by 
The wait is almost over for the long-anticipated Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” release as the Mozilla Thunderbird development team announced the release of the first beta version for public testing.
The Mozilla Thunderbird team teased us for some time now with their Thunderbird “Supernova” release (a.k.a. Thunderbird 115) that promised a revamped calendar and Firefox Sync support.
Now, users can finally take the Thunderbird 115 release for a test drive, but the first beta version only offers an updated user interface designed to be more modern and customizable, with code that is easier to maintain and improve.
Some of the changes in the updated UI include a new icon for display options, updated icons for the “Calendar”, “Tasks New”, and “Edit” tabs, new “Move To” and “Copy To” actions for the Folder context menu, as well as a new option to show tags in the Folder Pane meatball menu.
In addition to these small UI changes, Thunderbird 115 beta also comes with improved OpenPGP support that allows for user-defined OpenPGP passphrases, combined signing and encryption for OpenPGP messages by default, and the ability to open OpenPGP key manager’s context menu using keyboard shortcuts.
Of course, there are also various bug fixes that improve existing functionality, such as the ability to reorganize Newsgroups using drag and drop, the ability to correctly announce the Message List to screen readers when in unthreaded mode, as well as the ability to right-click on unselected messages in the Message List.
Some other smaller fixes are available in the release notes if you’re looking for something specific. Meanwhile, you can download and test the Thunderbird 115 beta release from the official website.
Keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, so don’t use it to replace your stable Thunderbird installation. The final release of Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” is expected sometime in July 2023, but no release date is set in stone at the moment of writing.
As for Firefox Sync, this long-anticipated feature didn’t make it in Thunderbird 115 beta and the devs said that it will be offered in a point release after the launch of Thunderbird 115.
Last updated 11 months ago
