New features in Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8

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New features in Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8

July 24, 2004

Thunderbird 0.8 is shipping soon (July, according to the roadmap) and test builds have just been announced. Here’s the rundown of the new features you can expect to see.

RSS Integration

That’s right, RSS reading capability is going to be built into Thunderbird. This has not been turned on yet in the latest Thunderbird nightlies, though bugs are being reported (mostly by Scott, the Thunderbird lead) and fixed as can be seen from bugs 250963, 251242, 252496, 252483 and 252391. Apparently, it could look and function somewhat like Opera (see Opera RSS reader screenshot) - just speculation though. The “core” bug is bug 225158 - Thunderbird should act as an RSS/Atom newsreader, too. The roadmap promises this bug (or rather RFE) will be fixed for Thunderbird 0.8.

This promises to be a more typical news reader implementation than that that got into Firefox nightlies not too long ago (see RSS feed integration in Firefox). Most of the code is based off the Forumzilla extension, so if you want a preview of how it could look, grab and install Forumzilla.

Blocking remote images

Remote images in emails will also be blocked by default (this can be changed by going Tools -> Options -> Advanced and unchecking “Block loading of remote images in mail messages.”). This has 2 main uses: protecting your privacy just in case someone is looking over your shoulder (though one can only imagine what images are so private!), and preventing the remote request from being sent (thereby preventing spammers from being able to detect that your account is active).

Screenshot of blocked remote images in Thunderbird preview panel

Global Inbox for POP3 accounts

There will also be a single global inbox that you can use for storing messages from multiple POP3 accounts. This will come as an alternative to the current way POP3 accounts are handled - each POP3 account has it’s own inbox and folders.

The Global Inbox option will be given to you when you setup a new POP3 account:

Screenshot of Global Inbox option when setting up a new account

Get All Mail functionality

And yes! The much missed “Get All Mail” functionality will be in Thunderbird 0.8.

This is sorely missed especially by people migrating from Outlook Express and Outlook where there is a “Send and Receive” button.

Better quick search

The quick search box gets a small facelift. There is now a dropdown that allows you to specify the fields to perform the search on. Very handy when you want to search text in the message body especially - no need to open up a separate dialog box.

Screenshot of quick search box drop down

Wrapping up

Thunderbird 0.8 will also come with the usual bugfixes as well as Mozilla Suite Profile Migration and improved spell checker support. This is gearing up to be an excellent email client as more bugs get ironed out. I’ve switched. Have you?

Posted by Chu Yeow at July 24, 2004 SGT |

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| Category: Mozilla

29 Comments & TrackBacks ()

Hmm… I wonder whether I should read RSS/Atom: Firefox or Thunderbird?

Posted by: minghong on July 24, 2004 5pm

New features in Thunderbird 0.8
Cheah Chu Yeow has an excellent run-down of the new features in Thunderbird 0.8 (with screenshots), which is apparently due out shortly.

Posted by: Neil's World on July 24, 2004 5pm

Nuevas características en Thunderbird 0.8
En Redemption in a Blog publican hoy un review del nuevo Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 que se espera para dentro de poco, con un repaso imagen a imagen de las nuevas características. Entre lo mas destacado tenemos:

* Integración RSS y Atom (aún no s…

Posted by: Zootropo. Diario del mundo geek. on July 24, 2004 7pm

Excellent review Chu. I can’t wait to have a newsreader in Thunderbird. I just hope it’s as good as RSS Bandit. Maybe I’ll keep using RSS Bandit if they use the gecko browser for their integrated browser. There’s been talk about it. I keep hoping, I don’t like IE being in my newsreader. Well that, and I don’t like losing what I’ve read between work and home, but that would require a web based feed reader, and I don’t think I’m into that just yet.

Posted by: Dave on July 24, 2004 9pm

Dave, you really got to try Bloglines.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on July 24, 2004 9pm

thunderbird 0.8
su redemption è presente un articolo che parla di tutte le novità che troveremo su thunderbird 0.8. Finalmente si iniziano a vedere le features che me lo facevano passare in secondo piano paragonato ad eudora: la mancanza di una inbox unica per tutte l…

Posted by: Full(o)bloG on July 24, 2004 10pm

I really like TB a lot and it looks like the next release will be even better. But one thing I’m missing is integration with the OS X address book. Are there plans to implement this?

Posted by: daniel. on July 24, 2004 11pm

Dave: I agree with Cheah Chu Yeow, you really should check out Bloglines.

No matter how good a software based RSS client is, Bloglines just blows them away.

I have a little getting started guide on my site, not very professionally written, but will get you up and running.

Posted by: Dave M. on July 25, 2004 12am

RSS in Thunderbird 0.8
Cheah Chu Yeow (redemption in a blog) has an interesting article about the new inclusion of RSS aggregation in the upcoming Thunderbird 0.8 release. The RSS reader, based of Forumzilla, looks to be a typical feed reader, a lot like Opera’s RSS Reader …

Posted by: dot-totally.co.uk on July 25, 2004 12am

back from the dead
redemption in a blog has a great article up detailing the upcoming thunderbird 0.8 release. complete with pictures. details the new rss support, new global inbox, better remote image blocking, and (my personal favorite) the long-awaited ‘get all mess…

Posted by: ramblinations on July 25, 2004 12am

All right, I’ll take a quick peek into it. I do generally use my RSS to aggrigate news sites, far more than blogs, so the name is a little funny, but past that…lemme check it out…albiet I like that RSS Bandit is not only good, it’s open source, and in a language I use for work on a daily basis.

