Thunderbird Upgrade - Should I?

[Basil Chupin]

On 17/04/12 10:19, p.echols at comcast.net wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "NoOp" <glgxg at sbcglobal.net>
>> To: ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
>> Sent: Monday, April 16, 2012 11:11:15 AM
>> Subject: Re: Thunderbird Upgrade - Should I?
>> On 04/15/2012 06:25 AM, Graham Watkins wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm getting a nagging message on Thunderbird telling me to upgrade
>>> to
>>> the latest version as the one I'm using will soon no longer be
>>> supported. I've downloaded the tarball for 11.01 from Mozilla but I
>>> am
>>> filled with foreboding. Is it safe to install this over the top of
>>> my
>>> existing Thunderbird installation or am I likely to trash something
>>> and/or lose all my mail?
>>>
>>> Might it be safer to leave things alone until I decide to upgrade my
>>> entire system? I'm using Ubuntu 10.4.
>> ...
>>
>> Ubuntu are doing users a disservice by not upgrading Thunderbird:
>> <http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=thunderbird>
>>
>> Note that it is not only the 10.04 LTS that they've not upgraded, but
>> also natty (11.04 - which is still supported until October).
>>
>> Were I you I'd file a bug report and demand an upgrade as Mozilla
>> stopped all support (including security patches) for TB 3.1 this
>> month:
>>
>> <http://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2012/01/31/using-thunderbird-3-1-its-time-for-a-change/>
>> <https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/upgrading-thunderbird-31>
>>
> True, I'll sign up.  But until that works, and as Jarad points out in another reply, there is a PPA.  He suggests nightly, but seems to me the OP would want the current stable.  Here's a link.
> https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/thunderbird-stable
>
> For those insisting on the bleeding edge:
> https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa
>
> Cheers all,
>
> PE

I have to add this comment - about using "current stable [version]" of 
either Thunderbird or Firefox.

In all my years of using Nightlies - and I am right now using TB 13.0 
[EarlyBird] and FF 14.0 - I have yet to find any fault in these 
Nightlies which gave me really, really serious grief. Minor glitches 
perhaps on the VERY rare occasion, possibly 5 or 6 years ago, but so 
long ago that I do not remember what they were.

I religiously (well.....I have forgotten on some nights when I was 
feeling rather cocky :-( ) make a backup copy of .mozilla and 
.thunderbird (both 'hidden' directories) in my/your  /home directory to 
both an USB memory stick and also to my second HD which has a directory 
I call "/data". If something DOES go wrong - or even if I lose my whole 
system - I always have a copy of these 2 most important files.

Just to indicate why I treat the files in these 2 directories with 
reverence: I last used a Windows system 10 years or so ago. The contents 
of .mozilla and .thunderbird are the same as when I stopped using 
Windows. I took the daily backup of these directories and simply 
transferred them to the Linux system I started to use at that time.

Installing and using the Nightlies is simplicity itself. You don't have 
to be a rocket-scientist to do it; but you cannot be someone who cannot 
even tie your own shoe laces.

NoOp has already provided instructions on how to install and use the 
Nightlies in case you start to wonder on how to do it.

BC

-- 
There comes a time in the affairs of a man when he has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation.
                          W C Fields