Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 ReleasedMonday May 3rd, 2004Scott MacGregor writes: "Thunderbird 0.6 has taken flight! Some of the more promiment features include a new Windows installer, Pinstripe theme for Mac OS X, new artwork, improved junk mail controls, new mail notification in the system dock for Mac OS X, server-wide news filters and a slew of other new features." Builds can be grabbed from the Thunderbird Download Page on mozilla.org, or from the release notes, which also include more on what's new in this latest release of Thunderbird. Can you give me some details about what's new about it? I believe that the 0.6 improvements (going back some months) are an improved algorithm for determining if a message is junk and a new tokenizer for determining which tokens to extract from a message pump into the improved algorithm. --Asa where is thundertray in 0.6? where is thundertray in 0.6? http://www.protonfx.com/applications.php maybe? --Asa On http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/ : "To be consistent with the Mozilla Foudation's goal of brand identity" Does that include spelling their name consistently? :-) Problem! The Mac-Download (http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/0.6/thunderbird-0.6-macosx.dmg.gz) is sent as Content-Type: text/plain, which results in text garbage in browser window. Since it is a redirected link, it is not easily done with Shift-Click, but you have to use wget or smth. similar. "Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 RC2 Now Available Saturday May 1st, 2004" "Mozilla Thunderbird 0.6 Released Monday May 3rd, 2004" It's all relative - a couple of days is plenty of time to get feedback from the forum regulars who use nightly builds, and a few extra people that might have been sticking with a nightly build from the previous weeks. I don't think it was intended to be something that got wide distribution. Thunderbird is only at 0.6 - 0.5 was out less than 2 months ago, and 0.7 isn't too far into the future. If you're pushing milestones of pre-beta software every 4-6 weeks, there isn't really time for a long "release candidate" period before each one. Anyone know when we'll be getting an installer for Linux? I've been using the suite for ages and finally decided yesterday that I should switch to Thunderbird. D'oh! Does the Mac version have the updated icon too? I know it lagged behind the other platforms here for some time... Umm ... is it possible to get en-win.jar and en-mac.jar somewhere, considering that the Linux build now apparently no longer features them? They are important for creating language packs ... These are just my opinions, no need to flame. :) * Option to make all move commands copy, and then delete and expunge the original. Causes interop problems. * Option to move deleted mail to x folder, like is available for Sent Items and Drafts. * Re-use email window off by default. * Double clicking on folder names really does not need to open a new window. * Clicking folder names, likewise, does not need to change the titlebar. It makes it hard to see which windows are emails, and which one is the folder and message list. Thank you if anyone is listening and/or considering any of these ideas. I work for a company that sells email services, and we would like to recommend TB when it reaches 1.0 if it has the first two features I mentioned specifically. Isn't this release a bit early? I thought the next Firefox/Thunderbird releases were based off Mozilla 1.7 which has those new features and speedups? Just trying to be clear on where this release comes from It's based off the Mozilla 1.7 branch, something around 1.7RC1 I think. So it will have just about anything that's going to happen in terms of new features and speedups for 1.7. However, it is of course missing whatever fixes (which will only be low-risk and/or important crash or bug fixes) go into 1.7 after 1.7RC1. 1.7 is still a few weeks off - that's a good way towards Thunderbird 0.7! In prioritized order (for me): bug 187578 - From-field when replying to message in "local folders" should be "To"-field of original bug 228980 - Identity selection based on recipients should be more correct bug 30057 - Use one Local Mail tree for all POP3 accounts bug 46041 - Multiple accounts without multiple folders (global inbox, etc.) bug ??? - Can't insert other signatures for a message being composed by simly goin to menu Insert -> Signatures -> ... bug ??? - No button and keyboard shortcut to perform send&receive of _all_ mail accounts that have "Include this account when receiving mail or synchronizing" checkbox checked in their config. Send/Recv button with dropdown of: "Send and Receive All" (default), "Receive All", "Send All", separator, individual accounts list... bug ??? - Show recipient&sender e-mail address and/or name instead of just the name in messages list/preview panel bug 22112 - UI: Icons should show state of mail bug 43278 - Crossposts (same Message-ID) not marked as read in other groups bug 33045 - Newsgroups: Show column for "size" (in KB), not "lines" bug 171907 - drag & drop an eml file into a mailbox folder bug 193281 - Ability to import e-mail messages from .eml text files bug 44863 - UI for multiple identities per account bug ??? - Display number of selected messages bug ??? - Threads can't be collapsed by default bug ??? - Marking message as unread doesn't change icon back to unread (fixed in TB 0.6 but not in the suite) bug ??? - Saving a message to drafts folder doesn't mark it as unread bug ??? - Select which folder to open on startup Crushing those bugs would make MailNews/TB heavily