Thunderbird 128 “Nebula” released.

MZLA Technologies Corporation has released Thunderbird 128 “Nebula”. The new version of the open source email client brings some innovations.

New version available for download, update later

Thunderbird 128 is available for a short period Downloadable Ready. Automatic updates for Thunderbird 115 and earlier are not active at this time. Existing users will receive the new version in an upcoming update.

Extended Support Release, ESR

As for Thunderbird 128, we now read about what is called an extended support release, or ESR for short. This doesn’t change anything for the end user, as Thunderbird has been following Firefox’s so-called ESR model for years, which provides one feature update per year and only smaller updates in between, which primarily fix bugs and security holes.

The explicit reason for the ESR is that in the future (the exact start date is still unknown) there will also be monthly feature updates from Thunderbird on a new release channel, like the main release of Firefox. Existing Thunderbird 115 users have already been automatically migrated to the ESR branch and will continue to receive annual feature updates by default.

Rust programming language introduced

Rust is a programming language originally developed by Mozilla Research, which has now become an integral part of the developer world due to its advantages. Even if it does not lead to a clear improvement for the end user, this new capability promises higher quality and performance of the code. It also makes it possible to share parts of the code between Thunderbird desktop and future mobile versions (Android and iOS) of Thunderbird, which speeds up cross-platform development.

Improve map display

With Thunderbird 115, a new optional card view instead of table view was introduced for listing emails. Since Thunderbird 115.2.3, this has become the standard for new users. Thunderbird 128 improves the map view.

Improve folder selection

There have also been innovations in the folder selection in the left sidebar. In addition to further improvements, it is now also possible to select multiple folders at once.

Context menus have also been revised. Not only do they look more modern, they’re also slimmer. The context menu for messages has been given a row of icons at the top for quick access to important functions.

Use the operating system's distinctive colors

Thunderbird now more closely uses the OS's configured acceptance color, meaning Thunderbird integrates better with the user's system.

Native Notifications on Windows

Another topic of OS integration is notifications. Here Thunderbird now uses native Windows notifications that work properly within Windows. When you click on a notification, Thunderbird is now brought to the forefront and the corresponding message is opened.

Windows 7, Windows 8, macOS 10.12, macOS 10.13, and macOS 10.14 are no longer supported.

For users running one of the older operating systems Windows 7, Windows 8, macOS 10.12, macOS 10.13, or macOS 10.14, Thunderbird 115 is gone. Thunderbird 128 can no longer be started on the corresponding systems.

Other new features in Thunderbird 128

The default sorting of emails has been changed so that new messages now appear at the top.

If an individual color is assigned to an email account, this will now also be displayed in the sender field when sending emails.

The address book now also uses the modified map view look and the same toolbar concept that the mail component uses.

It is no longer possible to get a new email address from Mailfence or Gandi directly from Thunderbird. The import function for Becky! Internet Mail has also been removed.

These were just a small selection of the biggest highlights. Thunderbird 128 brings many innovations, improvements, and bug fixes. Release Notes (English) Providing a comprehensive overview of many small innovations.

Thunderbird 128.0.1

The first update has already been released with Thunderbird 128.0.1. Minor corrections It is implemented.

Coming soon: Microsoft Exchange support

Thunderbird 128 is not yet released, but initial support for Microsoft Exchange will be included in an upcoming update to Thunderbird 128. The initial release of Exchange support will remain limited to mail functionality.

Coming soon: Thunderbird sync

Another feature that will be introduced with the next Thunderbird 128 update is Thunderbird Sync, which allows configurations to be synchronized across devices.