x won't be updated to the new version via automatic updates. A manual update is required to update. Thunderbird 78 introduced many changes to the email client, including support for MailExtensions. Classic extensions cannot be used anymore.
The first change becomes apparent right after the first start; Thunderbird opens the privacy policy in a new tab in the email client when it has been updated. The last update of the policy, at the time of writing, is August 30, 2020.
Thunderbird 78 introduced recipient pills functionality, similarly to how Gmail and other email services display recipients. The updated version supports drag and drop operations; you can drag and drop recipients to other recipient fields, e.g. from CC to BCC using the new functionality.
Twitter chat support has been removed completely in the new version. As far as fixes are concerned, many patch issues in the built-in OpenPGP functionality that has been enabled in the previous release version.
The "discover key online" feature is now working when you search using an email address, and decryption should work now as issues with certain "HTTP proxy configurations" has been addressed.
Other fixes in the new version include improvements to Windows 10 high-contrast theme setups, making event reminder details readable in the Calendar, and fixing an issue that caused the sending of messages to fail when recipients were in LDAP address books.
You can check out the full release notes here.
What exactly is “recipient pills functionality”? I confess I have no clue.Trying to Google “email recipient pills” just got me results about spamming medication sellers…
My guess is the graphical representation of that the address now is a unit you can drag&drop – but it’s actually a capsule: long, rounded ends.
Maybe there’s a term in German, that’s just hastily translated? It happens here sometimes.
The Thunderbird team calls them recipient pills.
My bad, too quick on the kbd. It’s in the release notes
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/78.2.2/releasenotes/
“Drag and Drop reordering of recipient pills now supported”
Also learn the googling technique of minussing away stuff you don’t want:
https://www.google.com/search?q=mail+recipient+pills+-drugs+-medication+-tablet+-tablets
Just add them one after another as you see hits that doesn’t matter.
The “pill” is just a single address that is encapsulated in the To, CC, and BCC fields of the browser to distinguish them visually from each other.
Thank you, Martin and Johan!
Can we hide to system tray yet?
Unfortunately, only one of my 7 critical extensions work with 78. Thunderbird extensions don’t get updated as rapidly as those for Firefox. I wish I knew how to turn off the daily prompt to update.
I got left behind on 52.9.1. Every version after that seems to throw out the add-ons every couple months.
@common sense computing
There is a Thunderbird 52 fork that is still in active development and is getting security updates:
https://binaryoutcast.com/projects/interlink/release-notes/
Check it out. Make sure you install versions of extensions that are compatible with Thunderbird 52, those are usually under the “older versions” section of every add-on offered on the Thunderbird Add-Ons store.
I was able to adjust to 68.0 by replacing my extensions, finding workarounds or just learning to do without. That process took me hours and hours of work. Then along comes 78.0 and I learn that I need to repeat that process. Nope. No way, ain’t gonna happen. I’m sticking with 68.10.0 until I can find an alternative email program that also serves as a good news reader. I know there’s a version 68.11.0, but oh well…
You note:
Versions prior to 78.x won’t be updated to the new version via automatic updates.
Sept. 7th post https://blog.thunderbird.net/2020/09/openpgp-in-thunderbird-78/
Soon the Thunderbird automatic update system will start to deliver the new
Thunderbird 78 to current users of the previous release, Thunderbird 68.
==
Updating to Thunderbird 78 is highly recommended to ensure you will receive
security fixes, because no more fixes will be provided for Thunderbird 68
after September 2020.
It would have been nice if Thunderbird had an ESR release for those of us who use extensions. That would have given extension developers more time to update their extensions.
I guess TB 68 is an ESR release since it has been supported a year, but TB 78 was just released 2 months ago. Two months is clearly not enough time to workout issues associated with a major release TB 78.
This is similar to the rollout of Firefox Fenix (FF 79.0.5 +) on Android. Just read the reviews on the Fenix release. I switched to the Brave browser on Android.
The above link says TB 68 users will still get updates through September.
currently all my emails disappear immediately???? and before that it did NOT retain any for longer then log off and log on and their gone??? so if I have an important email about a bill or anything else poof it’s gone????? not real useful IMHO… just went through my antivirus and firewall software and allowed… but will that stop my email checking?