14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla Messaging has just announced the availability of the latest Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 1. It is one of the last steps towards the final, stable release and comes with a long list of bug fixes and changes from the previous Thunderbird 3.1 Beta 2.
“Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 1, available now for download, is built on top of the Gecko 1.9.2 platform. While this milestone is considered to be stable, it is intended for developers and members of our testing community to use for evaluation and feedback. Users of this latest release version of Thunderbird should not expect all of their add-ons to work properly with this milestone,” Mozilla writes.
The developers have been hard at work and closed many of the remaining bugs from the latest beta. Several critical issues have been fixed as well. For a complete list of changes and bug fixes, you can check out the full bug list over at Mozilla’s Bugzilla bugtracker.
The main feature of the upcoming Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 is the update to the latest web rendering engine Gecko 1.9.2, which powers the recent Firefox 3.6 too. Other than that, there are several new features and improvements to make the update worthwhile.
Thunderbird 3.1 features a fresh Quick Filter Toolbar, which enables users to quickly go through their email archives, filtering the messages by keywords, tags, contacts, starred items and so on. The regular search feature is also faster, when indexing the messages, as well as when conducting a search.
A new Migration Assistant will be introduced in Thunderbird 3.1 to allow users still stuck with Thunderbird 2 to upgrade without losing their existing settings and feature set. There is a fresh Saved File Manger to enable users to keep track of the files they’ve downloaded. The Mail Account Setup Wizard has been improved with new data from hundreds of ISPs to make it as easy as possible to connect to an account. Overall performance and stability have also been improved in Thunderbird 3.1.
Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 1 for Windows is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 1 for Mac is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 1 for Linux is available for download here.