Tracking developments in Mozilla Thunderbird builds
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No checkins during this period.
No known major regressions.
Official
Windows, Official
Windows installer, Official
Windows MSI (discussion)
(2005-12-29)
Official
Linux (i686) (2005-12-29)
Official
Mac (2005-12-29)
No checkins during this period.
No known major regressions.
P.S.: Merry Christmas to all!
Official
Windows, Official
Windows installer, Official
Windows MSI (discussion)
(2005-12-24)
Official
Linux (i686) (2005-12-24)
Official
Mac (2005-12-24)
Changelog
for previous release (Thunderbird 1.5 RC 1)
Changelogs
for other releases
Last updated 25 Dec 05.
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 RC 2 has been released. Release notes are available. Thunderbird 1.5 RC 1 users will be offered an update to RC 2 via the new software update system.
Please report any RC 2 bugs or problems in this mozillaZine thread.
Improvements over Thunderbird 1.5 RC 1:
Major bugfixes:
Extension-related:
Miscellaneous fixes:
No known major regressions.
Recently, I was overwhelmed by the immense number of extensions written for Firefox and to a much lesser extent, Thunderbird. I have received emails and as well as through my own observations, realised that most popular extensions are Firefox-only. Since both programs are created on the same code foundation, including Mozilla Suite, Netscape, Nvu and Flock, surely at least some of the simpler extensions can be ported over to other programs.
Extensions like Image Zoom, FlashGot and even FoxyTunes have made it to Thunderbird, but not hundreds of others which make Firefox such an extensible and flexible piece of software. To increase the usage of Thunderbird, there must first be a decent number of extensions which work for Thunderbird.
These are each application’s corresponding <em:id> tag in the install.rdf file of an extension..
Firefox: (Web browser)
<em:id>{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}</em:id>
Thunderbird: (Email client)
<em:id>{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}</em:id>
Sunbird: (Calendar)
<em:id>{718e30fb-e89b-41dd-9da7-e25a45638b28}</em:id>
Mozilla Application Suite: (All-in-one suite, main development discontinued)
<em:id>{86c18b42-e466-45a9-ae7a-9b95ba6f5640}</em:id>
SeaMonkey: (All-in-one suite)
<em:id>{92650c4d-4b8e-4d2a-b7eb-24ecf4f6b63a}</em:id>
Netscape: (Web browser)
<em:id>{3db10fab-e461-4c80-8b97-957ad5f8ea47}</em:id>
Nvu: (WYSIWYG HTML editor)
<em:id>{136c295a-4a5a-41cf-bf24-5cee526720d5}</em:id>
Flock: (Web browser)
<em:id>{a463f10c-3994-11da-9945-000d60ca027b}</em:id>
Camino users, please read this in case you’re wondering why Camino is absent from the list above.
These tags are embedded within the <em:targetApplication> tag and <Description> sub-tag. Porting extensions over to other programs may not be as simple as merely changing these corresponding <em:id> tags though. The code to display a menu entry in Firefox will not work in Thunderbird.
There are plenty of tutorials and guides to create Firefox extensions, but it is much rarer to find any for the others. However, while it is for the good of the community to have an extension that has versions for each program, the authors of the extensions themselves may not have the time to dedicate towards extension portability.
It is important to keep the phrase “Extension portability” in mind as Firefox continues its phenomenal growth. The other programs, especially Thunderbird, must take advantage of this momentum to broaden their user base to provide people with free open-source alternatives.
No known major regressions.
Official
Windows, Official
Windows installer, Official
Windows MSI (discussion)
(2005-12-15)
Official
Linux (i686) (2005-12-15)
Official
Mac (2005-12-15)
Scott MacGregor, one of the leading Thunderbird developers, has updated the Thunderbird roadmap, and currently the estimated arrival date for 1.5 is January 2006, assuming that everything goes according to schedule. Another release candidate, 1.5 RC 2 is planned for end-December 2005 to iron out any last-minute bugs in the last release candidate. A comprehensive 1.5 changelog will be published when 1.5 is out, similar to the one for Firefox 1.5 in The Burning Edge.
The next major release of Thunderbird will be version 2.0, in which small-scale UI improvements will be the key improvement. It is hopefully due by mid-2006 and based on Gecko 1.8, similar to 1.5. The highly-anticipated revision of the Gecko core, 1.9, will make its entrance in version 3.0 in the first half of 2007. This comes in lieu of the strategy modification by the Mozilla Foundation regarding the length of time between major releases, shortening to several months instead of the current twelve months or so which would separate 1.0 and the soon-to-arrive 1.5.
Do take note that all ideas and dates in the roadmaps are tentative and can be changed as and when necessary.
No checkins during this period.
No known major regressions.
Official
Windows, Official
Windows installer, Official
Windows MSI (discussion)
(2005-12-06)
Official
Linux (i686) (2005-12-06)
Official
Mac (2005-12-06)
Thunderbird 1.5 Release Candidate 2 test builds have been released. Scott MacGregor adds,
“We’ve got some new en-US bits that we hope to release as Thunderbird RC2 (hopefully before winter holidays). The QA and release teams at Mozilla are still tied up with post Firefox 1.5 related work. But David Bienvenu and I thought that doesn’t mean we can’t jump start the testing on Thunderbird 1.5 bits by leveraging all of you.”
“If you are a nightly, beta or just a general Thunderbird fan, we need your help testing these Thunderbird 1.5 RC2 candidate builds for en-US. We believe we have zero stop ship bugs at this time. If nothing serious enough to warrant a respin comes up from our testing, they will eventually be released as Thunderbird 1.5.”
“I’m hoping the nightly and trunk testers can spend some time using these RC builds instead of the regular nightlies for a while. Bonus points if you test around areas you may not normally use (i.e. create some filters, use the address book, create some new accounts, try setting up a new profile, etc.).”
“We really appreciate any help you can give us with testing on these builds.”
7 fixes since 1.5 RC 1:
No known major regressions.
Official
Windows, Official
Windows installer, Official
Windows MSI (discussion)
