14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla Thunderbird 5 has now been released. The latest update to the popular email client is built on the most recent Mozilla Gecko 5 rendering engine and comes with several new features, like a new add-on manager. It's also the fastest Thunderbird to date.
"Mozilla... released a new version of Mozilla Thunderbird, its free and open source email application for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Available in over 43 languages and based on the Mozilla Gecko 5 engine, the new Thunderbird delivers a faster and safer email experience," the official announcement read.
"The latest version of Thunderbird includes more than 390 improvements and performance enhancements that make Thunderbird more responsive, faster to start up and easier to use," the announcement added.
"Thunderbird delivers several improvements to some favorite features such as RSS feeds, Attachment management, and Tabs which can now be reordered and dragged into a new window," it said.
Thunderbird 5 also includes a new in-tab Add-on Manager, borrowed from Firefox 4. The new Add-on Manager expands the functionality of the one it's replacing, making it easier to search and find add-ons, something that most of the time required users to open a browser and download them manually.
The first Mozilla Thunderbird 5 beta landed early this month and the final version comes less than a week after the second beta release.
Mozilla has skipped a version number with Thunderbird 5, but this not just so it looks more advanced or to keep up with Firefox, it's because it is based on Gecko 5, the rendering engine powering Firefox 5. From now on, Thunderbird will get its version number from Gecko, same as Firefox.
The Mozilla Messaging team will also try to keep up with the six-week development cycle adopted by Firefox, though it had a tougher time adopting to the new schedule.
Mozilla Thunderbird 5 for Windows is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 5 for Mac is available for download here. Mozilla Thunderbird 5 for Linux is available for download here.