Posted by: Dave on July 25, 2004 1am

Looks good, but I’m more interested in FF1 ;)

PS. ‘ Remember personal info?’ doesn’t work, I have to type it in every page. FF0.9.

Posted by: The Wolf on July 25, 2004 1pm

Perhaps instead of ‘to protect your privacy…etc.’, it should say ‘Thunderbird has blocked remote images in this message. (Why?)’, and have ‘Why’ hyperlinked to something which explains why images are blocked. It could even have ‘To protect you from Spam, Thunderbird has blocked remote images in this message’

Posted by: Phill Bryant on July 25, 2004 2pm

Sunday Roundup
Here are some things that caught my eye this weekend: Kevin Smith did a series of voter awareness PSA’s for Comedy Central called “Declare Yourself.” Check out all the spots here. A new version of Mozilla Thunderbird, my favorite e-mail client, is bein…

Posted by: brendoman-dot-com on July 26, 2004 3am

RSS â Thunderbird 0.8
Îæèäàåòñÿ, ÷òî íîâàÿ âåðñèÿ Thunderbird áóäåò âêëþ÷àòü RSS-reader. Ïîäðîáíåå… Íà ñàìîì äåëå, åù¸ îäèí ïîâîä ïåðåéòè òóäà. Íî íå äëÿ ìåíÿ, êîíå÷íî. Outlook — áîëüøå, ÷åì ïî÷òîâûé êëèåíò….

Posted by: Áóäíè òðóäîãîëèêà on July 26, 2004 4am

Posted by: brendoman-dot-com on July 26, 2004 6am

I like the way the inboxes are setup, is there anyway I can keep them the way they are or is that a global change?

Posted by: Roberto J. Dohnert on July 26, 2004 10pm

Yup you can keep them the way they are. It’ll only go to the Global Inbox if you choose it that way.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on July 26, 2004 11pm

I agree -

integration with OS X system address book would be great and handy.
would like also thbe ability to import mailboxes[mbox] from other mail programs easily and in an automated way.

and the ability to have a globai inbox that indicates the account [sometimes it seems to be missing] and the possibility to leave the messages on server unless i specifically instruct TB to delete them.

Posted by: stefano on July 27, 2004 3am

also regarding attachments:

- it would be nice that attachments could be deleted from incoming messages. so i can save them to a folder and keep the mbox-es smaller in size.

- i miss the feature of mail.app that displays quicktime movies inline in the body of the message.

- encode attachments for windows / mac having the opportunity to strip the resource fork.

Posted by: stefano on July 27, 2004 3am

Loads of things happening!!
Lots of things have happened over the holidays, w.bloggar went into version 4 beta testing, although this is quite long…

Posted by: Ed's Blog on July 27, 2004 7am

Thunderbird 0.8 Features
redemption in a blog: New features in Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 - Two of the things I am really looking forward to is the RSS integration and the get all mail functionality. I can’t wait!…

Posted by: Koldark's Komputer World on July 27, 2004 11am

Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 Features
http://blog.codefront.net/archives/2004/07/24/ new_features_in_mozilla_thunderbird_08.php

Posted by: flex-mx on July 28, 2004 11pm

RSS integration coming to Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8
An article “New features in Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8″ [source: redemption in a blog] says:RSS Integration

That’s right, RSS reading capability is going to be built into Thunderbird. Apparently, it could look and function somewhat like Opera (see Oper…

Posted by: captsolo weblog on July 31, 2004 6pm

Pronto pronto… Thunderbird 0.8
No recuerdo ahora cómo llegué hasta Zootropo, pero lo importante es que desde ahí llegué a redemption in a blog, hala, otro para mis bookmarks (qué haría yo sin ellos…) donde adelantan las nuevas características que traerá Thunderbird 0.8, muy intere…

Posted by: Chavalina. Diario on August 4, 2004 6am

i want to know about the core of the thunderbird
can u tell about that?

Posted by: roshan on September 17, 2004 2pm

Does Mozilla block unsafe attachments…this is probably not so important in linux but still is something that is needed. OE on XP SP 2 does an excellent job of this in the windows world.

Posted by: Shawn on September 29, 2004 8am

TBird Version 0.8 - Windows XP Home - SP2

In the following, you say “Tools -> Options”
I have only “Tools -> Internet Options”
How do I unblock?

Blocking remote images
Remote images in emails will also be blocked by default (this can be changed by going Tools -> Options -> Advanced and unchecking “Block loading of remote images in mail messages.”). This has 2 main uses:

[etc.]

Posted by: Bob Margulies on October 7, 2004 6am

Well, I think you should always have up to date email backups. I used to do it manually by saving the .dbx files when using Outlook Express, until I found http://www.amicutilities.com/outlook-express-backup/ - Outlook Express Backup Genie that does it automatically at regular times.

Then I swiched to Thunderbird, and Outlook Express Backup genie is able to back it up too!

I choused it over other because it can work with both MS Outlook and Outlook Express, Eudore, Thunderbird and other popular clients

Alicia

Posted by: Alicia on July 30, 2006 8am

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