thunderbird

Plenty of people like to demonize Microsoft, but the company is capable of doing the right thing, too, even if that might not help its bottom line. A case in point: giving away the keys that had locked up customers' own Outlook records.

Microsoft has been gradually opening up the PST file format that stores personal data such as e-mails, contacts, and calendar entries. The latest move, on Monday, was the release of two open-source tools to see the contents of PST files; Microsoft also has shared PST documentation and put the PST data under the Open Specification Promise, under … Read more

Web browsing and e-mailing from Mozilla got a bit of a bump forward on Wednesday, as the company updated its beta test builds of Firefox 3.6.4 and Thunderbird 3.1, respectively code-named Lorentz and Lanikai.

Firefox 3.6.4 beta 3, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and Thunderbird 3.1 beta 2, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, offer the latest features from Mozilla but are also less stable than the current releases.

When pushed out to all users, Firefox 3.6.4 will incorporate the much-anticipated Out-Of-Process-Plug-in feature, which prevents plug-in crashes from Adobe Systems' Flash, Apple's … Read more

Less than two years after its launch, Mozilla has issued the final member of Firefox 3.0 family: version 3.0.19.

Firefox 3.0 was the center of a major effort to adopt the open-source browser. Its release in June 2008 was labeled download day, and since its release, Firefox did steadily gain in usage. Since then, though, it's been supplanted by Firefox 3.5 and now 3.6, and Mozilla decided to end the Firefox 3.0 lineage.

Accompanying the 3.0.19 release is Firefox 3.5.9, which fixes five critical security vulnerabilities. Version 3.… Read more

Mozilla made public the first beta of Thunderbird 3.1 today. Code-named Lanikai and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the milestone makes few noticeable changes to the open-source and free desktop e-mail client. This is not surprising, though, as Mozilla Messaging announced that the goal of this release was to fix problems created by upgrading the Gecko engine that powers the program.

Lanikai is the first semi-stable release of Thunderbird to use Gecko 1.9.2, which is the same engine that Firefox 3.6 uses. The changes made from Thunderbird 3 to the 3.1 beta test version … Read more

Critical security fixes and improvements to the upgrade path from Thunderbird 2 are the key changes in Thunderbird 3.0.2, released today for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Three security fixes, all listed as critical, address an integer overflow that caused crashes in the libtheora video library, a memory safety issue in the liboggplay media library, and crashes caused by memory corruption.

There were also changes made to the in-house upgrade from Thunderbird 2. Thunderbird 3 was released last December, but many users encountered problems including data loss and functionality bugs when upgrading. This fix released today addresses Mac users … Read more

A few weeks after releasing Thunderbird 3.0, an overhaul of its open-source e-mail software, Mozilla has issued an early test version of a successor that smooths rough edges and fixes some bugs.

A principal change coming with the first alpha version of Thunderbird 3.1, code-named Lanikai, is the inclusion of the Gecko 1.9.2 browser engine, which is the version used in the present Firefox 3.6. The browser engine can be used in Thunderbird for extensions that do things like show Google Calendar or let people take actions in e-mail that require a Web page.

Rafael … Read more

Most Mac users default to Apple's good-but-not-great Mail program to manage their e-mail. But given Mail's serious deficiencies (e.g., weak to nonexistent integration with calendaring and contacts), a variety of open-source initiatives are underway to bring a full-featured e-mail client to the Mac.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that there appears to be little to no coordination between the different groups, leading to duplication and fragmentation of efforts.

Zimbra, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Raindrop, and a new project initiated by NetNewsWire founder Brent Simmons, Letters.app, all seem to be heading in the right … Read more

This add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird with Lightning might be a one-hit wonder, but it provides a impressive service: it allows you bidirectional access to your Google Calendar in Lightning. To use it, you need to grab the XML link for your Google Calendar, under the Settings tab. Then go to new calendar in Lightning, choose Google Calendar, and paste in the XML URL. Voila: instant Google Calendar access, so that you can create, edit, and delete events in your Google Calendar from within Thunderbird. Likewise, changes made to your calendar on the Web are instantly reflected in Thunderbird.

There are … Read more

If you use Gmail, but worry about your privacy--especially in the wake of Google's attack by sophisticated hackers--CNET reporter Stephen Shankland shows you how to have your cake and eat it, too.

What are the secret ingredients to a secure Gmail? A triumvirate of freeware comprised of Gnu Privacy Guard encryption, Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail application (Windows|Mac), and an e-mail encryption plug-in called Enigmail (Windows and Mac).

Switching from open to encrypted e-mail isn't a light undertaking, and as Stephen points out, there are plenty of drawbacks and trade-offs when you swap ease-of-use for near-total privacy. Still, … Read more