superior to OE. Read 'em & weep ;P > In prioritized order (for me) I assume you mean this is order of priority you have for working on fixes. I look forward to the patches! Why do you assume he is a developer? Aren't non-developers allowed to add their feedback/wishlists to these forums? sure, just as others are allowed to mock them for being so presumptive that they think they know the inner details of hte project well enough to prioritize the todo list for the devs. That may be so, but it was rather clear that he was detailing his own personal wishlist. If non-developers aren't allowed to express their opinion about their favorite bugs, then perhaps the entire voting system in bugzilla should be removed and forum/list moderators should step in and prevent non-developers from trying to give more visibility to their favorite bugs. It's marked as a TODO list. If he's not planning on doing it, who is he planning to pay? Since I've been using the MailNews since 2002 something I think I could fork over some $ for getting at least the first four bugs fixed, which is actually about two bugs. POP3 mails into Local Folders and reply with recipients identity. So, how much would it cost me? BTW, in addition to "UI: Icons should show state of mail" being fixed in 0.6, "Saving a message to drafts folder doesn't mark it as unread" is working too, woohooo! Them sneaky TB developers ;D Now if only these kind of changes would tick down to the suite... one can dream... ;) Direction for which bugs to fix has to come from somewhere. Once things like shopstoppers and data corruption bugs are fixed then how is a dev supposed to decide which ones to fix next? User feedback and opinions, or their own personal whims? If it's the latter you end up with dissatisfied users and feeling of dev aloofness and arrogance. This is a very common problem with many software development projects. As software engineer myself, I like leaving these decisions to a (good) project manager - I will provide them with feedback about how long and how risky each fix will be, they can then make the decisions based their knowledge of user requirements/opinions whilst I can focus on what I enjoy doing: fixing it without too much politics and interference. "Aren't non-developers allowed to add their feedback/wishlists to these forums?" Would it be appropriate for this non-developer to post his wishlist to this discussion? I've got a buglist that's roughly 1400 bugs long. Would posting a link to each bug here be appropriate? What about posting the entire contents of each bug here? It probably wouldn't. Wll, his list isn't that long, I can hear you saying. What if 40 or 50 people all posted their wishlists of 20 bugs to each release announcement? What if just a few people posted full bug contents? Here's what I think. If you want to publicize a list of bugs at Mozillazine, just link to a damn buglist. If you want to post specifics of one particular bug, just link to the damn bug. Posting 40 and 50 line long posts to itimize personal peeve bugs gets pretty annoying for those of us who are capable of clicking on a link that will give an even more functional buglist display of the bugs. These sort of comments gets horribly annoying after a while. Yes, SHUT UP people, and let the Developers work on this project. Come on, quite a few of the bigs Tar mentioned can be a rather pain for people trying to move from OE. For instance, I wanted my other to switch to TB (she already uses FB) but the separate folders per account were just too much for her. And Tar wasn't really complaining, he just mentioned the bugs he found important. Sure, some bugs are annoying. Some bugs may even be showstoppers for some people. But that doesn't mean that producing a list of 18 bugs that you demand other people work on, without contributing yourself, is anything other than rude. If people contributing code had asked for feedback on the front page of Mozillazine, it would be a different matter but, as far as I'm aware, no one has asked for buglists here. A buglist is a wishlist for fixes so that he believes TB will reach perfection and replaces OE. I think this is taking it too far to claim Tar demanded these fixes out of proportion to consider him as rude. Perhaps you can say there's better place to post such wishlist, but calling a wishlist rude on its own isn't fair and drives potential users away as they wish a better product (to any vendor, on any product). AFAICT, nobody is saying something like "fix this or XXX", now I would call that rude in fairness & comparsion. Which part of 'for me' did you fail to understand? That little bracketed addition is definitely what made this into a personal wishlist rather than a rude demand that various things should be done (as we see so often). Also note that it didn't have the customary 'IF YOU DON'T DO THIS I WILL STOP USING THIS PROGRAM!:!>?!?!!11!!!'