FT Chronicle

More than 2.5 years since version 2.0 arrived; Mozilla hasss finally announced the latest version of its free and open source email application, the Thunderbird 3.

Available in over 49 languages and works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, Thunderbird 3 has more than 2,000 improvements including new tabbed email, a radical new search engine, built-in message archiving and smart folders.

The free Outlook alternative offers a lot in its new version, including a tabbed interface, a completely revamped search and a filtering tool that allows you to narrow things down even further. It also adds an email setup tool that’ll import most accounts – web and regular – with relative ease.

The idea is to transfer the speed, interface, reliability and customisation possibilities of Firefox into an email client. It’s a free download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and it’s available right now from Mozilla. Grab it, and let us know what you think in the comments.

The new features in Thunderbird 3 help users work faster while providing the advanced flexibility and security they are accustomed to with all versions of Thunderbird.