Thanks to Ryan at CyberNet for this info. Mozilla has released a ‘Pre-Beta 1’ version of Thunderbird 2.0. Pre-Beta is kinda funky name, likely this is a release-candidate for Beta 1 since the install folder was Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0 Beta 1. Still hunting for release notes as well as an exact (other than mid-September) release date for the official ‘Beta 1’

There have been some changes since the last Alpha 1 Release back at the end of July. It looks as if Mozilla has given Thunderbird UI a bit of a visual refresh as well. First screenshot below shows the some of the newly designed buttons and icons.I like the new icon for the ‘Junk Folder’. Second screenshot is the new Options Window.

Click Image For Larger View

The New & Improved Options Window

I did notice a couple things when I installed this build and check my mail for the first time with it. First, the Notification Slider now gives the sender’s name, subject and 1st lines of the message, for all the messages that are downloaded during that particular ‘Get Mail’. This is an improvement over Outlook, which does not do the detailed slider when multiple e-mails come through on a ‘send and receive’. Now I wish Thunderbird would add the options like Outlook to delete the message or mark as read from the slider.

Second, the Buttons! extension, while it is compatible with this build, will cause problems with funky stuff appearing the bottom of the Thunderbird Window (see screenshot below). I don’t use this extension anyway, in fact I don’t really use many for Thunderbird.

Buttons! Extension breaks Thunderbird 2.0pb1
Click Image For Larger View