Mozilla updated its nearly-baked Thunderbird 3 Tuesday night, fixing one critical error and addressing three others. The critical bug fix affects the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of Thunderbird 3 Release Candidate 2. It had caused the previous version to hang on shutdown, consume too much memory, and close all IMAP connections.
The other fixes in this version enable downloading new messages automatically by default for POP3 accounts, label the default theme as version 2.0, and fixes the "download more dictionaries" option, which had been failing to open properly.
Already a year off from its original release schedule, Thunderbird 3 has also missed its most recent revised deadline, which had been planned for the end of November 2009. However, I've been using the beta and release candidate builds and have found them to be as stable as Thunderbird 2, but with far less memory hogging.
Microsoft has failed to remove a long-recognized Windows Explorer security risk from Windows 7, according to security company F-Secure.
The "hide extensions" feature, which was present in Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista, is also included in the Windows 7 release candidate, Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's chief research officer, said Tuesday in a blog. The feature could allow virus writers to trick users into opening and running malicious files, he added.
"In Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista, Explorer used to hide extensions for known file types," Hypponen said. "And virus writers used this 'feature' to make people mistake executables for stuff such as document files."
For example, malicious code writers could name a "virus.exe" file as "virus.txt.exe" or "virus.jpg.exe," he said. Windows Explorer would then hide the .exe part of the filename, meaning that the user would only see "virus.txt" or "virus.jpg." Additionally, virus writers could change the icon displayed with the file in Windows Explorer so it looks like the icon of a text file or an image. Users might then click on the disguised file.
The blog post appeared on the same day that Microsoft had been scheduled to make the Windows 7 RC1 available for download to the public, although the OS release did in fact arrive early. Microsoft made its Windows 7 release candidate available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers Thursday. Microsoft hasn't yet given a release date for the final product.
Microsoft had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UKreported from London.
The Ubuntu project has published a release candidate, or final testing version, for the upcoming 9.04 version of its popular Linux distribution.
"We consider this release candidate to be complete, stable and suitable for testing by any user," Ubuntu developer Steve Langasek said late Thursday in an e-mail.
When release candidates prove stable, they sometimes end up being final production versions, although Ubuntu 9.04 still has a small number of bugs to be fixed. The software, nicknamed Jaunty Jackalope, can be downloaded from Ubuntu's site.
For this release, the project has focused on faster boot speeds and a new desktop notification system. The server version of Ubuntu 9.04 has focused on integration with cloud computing (for example, integration with Amazon.com services) and a more integrated mail server stack based on the postfix and packages.
The 9.04 release of Ubuntu also integrates the Netbook Remix software, which makes Ubuntu easier to use on the popular low-powered laptops that have come to be known as Netbooks. Ubuntu 9.04 is known to work on Asus' Eee PC 900, Acer's Aspire One, and Dell's Mini 9 devices.
Ubuntu 9.04 is scheduled to be released on April 23 and will be supported for 18 months.
Renai LeMay of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.
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