14 DAY TRIAL // The second and possibly the last release candidate of the upcoming Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 ‘Lanikai’ has arrived. Mozilla has issued Thunderbird 3.1 RC 2 as a testing release, which, should no previously unknown bugs show up, will become the final build of the latest version of the email client. RC 2 fixes a few bugs that made it through in the previous release candidate including a critical one on Mac.
“[T]he Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes several new features as well as improvements to performance, memory, password handling, and the upgrade process. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this release candidate,” the release announcement read.
“The Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 2 is now available for download. This milestone is focused on providing a preview of the functionality provided by the new features and changes that will be included in Thunderbird 3.1,” it added.
The Mozilla Messaging team has fixed a critical bug in the Mac version, which resulted in the client crashing repeatedly. A major one that affected all versions was also resolved. It prevented Thunderbird from respecting the Advanced IMAP Synchronization settings. Three more “normal” priority bugs were also fixed.
Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 is a small update to the eagerly-awaited third iteration of the email client, but comes with enough new features to make it an interesting upgrade. The biggest update, from a development point of view, is the adoption of the latest Gecko 1.9.2 now used in Firefox 3.6.
Some of the new features include a new Quick Filter toolbar, a new Migration Assistant, and a saved files manager. The quick filter enables users to sift through their messages with ease, faster than doing a regular search. Upgrading from Thunderbird 2 is also smoother thanks to a couple of improvements and fixes.
Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 2 for Windows is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 2 for Mac is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1 RC 2 for Linux is available for download here.