The Mozilla Foundation has released the next version of it's e-mail software, Thunderbird, Version 1.5. Thunderbird is the e-mail companion program to the Firefox web browser, although it is not necessary to have if you use Firefox.
I am a satisfied user of Thunderbird and am happy to see the upgrade. As you may remember from about one year ago, my new desktop computer had difficulties with both Outlook 2000 and Outlook Express. The difficulty arose when I updated my new computer with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, before installing Outlook. Doing it this way apparently caused a problem with password retention and, as a result, neither of the two Microsoft e-mail programs would retain my e-mail password. I had to continually enter my password every time I checked my e-mail. Very annoying, to say the least.
I found the problem listed on Microsoft's web site, along with the possible solutions. None of them worked. So rather than spend hours and days continuing to work on the problem, I installed Thunderbird and have been a happy user ever since.
From what I have been able to ascertain, the majority of improvements in Thunderbird V1.5 are behind the scenes. The original versions apparently had several bugs, none of which I ever encountered. All these have been fixed.
There is one nice feature that has been added and that is the detection of possible phishing scams. The software will now detect and notify you of suspicious e-mails that may try to dupe you to give your private information to unsavory characters. I can't vouch that this works as I have not received one since upgrading to the new version.
It also has improved its built-in spam detection filters. The software learns what you consider to be junk mail and does a good job removing them from your in-box to a junk mail box. I have trained my junk filters over the last year and it seems to work quite well.
Another new improvement that mirrors the latest Firefox upgrade is that fixes and upgrades can now be downloaded automatically by the software so you don't have to keep checking the Mozilla web site. And like Firefox, there are several free ad-ons you can download (they are called extensions).
If you would like to learn more about Thunderbird and its extensions...or download the newest version (remember it is free) head over the the Mozilla website.
You can also read a pre-release review by eWeek magazine on their website, although please remember that e-Week reviews products more for enterprises, not for individuals. Still, they found it to be an excellent upgrade.
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