. Many of those highlighted bugs are also important to me (particularly the one about having option to use a single mail tree) but I'm grinning and bearing it at the moment simply because the spam detection is so good - it's really an essential for me as I get 700+ spam messages (and maybe 2,3 legitimate) per day in my home account. I tried using an external spam program with Outlook Express, but it only really makes sense to have spam detection integrated in email, so Thunderbird it is. I wonder if Mozilla Foundation ought to set up a 'pledge' donations site integrated with bugzilla numbers? So that users can specifically go and say, look you can have $50 if this bug gets fixed. It might be difficult to arrange, I can imagine that sometimes the money might not all be collected... but it would at least provide an outlet and easy answer to whine-type questions. Though the money probably wouldn't add up to actually pay the cost of fixing the bug (I can imagine maybe, if really lucky, getting say $1,000 for a highly-desired fix like the single set of folders one), it still might provide an incentive; if a volunteer programmer knows that their bugfix work will not only make the product better, but also trigger a $1k (or even only $100) donation to the foundation... Of course it might be a bit difficult to determine what constitutes 'fixed' (e.g. what if the back-end is fixed but the UI isn't)... maybe this is impractical. --sam What part of 'public website' did you fail to understand? The concept of 'personal wishlist' doesn't make much sense on a public website; if we're expected to ignore the list (because it's personal) why bother posting in the first place? If we're not supposed to ignore the list, then it's just another person trying to get special attention for their pet bugs. The concept of a system for donating to particular fixes is discussed fairly often but no one has ever implemented anything more complex than 'pledge the money in the bug'. I guess a simple improvement would be a hasdonations keyword so that people could easilly find bugs with money pledged. Having said that, I don't notice lots and lots of extra attention being paid to bugs with money. Oftentimes, I think the hourly rate you'd get for working on a bug with a few hundred dollars bounty isn't enough to entice people who wouldn't fix the bug eventually even without the extra incentive. Jeez, jgraham, stop being an ass, please! *You* are the one who's being rude here, not the guy who posted that list. That list was obviously not an attempt to get special attention for his pet bugs; it was an attempt to push Thunderbird to perfection. What's wrong with that desire? The guy is obviously an end user that cares enough about this project to post here, and instead of whining about it you should be grateful for this kind of feedback. I agree that this thread is not the best place to discuss such a wishlist, but instead of being grumpy about it you could have done him (and us!) a favour by kindly showing him the way to the Thunderbird forums, where there should be plenty of room for such discussions. That would have been much more civil than spoiling the Thunderbird 0.6 party with your sour comments. This is not what Scott et.al. deserve... So, if I post a list of 20 odd bugs in some mozilla.org product and claim that these bugs must be fixed with priority (dressed up in 'in order to be better than a popular competitor these bugs must be fixed') /even/ if I present no evidence that the bugs in question are actually important to anyone except me and /even/ if I don't offer any help in fixing them and /even/ if a significant fraction of the bugs have been fixed for months already, that's considered helpful? I'm not sure I agree. If anyone actually working on the product has requested wishlists then, by all means, produce them. But I'm having a hard time believing that /anyone/ has managed to miss the fact that some people want all their email in a single folder. Since I'm subscribed to the bug asking for a different default behavior for the 'get all messages' button, I'm pretty sure people contributing code are aware of that issue too. I will concede that spamming Mozillazine with RFE lists is less irrittaing than doing the same in bugzilla. And what kind of value have you added to this discussion other than making it into a Slashdot-like flamewar? I see no harm in that post - it is just his own personal opinion on what would make Thunderbird perfect - where exactly do he demand them to be fixed? That's right, he doesn't. If I were a Thunderbird developer trying to make the best mail application available, I would be happy to get a nice list of what other people consider important. Lists of bugs are probably a lot better than votes in bugzilla, because you get a better idea of what the user is thinking (you get a coherent mental model). When the user combines it with a description of how they actually use the app, that kind of data can be gold to a UI/app designer. (assuming you have more than 1 data point.) What part of 'public website' did you fail to understand? The concept of 'personal opinions' doesn't make much sense on a public website; if we're expected to ignore the opinions (because it's personal) why bother posting in the first place? If we're not supposed to ignore the opinions, then it's just another person trying to get special attention for their pet peeves. -- Yes, I'm making as much sense as you did. Now chill out and next time try engaging your brain before your keyboard, On the subject of pledge website - it has been discussed, and it was concluded that it wasn't really practical, particularly not for the Foundation, as they could easily find themselves with conflicts of interest over what should be fixed and which changes should be accepted. However, there's nothing to stop third parties doing it, and there are a couple of sites set up where you can pledge money for bug fixes. There are links to them if you search the Mozillazine archives. What about giving people who donate to the foundation more "points" to use to vote for bugs? I'm not saying this would work or not, or that it would necessarily be a good idea, just something I thought I'd throw out there. "bug 22112 - UI: Icons should show state of mail" I don't understand why this one is a problem. Thunderbird seems to display the state of the email just fine for