Welcome to the progress report for October! If you missed the one for September, you’re in luck, because we always try to include a link to the progress report of the previous month in the introduction. Translations All the translations of the app are provided by volunteers from the community. This work is mostly independent from software development and design work. So sometimes it’s easy for us to forget that a lot more people regularly spend time working on the app. Dear translators, thank you for all the work you’re putting into making the app more accessible by translating it to so many ..read more

Auf Deutsch übersetzen Traducir al español Traduire en français Traduci in italiano 日本語に翻訳 Please join us for our upcoming Thunderbird community office hours on November 29, 2023 at 18:00 UTC! (Keep reading for joining information.) A New Era We are trying out a new format in this edition of the office hours. Previously, we had several sessions with no agenda. This was intended to provide an open forum for anyone to come and ask any questions, during a few different times. Since we have seen low engagement, we’re trying something new. The new office hours format will feature a key Thunderbi ..read more

Ryan Sipes, Product and Business Development Manager Hi, my name is Ryan Sipes and I run MZLA Technologies Corporation, the subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that develops Thunderbird. I have been working on Thunderbird for my day job since November of 2017. It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but looking at the calendar I see that it has been six years this month. A lot has happened in that time and Thunderbird is in a much different place than it was when I started. I’ve seen multiple people online share accounts of “the Thunderbird story,” and each time I’ve thought “that’s really great ..read more

If you have recently upgraded to Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” and noticed a smaller font size or a presentation that feels too compact, there might be an easy solution. You should be able to simply change the font from the app menu to achieve your ideal font setting by clicking the +/- to change the font size globally (see below). As the GIF above illustrates, here’s how to do it: Change the density to suit your taste: Click ≡ > Density. Then click “Relaxed” to increase the size of UI elements in Thunderbird or click “Compact” to decrease the size. Change the font size to suit your needs ..read more

As part of our continuing efforts to strengthen the security of Thunderbird, a change was made in version 115.0 that rejects the use of the SHA-1 algorithm in digital signatures of S/MIME emails. The SHA-1 algorithm is nowadays considered insecure in most contexts, which includes digital signatures, as explained in the related Wikipedia article. Because of the change in Thunderbird 115,  when an affected message is displayed, an invalid signature will be reported. You can spot such messages by looking at the message source, and search for the text micalg= in the message headers. If it is ..read more

Welcome back to your monthly K-9 Mail update! The previous month ended with Mozilla’s All-Hands event in Montreal, Canada. While I used this opportunity for a three weeks long vacation in Canada (it was great, see picture below), Wolf went back to work on your favorite mobile email client as it transforms into Thunderbird for Android. Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada | Photo credit: cketti Improved account setup Wolf continued to work on the new and improved account setup code. This mostly involved fixing bugs and improving the internal architecture, so the code will be easier to ma ..read more

Recently, the Thunderbird team became aware of some ransomware masquerading as Thunderbird. There are several ransomware groups that run ads in an attempt to trick people into downloading and installing fake software, which pretends to be other software, e.g. Thunderbird. Remember that the Thunderbird project doesn’t require payments for downloading the Thunderbird software (although you may see a donation request when downloading from thunderbird.net), so if you are being demanded for payment for a properly working Thunderbird, something is surely wrong with the package you are downloading ..read more

The Thunderbird team is a remote-first, globally distributed group, so it made perfect sense to devote an episode to Remote Work! Join Heather, Chris, and Jason for some useful tips and tricks to make your daily remote work more enjoyable and more productive. We also include tips from ThunderCast listeners Pedro and Mike, who emailed us at podcast@thunderbird.net. (You can do the same if something’s on your mind.) Plus: An inside look at the upcoming Thunderbird Send service, some fascinating origin stories, and geeky Raspberry Pi solutions for weather and BBQ. Listen to this episode on Pee ..read more

A Quiet Yet Productive Month August was a relatively calm month for the K-9 Mail team, with many taking well-deserved summer vacations and attending our first Mozilla All-Hands event. Despite the quieter pace, we managed to hit a significant milestone on our journey to Thunderbird for Android: the beta release of our new account setup interface. Beta Release with New Account Setup: We Want Your Feedback! We’re thrilled to announce that we rolled out a beta version featuring the new account setup UI. This has been a long-awaited feature, and even though the team was partially on vacation, we m ..read more

The Thunderbird team is back from Mozilla’s All-Hands event, and we’re overwhelmed in the most positive way. In addition to the happy and positive vibes we’re feeling from meeting our colleagues in person for the first time, we have a lot of thoughts and impressions to share. Ryan, Jason, and Alex talk about how Mozilla is building AI tools for the good of humanity, and how our perception of AI has changed dramatically. Plus, the problem with the “hey Mozilla, just build a browser” argument. Today’s episode is light on actual Thunderbird talk, and more focused on Mozilla as an organization a ..read more