Mozilla's Thunderbird 1.5 takes flight

Mozilla released on Thursday its updated e-mail application, Thunderbird 1.5, which is designed to deliver improved security and functionality.

Thunderbird 1.5, which can be downloaded for free, has been retooled to offer improvements in four main areas: updates, security, RSS and podcasting.

"Thunderbird enhances the overall e-mail experience, adding antiphishing capabilities to help keep people safer, while also integrating and simplifying access to new technologies, such as RSS," Christopher Beard, Mozilla's vice president of products, said in a statement.

The e-mail client also features automated updates, designed to download security and product upgrades to people's systems and then to prompt them when ready for installation.

In another effort to bolster security, Thunderbird 1.5 is designed to push e-mail through a finer spam filter. Last fall, Mozilla released an update for its Thunderbird 1.0.7 that plugged several security holes.

Thunderbird 1.5 also aims to bolster its RSS support by letting people receive feed updates as e-mail messages. People can now access podcasts through a dialog box, which is tied to an application such as a Web browser or audio player.

Mozilla's new release also includes productivity enhancements, such as spellcheck as e-mail is being written and an ability to delete attachments from e-mail.

Thunderbird has been downloaded 18 million times since it debuted in December 2004, Mozilla said.

[ronaldl79]

Different face, same result.

Thunderbird is a decent client offering for e-mail. However, why re-invent the wheel? I like the approach Google has taken with e-mail by grouping messages as 'discussions' based on subject, something Mozilla should consider going forward.

Of course, there are tons of ideas on how e-mail can be improved upon. Let's start getting creative.

Ronald Lewis
www.ronaldlewis.com

[ronaldl79]

Different face, same result.

Thunderbird is a decent client offering for e-mail. However, why re-invent the wheel? I like the approach Google has taken with e-mail by grouping messages as 'discussions' based on subject, something Mozilla should consider going forward.

Of course, there are tons of ideas on how e-mail can be improved upon. Let's start getting creative.

Ronald Lewis
www.ronaldlewis.com

[ralfthedog]

Open source freaks

These open source freaks focus far to much attention on things like security and functionality. They should put more work into integrating there products into the operating systems and packaging.

Who wants to use a product that does not come with a holographic security seal? Does Thunderbird come with a PID? NO! They don't even use a little 5 or 6 digit code. How can we catch the software thieves when people like this keep giving the stuff away for free.

[ralfthedog]

Open source freaks

These open source freaks focus far to much attention on things like security and functionality. They should put more work into integrating there products into the operating systems and packaging.

Who wants to use a product that does not come with a holographic security seal? Does Thunderbird come with a PID? NO! They don't even use a little 5 or 6 digit code. How can we catch the software thieves when people like this keep giving the stuff away for free.