me (new and unread, unread, read, replied to, forwarded, and replied and forwarded). Is it just the theme you are using? Is there something I am missing in the bug report? "bug ??? - Marking message as unread doesn't change icon back to unread (fixed in TB 0.6 but not in the suite)" Well, if it isn't fixed in the suite then it should not matter for this release of TB, right? > UI: Icons should show state of mail Yea, fixed in TB, didn't check, sry sry. > "bug ??? - Marking message as unread doesn't change icon back to unread (fixed in TB 0.6 but not in the suite)" > Well, if it isn't fixed in the suite then it should not matter for this release of TB, right? Yea well, but I'm still addicted to the suite, cut me some slack ;P One little bugger I forgot to mention earlier (compliments of OE again): bug ??? - RFE: MailNews: Can't change between HTML and plain text on message compose Also, I'd suggest changing the default behavior of: IMAP account settings -> Server Settings -> Advanced -> Maximum number of server connections to cache from 5 to 1, because over high latency link (like 250+ ms) it may give the initial impression of TB/MN as sluggish with IMAP. I bet there's a historic reason for having the default 5. This might be out of line, or maybe this was better put in some forum, but it sure points people like me to some good old bugs, just before I have to reinvent the bug wheel again so thanks Tar! ON STARTING: the procedure entry point ?StringAllocator_wchar_t@@YAAV?$nsStringAllocator@G@@XZ could not be located in the dynamic link library xpcom.dll. AND THE ABOUT: Help -> Mozilla Thunderbird -> version 0.5 (20040502) Since the About dialog seems to show 0.6 for me (and doesn't have that problem at start up), things are pointing towards you're installing 0.6 on top of 0.5. Try not to and see if it fixes things. :) The new icon looks very nice! But for me, at least in the 16x16 size, is not as recognizeable as a mail-application-icon as the old one, mainly because the envelope is quite small. At bigger sizes there is no problem though. But unfortunately in windoze quicklaunch the size is 16x16, and especially if you have the Fx icon next to it, both look kind of, well not similar, but let's call it unspecific. Well but I guess this is just a problem because it's new, and I'm not yet used to the new look. Great work that new icon! Agreed. The guy who designed them (Jon Hicks) said on his blog that he is now going to go back and work on the smaller icons for both of them. He wants to make them more recognizable at 16x16. Should be good. Glad to hear they are being worked on. I love the big icon, big size, literally love it. But the small 16x16 icon looks like something completely different. In fact, it looks like the head of a fantasy witch with blue hair. I would be on favor of changing a little the 16x16 versions of both firefox and thunderbird . I would have these be the world with a fox head in the bottom right corner (firefox) and the envelope with the bird's head in the bottom right corner. Anyway... I do love the big icons and I dont want to sound as if I am complaining or anything like that, just making possible improvement suggestions for the 16x16 icons. Just as my title says... Even knowing that it's a blue bird sitting on an envelope, my brain reads the icon as a something wearing a bad Elvis-style toupee, as drawn by a cartoonist who uses blue to indicate black hair. Maybe make the envelope smaller so it's held between the tips of the bird's wings - that would be a lot better. Arielle Yearh, very nice work - the new icons for both Thunderbird and Firefox are excellent! Thunderbird 0.6 has been working great for me so far (no surprise there). I'm currently retraining my spam filter and it's already catching a lot of spam and I know it'll only get better :) Thanks to every mozilla dev. for producing such excellent products! I really would like to try it. I found tool for importing but not for Mozilla mail. That's very weird. It's like welcome others to convert, but not encourage family. I found other web site mentoined how to convert existing Mozilla profile manually, but I really think it should have an import tool for Mozilla. Hello, I have recently translated Thunderbird 0.5 to Catalan and I used available jar files (en-US.jar, US.jar, en-win.jar, en-mac.jar, en-unix.jar) with MozillaTranslator for this purpose. These jar files where available with the Linux stable build. I noticed that Windows builds had already en-US-mail.jar (en-US.jar + US.jar) and en-win.jar files. Now I have seen that even Linux builds have only en-US-mail.jar + en-unix.jar. This complicates the work of translator a bit since we have to gather all the necessary jar first, adapt it to MozillaTranslator, etc. Will this be the definitive way? Thanks. The worst point is that it is impossible for me opening dmg MacOS X files :-( 0.6 works fantastic! Migration from 0.5 was easy. great work, devs. Thunderbird on the Mac is fantastic! So far, I am quite happy switching from mail.app. It's amazing that even as similar as Thunderbird is to Mozilla Mail, Thundersbird is so, so much better. It's incredible how much better things can be made when there is focus. Does v0.6 now work with M$ Exchange 2003 via IMAP without a problem? This is what kept me from using Thunderbird for emails. Zook I noticed the newest Mac nightly build (5/23) has removed the icon bounce notification from the preferences. Do you think that is permanent? Also, does anyone know a way to get the Mac custom wav sound to work, or any other workaround to get it to play a different sound than the system sound. Guy |