Thunderbird 78.x Major Update is now available for download

silversurfer

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Here is the list of things changed in Thunderbird 78.8.1:
  • If previously received mail was unread, new mail notifications did not occur.
  • The client did not remember the folder that multiple attachments were saved to.
  • Opening messages from the command line failed under certain circumstances.
  • Several account related fixes:
    • Provider email and display name were not used during automatic account setup.
    • New identities were not listed in the account manager until it was closed and reopened.
    • UTF-8 data was not handled properly by the account provisioner.
  • The copying of a large message to an IMAP server would display a time-out error prematurely sometimes.
  • Several OpenPGP related fixes:
    • Several fixes for issues when importing keys.
    • Content-Description was not set for outgoing emails with public keys attached to them.
  • CardDAV sync errors were stuck and not retried until Thunderbird was restarted.
  • Several Calendar related fixes:
    • Changing the cache mode of CalDAV calendars would cause the username of the account to be lost.
    • Add-on calendars were not visible after restarting sometimes.
    • Previews of recurring tasks were not using all available space in dialog windows.
  • The option to keep the distribution directory of the installer on upgrade was not working.
You can check out the entire release notes of Thunderbird 78.8.1 here.
 

silversurfer

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silversurfer

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Thunderbird 78.9.9 fixes five security issues with severity ratings of high and moderate. High is the second highest rating after critical.
  • CVE-2021-23981: Texture upload into an unbound backing buffer resulted in an out-of-bound read (HIGH)
  • MOZ-2021-0002: Angle graphics library out of date (HIGH)
  • CVE-2021-23987: Memory safety bugs fixed in Thunderbird 78.9 (HIGH)
  • CVE-2021-23982: Internal network hosts could have been probed by a malicious webpage (MODERATE)
  • CVE-2021-23984: Malicious extensions could have spoofed popup information (MODERATE)
The remaining changes in the new Thunderbird version address various issues of previous client versions. The notification system got another fix in this release as it happened that old unread messages were displayed by it repeatedly during new mail events. Thunderbird users who use the integrated calendar may have noticed that it was not possible to remove recurring tasks; this has been fixed in Thunderbird 78.9.0 as well.

The address book received three fixes:
  • The synchronization of read-only Google address books via CardDAV failed in previous versions; this is fixed.
  • The importing of VCards with non-ASCII characters would fail; this is also fixed.
  • The synchronization from Google address books could result in some values not being parsed; fixed as well.
The new update addresses an encoding issue for messages with quoted-printable and format=flowed. The issue is fixed, but existing messages may display some words that are not separated by a space as a consequence.

Messages that contained an anchor tag with an invalid data URI failed automatically when the send button was activated.

The developers made several accessibility improvements: some fields in the preferences were not readable in dark theme mode, and the input focus was not moved to the new tab when switching tab. Both of these are addressed in Thunderbird 78.9.0.

The release notes list a single known issues. The fix for new mail notifications not showing if unread messages from previous notifications were still there, has been removed. The team is working on a resolution.
 

Templarware

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I'm curious, why some people still use an email client these days? Isn't the web client just safer and more practical?
 
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ErzCrz

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I'm curious, why some people still use an email client these days? Isn't the web client just safer and more practical?
Depends on the service. We use a basic IONOS email host and while it's reliable, the web version is clumsy and slow, particularly the search function so we use local clients. I use TB most of the time as WIndows Mail really lacks features.
 

ErzCrz

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Outlook desktop works so much better for work related tasks than Outlook on the web, especially with multiple accounts.
So, I use Outlook on my personal and work laptop.
Work has 365 but at home I only have the old 2013 version which is no longer supported so Thunderbird is my go to choice above Windows Mail :)

Good to see regular updates of TB.
 

shmu26

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I'm curious, why some people still use an email client these days? Isn't the web client just safer and more practical?
Safer, yes. More practical, that depends what you need to do. If you manage multiple mail accounts you probably will find a desktop email client more efficient. It is also more customizable and feature-rich.
 

Stopspying

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Safer, yes. More practical, that depends what you need to do. If you manage multiple mail accounts you probably will find a desktop email client more efficient. It is also more customizable and feature-rich.
Practicality is the reason why I use an email client for managing multiple accounts.
 

silversurfer

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Thunderbird 78.10.2 addresses two security issues in the client. Both are rated with a severity rating of low and only affect certain OpenPGP use cases according to the security advisories page.
Thunderbird 78.10.2 includes the following fixes and improvements next to that:
  • Fixed that OpenPGP messages with a compression ratio of over 10 could not be decrypted.
  • The parsing of some OpenPGP user IDs failed.
  • The selected OpenPGP was lost when the Key Properties dialog in the account settings was opened.
  • Improvements to "OpenPGP partial encryption reminders".
  • Fixed the troubleshooting information page on Mac OS as it did not display row labels.
  • The mail toolbar buttons were too big when icons and text was displayed.
 

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