Just for the information of the blog visitors.
Hello followers of the alternative Thunderbird mailing list!
Remember the list of 13 points sent in July 2024? Let's see what happened to them in TB 140 ESR:
- Menu on top (*) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1842493 - Open https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D183466 Quote: decided to make it possible to move the menubar inside the unified toolbar.
- API for custom message list columns https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1615801 - Officially postponed
- No Linux Movemail (*) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1802145 - Open
- No Linux system tray support (*) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1942125 and six friends - Open
- Account colours (*) Rather deficient implementation, you can now colour the server folder icon, and there is some indicator in the compose window. Nothing in the message list.
- Global message database - Promised for May (which year was it?) - Open
- Quick Filter still appearing slow, lacking feedback: Some poor solution implemented (*)
So of the 13 items, 7 are still open or the Thunderbird implementation is not sufficient.
As always, (*) means that this works (better) in Betterbird.
Instead of addressing long-standing deficiencies, the TB folks have released a new regression-bugged "Account Hub", most notable regression https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1975860 (disabled in Betterbird). This is the second re-implementation of account creation, the first reimplementation shipped in TB 78 (https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/78.0/releasenotes/). So that got re-implemented after five years, whereas many features have been missing or broken for 20 years.
Some resources are dedicated to re-writing Calendar code https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/planning/T97ab9d114e5cb10e-M065844f04535ba1cd8cdaac2, others to implementing access to MS Exchange servers via EWS. That might be ready to go in the next ESR release, TB 153, in mid-2026 just a few months before Microsoft will phase out EWS in October 2026.
Looking at the account hub and calendar implementation, one gets the impression that glossy changes are favoured over real functionality improvements.
Thanks for reading, Jörg.