Brief Hands-On Report--Thunderbird 2.0 Final E-mail Client is Out

Thunderbird 2.0 is the latest version of the Mozilla Corporation's stand-alone e-mail client. This final version replaces the RC (release candidate) version released in early April but the build number 20070326 of the final and RC versions is the same. In addition, both disc images carry an April 5 creation date and are identical in size.

So what's New in Thunderbird 2?

• Message Tags: Create your own tags for organizing email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
  
• Visual Theme: Thunderbird 2's theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability and maximize screen real estate.
  
• Session History Navigation: Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.
  
• Advanced Folder Views: Customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.
  
• Easy Access to Popular Web Mail Services: Gmail and .Mac users can access their accounts in Thunderbird by simply providing their user names and passwords.
  
• Improved Support For Extensions: Extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database.
  
• Improved New Mail Notification Alerts: New mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message preview text.
  
• Folder Summary Popups: Mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder.
  
• Saved Search Folder Performance: Search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance.
  
• Find As You Type: Finds and highlights message text as you type.
  
• Improved Filing Tools: Recent folder menu items for moving and copying messages to recently used folders. Move / Copy again functionality.
  
• Updates to the Extension System: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
  

We have used this build of Thunderbird for two weeks without running into an issue. We like Thunderbird except for its handling of attachments, a feature in which Apple Mail excels. [Bill Fox]