Thunderbird 3 Released

[stormy13]

For those interested Thunderbird 3 has been released,

Thunderbird - It?s All Yours

Release Date: December 8, 2009

Thunderbird 3 Features:For an overview, please see Thunderbird 3 Features.

Thunderbird 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1.5 platform including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, web compatibility, and code simplification and sustainability.

 

[OaklawnM4M]

It installs and works well and very similar to Outlook.. there's even a sync addon that let's you get your google gmail contacts in it..

The downside is that if you need to synchronize it with "Lightning" (the Calendar System) as you did with the older version.. Don't hold your breath cuz it's busted..

For mail and contacts, you're cool.. but for calendars and reminders.. you're screwed.. Stick with Outlook instead.

 

[greeman]

"The downside is that if you need to synchronize it with "Lightning" (the Calendar System) as you did with the older version.. Don't hold your breath cuz it's busted..

For mail and contacts, you're cool.. but for calendars and reminders.. you're screwed.. Stick with Outlook instead."

Not sure what you are saying here. I am presently using Thunderbird 2 with the lightning calendar synchronized with google calendar. Are you saying that if I go to Thunderbird 3 that my calendar won't transfer? Or do you just mean transferring from Outlook is a problem?

 

[OaklawnM4M]

The lightning addon fails and complains about the version of Thunderbird... The full blow lightning download fails to complete configuration on Win7 to import from another account such as Google Calendar..

If you going to plan on upgrading.. make sure you have breadcrumbs in case you need to go back.

 

[reghakr]

I tried the beat, it sucks.

 

[greeman]

The lightning addon fails and complains about the version of Thunderbird... The full blow lightning download fails to complete configuration on Win7 to import from another account such as Google Calendar..

If you going to plan on upgrading.. make sure you have breadcrumbs in case you need to go back.

Thanks for the heads up. I will wait and upgrade once they get all the bugs worked out with the add ons.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I upgraded last night.

It did not go well.

I ended up with frozen screens, Thunderbird not responding, forced shutdowns, etc. I tried to back out of it with System Restore and that failed.

I thought I was going to have to restore an image of my entire hard drive, but at the last minute I found another way out. I had not been in a situation where I thought I was going to have to rely on an image in at least 5 years.

I had previously backed up my entire Thunderbird folder to another drive. Eventually, I was able to manually uninstall my older version of Thunderbird, clean out all registry entries, install 3.0 from the ground up, and then retrieve my mail and account info from my manual backup.

So, beware, if you just try to do an upgrade by running the exe.

 

[Barman58]

Latest Nightly Lighting build is compatible with TB 3x - am tied into outlook 2010 for live work so have not had chance to test things at this time but will try and set up some dummy accounts and data soon

 

[dmahar]

Thunderbird 3.0

I have been unable to find a decent mail program, after leaving Win XP. I have been using Thunderbird 2.0. which was adequate, but flawed. Yesterday Thunderbird 3.0 was made available for download. I loaded it right on top of 2.0, and my contacts were retained, and it is now a very good program, easy to set up, and the Text Size problem has apparently been successfully addressed.....Give it a try! I got it from mozilla com, no problems. dmahar

 

[greeman]

Well I spent some time yesterday and downloaded Thunderbird 3 on my laptop. It loaded and worked well (no lightning). I downloaded the last beta copy of Lightning and finally got the calendar working on TB3 (Great). The next step was to get the calendar synchronized with Google calendar. After a couple of hours of trying many different ways, I finally gave up, uninstalled TB3 and reinstalled TB2. I think I will like TB3, but only after someone gets everything to work with it. For now TB2 will do for me.

 

[OaklawnM4M]

Yeah same here.. I installed the Beta for Lightning and had the same problem trying to sync with my google calendar items. I tried for several hours and then finally just gave up and went back to use MS-Outlook instead.

