Thunderbird 38, now with more Great Features

I’ve used Mozilla Thunderbird for years as one of my favorite email client. Compared to Microsoft Office Outlook, the main reason why I choose Mozilla Thunderbird is because it has a portable version which available to be downloaded from PortableApps.com. So I can bring it everywhere I go. It’s really a handy email app for me.

If you’re a Thunderbird user and has updated to the latest version, you may find out that within the latest Thunderbird 38 version, it has been packaged with the calendaring extension of LIGHTNING (a thunderbird extension to organize your schedule and events in a calendar which is fully integrated with Thunderbird email. Using this add-on you can manage multiple calendars, create daily to do list, invite friends to events, and subscribe to public calendars).

As explained in Mozilla Support website, the integration of Lightning into Thunderbird will give a big advantage for previous Lightning users, because a compatible version of Lightning is always available with Thunderbird. It is also a great opportunity for Thunderbird users that have not been using Lightning as it becomes easier to process emails that contain invitations.

The integration of Lightning into Thunderbird of course does not mean that you must use Lightning. After updated to the latest 38 version, you will soon find out the existence of a notification bar at the bottom of the Thunderbird window. You may further free to choose to disable Lightning or keep it for good.

Here is the list of new features within Thunderbird 38 :

• GMail supports OAuth2 authentication, removing the need to manually select “allow less secure applications” in Google options for the account
• Ship Lightning calendar addon with Thunderbird and enable with an opt-out dialog
• Filter sent messages
• Filter messages when archived
• Enable search in multiple/all address books
• Add support for Yahoo Messenger in Chat
• Support internationalized domain name URLs for RSS feeds
• Show expanded columns in folder pane
• Allow file-per-message (maildir) local message storage
• Add a learn more link to support page in feeds subscribe dialog
• Add reading position marker line to conversations
• The editor for twitter should show inputtable character count

So, if you have not prefer Thunderbird as your email client, you should give it a try and see by yourself how it helps you organizing your email and how it can faster your work done. Get the latest 38.1.0 version from Mozilla.org or the latest portable version from PortableApps.com (HRD).