Mozilla Messaging has reached the second milestone in Thunderbird 3 development (code named Shredder) with the release of Alpha 2.

Among the 264 bug fixes since Alpha 1 (released on May), Alpha 2 can import mail and settings from Mac OS Mail.app, as well as SSL and port settings from Outlook Express configuration on Windows. Faster IMAP delete and undo operations. A polished theme and use of the internal address book by default, provides better Mac OS X integration. An option to include only the selected text on replies should become a valuable time saver, like the new compact (purge) button available in the Customize Toolbar dialog.

Thunderbird 3 is based on the same Mozilla 1.9 platform code base as Firefox 3, so Windows versions previous to Windows 2000 are no longer supported. Tiger (10.4) is the minimum requirement for Mac OS X platforms.

Thunderbird 3 Alpha 2 release notes.

If you are using a Firefox nightly to browse the web, you (better) know you are walking on a minefield where a just landed patch can explode at any time taking some or all of your bookmarks, cookies or saved passwords with it. So, builds from the Firefox trunk (development code repository) are properly called Minefield. Its logo, a lit dynamite stick stuck into the globe, makes things even clearer.

With Thunderbird, if you go the nightlies way, you should know you are checking your email with a shredder: a bad move and it’s buh-bye to your beloved years-old mail archive. So it has been aptly named Shredder and now Mozilla Messaging is looking for a logo that reflects its risky nature.

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David Ascher, announced today the launch of Mozilla Messaging, Inc., a fully-owned Mozilla Foundation subsidiary (hence, sister of Mozilla Corporation) dedicated to advancing Internet messaging.

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