Thunderbird 3 RC2 Is Out, Fixes High CPU Usage Bug

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 03 Dec 2009

The Mozilla Foundation has recently released the first release candidate (RC) of its Thunderbird 3 email client – after going through a total of 4 Beta releases. Mozilla has now bumped Thunderbird 3 to RC2 (Release Candidate 2) and in the process it has solved a few problems that plagued the software.

It seems there was a bug that caused previous Thunderbird 3 versions to use too much CPU and memory, hang at shutdown and shut down IMAP connections. The RC2 release fixes this bug – and it also two other bugs. It fixes a bug that caused the "download more dictionaries" option to not open properly; and it enables downloading new messages automatically by default for POP3 accounts.

Here are some other enhancements you can expect to get from Thunderbird 3 RC2:
- New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
- New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
- New Mail Account Setup Wizard
- Redesigned Mail Toolbar
- Tabbed Email Messages
- Smart Folders
- New Message Summary View
- Column Headings
- Message Archive
- Activity Manager
- New Add-ons Manager
- Improved Address Book
- Improved Gmail Integration
- Integrated with Vista search results (Windows version only)
- Integrated with Spotlight (Mac OS X version only)
- Thunderbird 3 can import from Mail.app, can read your OS X address book, and can use Growl for new mail alerts (Mac OS X version only)
- IMAP Folder Synchronization

If you would like to get Thunderbird 3 RC2, a download location is available
here.

The software is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux users; it is available in 49 different languages. Please note that Thunderbird 3 RC2 has been released for testing and community feedback, so do not use it in a production environment.
We strongly suggest you take the time to read the Thunderbird 3 RC2 release notes as they present the software’s new features in greater detail. You should also read the list of known issues before you download and install the software.


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