With the release of Thunderbird 78.0 a few weeks ago, the developers cut off some old braids. The encryption solution, which was previously available as a plug-in, has been integrated into Thunderbird. In addition, only extensions are compatible with Thunderbird 78, which correspond to Mozilla’s standard.
Thunderbird Closes The Security Vulnerabilities
Thunderbird followed two weeks later, closing ten security gaps in its predecessor and introducing new functions in terms of key handling. Automatic updates from the predecessor Thunderbird to version 78 were switched off because it should be tested further. Automatic updates have been announced for Thunderbird.
Manual Downloads Only
Thunderbird 78 has been available for download on Thunderbird website since yesterday. Users who want to upgrade from the older version still have to use the manual download method, only those who have already installed the new version will be automatically updated.
Further Tests Are Necessary
In the announcement of the new version, the developers still advise users against using Thunderbird 78. Even if the implementation in the Thunderbird core is now viewed as a feature complete, equipped with all the planned functions, further tests should initially guarantee stability. Thus, it is deactivated by default as well. Users who want to continue using Thunderbird as a plugin can stay with Thunderbird for a while, where it will be supported at least until the end of the year.
The PGP Plug In Is Not Available For Thunderbird 78.0
Because of the recently integrated support of PGP, it is actually not needed either, but the functions are not identical. Thunderbird does not support downgrades. If you want to try version 78 for a test, you should save your user profile before the update. To downgrade the backup, it can be set as a profile in a newly installed Thunderbird.