Sadly though, I did notice that TB3 ran much faster than Outlook 2007 and was very well behaved. But now until I have a calendar/reminder alternative to use with TB3 I'll just have to wait. Since I run IMAP with my mail, I like the ability of running a full fledged program on my computer to manage things instead of having to rely on a web browser version of GMAIL. I can't count how many times I accidental closed a multi-tab chrome browser window forgetting I was composing an email message in the other tab and had to start all over again. TB3 would be ideal for this.. and syncing with the google contacts and calender would make it even easier/better than messing with Outlook 2007 issues.

Well I spent some time yesterday and downloaded Thunderbird 3 on my laptop. It loaded and worked well (no lightning). I downloaded the last beta copy of Lightning and finally got the calendar working on TB3 (Great). The next step was to get the calendar synchronized with Google calendar. After a couple of hours of trying many different ways, I finally gave up, uninstalled TB3 and reinstalled TB2. I think I will like TB3, but only after someone gets everything to work with it. For now TB2 will do for me.

 

[squid13]

Is Thunderbird compatible with Windows 7 64 bit. Can you use it on a 64 bit system, I don't care for Windows live mail or OutLook.

 

[Barman58]

Thunderbird 3 is a 32 bit application but runs fine (so far) on x64 systems

 

[squid13]

Guess I'll download it and give it a try.

 

[greeman]

According to information I found on another site there is a way to get the Lightning Calendar both installed on TB3 and synchronized with Google calendar. The nightly builds (from the link shown below) contain both the latest builds of Lightning and google calendar provider. I will give it a try if I get time this weekend. Excerpt from post I found cut and pasted below:

1. Go to the Mozilla calendar nightly builds (ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/calendar/lightning/nightly/latest-comm-1.9.1/win32-xpi/).
2. Right-click and select Save Link As… for both gdata-provider.xpi and lightning.xpi.
3. Open Thunderbird, then select Tools >> Add-ons.
4. Click Install, then navigate to where you saved lightning.xpi, select it and select Open.
5. Restart Thunderbird when prompted, then repeat step 4 for gdata-provider.xpi.

When Thunderbird restarts again, you’ll be prompted to enter your Google Calendar password, and then you’ll be in business.
One caution is that since the nightly builds are still in active development, you may run into issues.

 

[cb900f2]

Hey guys.. I am currently using WLM and like it but I dont like the fact that the contact maintance is not synced to my local WIN7 contacts (unless I am doing something wrong)..

Does the NEW TB3 contact list and maintance sync up with the local win7 contacts???

thanks guys..

 

[srq2625]

Is Thunderbird compatible with Windows 7 64 bit. Can you use it on a 64 bit system, I don't care for Windows live mail or OutLook.

64-Bit has been in Beta for a while under the name "Shredder". You can get a copy of RC 1 here. I've been running the 64-bit betas (started with 3, now on 4, will soon upgrade to RC1) for a while now and have had zero problems. But, then again, I'm not trying to integrate it with calendar tools or anything else - just using it as a mail client.

 

[bummpr]

HOWTO Thunderbird 3+Lightning+Google Cal


1 - Download Nightly Lightning builds for your O.S. at this page: Lightning - Download
2 - Install it in Thunderbird
3 - Add a new Calendar and choose the options "on the network" --> "CalDAV"
4 - Enter the location of your calendar

" https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS/events "

Done!


I have not tried this myself...yet.

 

[greeman]

A report back on getting TB3 installed with Lightning (and lightning synchronized with google calendar)

I installed TB3 over TB2 (worked fine). Then I installed Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar (from nightly builds). Lightning worked fine and synced with Google calendar fine. I did get errors when starting TB3 after syncing with google calendar, but all worked fine. I worked trying to get rid of the errors for a while but nothing worked.

The next morning I had a "flash", and decided to uninstall TB3. Then I deleted my TB Profile. Then I reloaded TB3, Lightning and Provider for Google calendar. That did the trick. All worked perfectly and all the error messages were gone. It appears that for everything to work well that is best to start with a fresh profile.

Anyway, Thunderbird 3 does work well with nightly build of Lightning and Provider for Google calendar. FYI