Betterbird Blog

We get a quite a few support requests regarding the keyboard accessibility of the splitters in the compose window.

Finally, we wrote this support section about it.

After the preparations described in an earlier post, we've shipped Betterbird 140.3.0esr-bb11 today. Fingers crossed that there will be no issues which would make a replacing the release necessary^*). Please refer to the Release Notes for the full details.

Expert tip: You can always follow the Mozilla/Thunderbird ESR release schedule, which we mostly follow.

As of today, the 128 series has reached its end-of-life status. The 115 series hasn't been supported since February 2025, although some folks still use it as the last version that will run on Windows 7.

*): Update: there weren't. For the previous release 140.2.1, we did a "build2", not because the initial build had an issue, but to squeeze in another bugfix after the initial release.

Everyone in a while we're looking for new publications about Betterbird. We found this video, which stated the following (quote, 4m22s): It's what Thunderbird could have been if development moved faster and user feedback was (sic) prioritised.

And no, we didn't commission the video and we also don't know the guy and never had contact with him. Also, not all the good claims about Betterbird are true, apart from punctual changes, the performance should be the same as Thunderbird, however, some people start Betterbird on a new profile which may be faster.

We recently got a feature request to implement a CC column in the table view. Looking through Bugzilla, we found a few bugs in this field:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=522886 (from 2009) - implement "Recipients" column that shows all recipients (To, CC, and BCC)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=522885 - Wrong label: "Recipient" column must be labeled "To" as it doesn't show all recipients (missing headers: CC, BCC)
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=699588 - Message list: Implement missing (optional) columns for CC and BCC recipients (currently only column for TO recipients exists)

The Full Address Column add-on doesn't add a CC column, and the ColumnsWizard add-on has long been abandoned.

Please get in touch if you would like this feature to be implemented and if you want to pledge some funding.

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:

1. 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.
2. API for custom message list columns https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1615801 - Officially postponed
3. No Linux Movemail (*) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1802145 - Open
4. No Linux system tray support (*) https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1942125 and six friends - Open
5. 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.
6. Global message database - Promised for May (which year was it?) - Open
7. 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.

Thunderbird ESR releases (we don't watch their beta or release channels) are always a little drama of trial and error. This time their first build has some linting issues (the orange ES) and shows consistent test failures on all platforms (the orange bct7). No, this hasn't been PhotoShop'ed, you can see it here.

Today we made the first build of BB 140.3.0esr-bb11.

Featured fixes are:

• When a master password is used and the prompt is cancelled, the application will now be closed instead of prompting over and over. We picked up a complaint from a newsgroup. It fixes a bug that is six years old (from 2019) which hasn't seen any activity for two years (2023). It's only got 40 duplicates. Fun fact: The fix we're shipping is based on TB's own suggestion which they never completed.
• We got a few reports that calendar reminders didn't work reliably any more. After some investigations, we found out that the Thunderbird folks had fatally changed the default value of Show missed reminders for writable calendars, which led a reminders for future events not to be displayed if the application wasn't running at the time of the reminder, potentially leading to missed events. Their intention was to skip reminders for past events by default, but they threw out the baby with the bathwater. We fixed it by always showing reminders for future events, regardless of the setting.
• We were contacted by some heavy PGP users reporting that when importing public keys in bulk, the info panel didn't fit onto the screen and had no scrollbars. At times the oversized panel even led to crashes. We fixed it.

As always, the full details are in the Release Notes.

In this blog we'll keep you up to date about what's happening in the Betterbird Project. We'll also feature Betterbird features and bug fixes, and rant a bit about the Thunderbird folks.