While not nearly as popular as its web browser cousin, Mozilla Thunderbird is nevertheless one of the most widely-used desktop email applications around. On June 28th 2011 Thunderbird 5 was released, packing nearly 400 performance and stability fixes, improved wizards and tab handling, and an an updated add-on manager like the one that debuted in Firefox 4. It’s also Thunderbird’s first rapid release version, so we’ll wait and see if some system administrators have the same beefs about long-term support and breakage with Thunderbird as they did with Firefox.
For now, however, there’s some additional good news for the Thunderbird team. Canonical has released the second alpha of Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, and one of the most significant changes is to its default applications. After a lengthy tenure as Ubuntu’s pre-installed email client, Evolution has been booted — replaced by Mozilla’s blue, avian postman. The switch comes at an interesting time, what with Mozilla’s own Asa Dotzler having recently aired a number of gripes against Thunderbird on his personal blog and announcing that he’d be switching to Postbox.
This isn’t the first such swap, as Canonical has been making several such changes in recent versions as it continues pushing for wider adoption among consumers. In Ubuntu 11.04, LibreOffice and Banshee were introduced. Ubuntu 10.04 brought Gwibber, Simple Scan, and the PiTiVi movie editor.
Evolution’s ousting is also the latest in Canonical’s moves away from Gnome, of which the app has been an official component since 2004. With Ubuntu’s hotly-contested shift to the Unity shell, Gnome applications like Empathy and Evolution have gradually been replaced.
Interestingly, as recently as the 2011 Ubuntu Developer Summit in Budapest it looked as though Evolution might retain its status. The tide quickly shifted, however, and Canonical’s developers are forging ahead with Thunderbird integration. Support for the Unity launcher and messaging menu is progressing nicely, and contact sync integration with Ubuntu One is also in the works.
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