I've happily been using webmail for my modest needs, but I need a client to download my (full) webmail box. Is there any reason to not use the latest version of Thunderbird? Sometimes "the latest" can be a tad experimental. (I still use an ancient Firefox.) I don't need a lot of features, so if some earlier version is leaner, I'd be happy with that, if it's secure. Thanks for any wisdom.
Go with the latest. Thunderbird isn't experiencing those innovation pains. Mozilla has been walking Thunderbird to the door for a number of years. It went from active development including new features to security/stability updates, Thunderbird and Thunderbird ESR became one, and Mozilla has been actively looking for someone to take it over. FWIW, the last thing I saw on the subject was https://marksurman.commons.ca/2016/04/25/firefox-and-thunderbird-a-fork-in-the-road/.
I've been using TB since 1.0.5. Or 6. Right now it's 38.7.2. I blew off 38.8.0 as I don't trust any .0 release. I haven't yet researched 45.0.2. Lazy, I guess. As for the "leaner" factor, 38 is about as lean as 17. 45 most likely, too. The only problem I have with TB is there is no resident code to password protect and encrypt its local data. Your identity, accounts, mailboxes, your entire profile, are all in plain text. As I do considerable personal and business email (Who doesn't?), about 10 years ago I began to run Haller's Portable version in a TrueCrypt container. Now in VeraCrypt with a four digit PIM and a complex 14 character password. For backing up, on a routine basis I wrap VeraCrypt portable and the TB container in an encrypted ARC self-extracting executable for Google and Microsoft cloud storage. In a worst case scenario, theft or disaster, I could download the exe to a friend or family or new computer as if nothing ever happened to TB. IMHO, TB is the most usable, mature and free product in its class. There hasn't been any ESR labeled version since 17. The following versions 24, 31, 38 and now 45 are all of the ESR scheme. Even if TB development ceases altogether, whatever the latest version is at that point in time should continue to run just fine in future versions of Windows.
Some of my extensions no longer work starting with FF45 such as Ignore Aero. One of my favorites for which I haven't found an alternative yet, so I'm still at 38.8.0.
Yikes! at the ftp server, for 38.7.2, I get: Index of /pub/thunderbird/releases/38.7.2/ Type Name Size Last Modified Dir .. Dir contrib/ Dir linux-i686/ Dir linux-x86_64/ Dir mac/ Dir source/ Dir update/ Dir win32/ File KEY 4K 04-Apr-2016 16:48 File SHA512SUMS 241K 04-Apr-2016 16:48 File SHA512SUMS.asc 836 04-Apr-2016 16:48 Eh? I'm Win7. I suppose I just want win32/?
Yes, down in there. Then pick language (en-US for English-US) BTW: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/releases/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird/
Seeing the list of vulnerabilities, one might conclude "It's dangerous to use Thunderbird, and probably most other internet software."
FossaMail is a fork, or derivative, or whatever, of Thunderbird by the developer of PaleMoon. http://www.fossamail.org/ I'm happy with it after looking for an alternative to TB that wasn't maintained by Mozilla and had a chance of continued development. It has it's own version of the Lightning calendar also, which is the only add on I care about.
Thanks, I'll have a look. I wonder if using a version of Thunderbird other than the latest version would expose one to un-fixed vulnerabilities.
I sometimes wonder the same thing. Was using TB 2.0.0.24 until very recently when I upgraded to TB 3.1.2 - just for the sake of a nicer appearance and a couple of addons which needed min. v3 Portable versions, with which I was using the same profile across the whole time save for a couple of manual changes when I changed email providers. In all that time I never encountered an infection or malware compromise of any type due to the email client itself.
