OStatic

Beta 3 of version 3.0 of Mozilla's Thunderbird open source e-mail application is now available for download, for Windows, the Mac and Linux. You can get it here, although it's still classified as for testing purposes only. There are also release notes, and a list of known issues available. Version 3.0 is a major upgrade, and has been in the works for more than a year. Here are some of the enhancements.

Want to take a very early peek at themes for Mozilla's Firefox 3.7 browser? Initial Windows theme mockups for it are now available for viewing via Mozilla Wiki. The mockups come very early in the Firefox 3.7 development cycle and aren't final, but they provide glimpses of the kinds of interface implementations that Mozilla will probably pursue. Version 3.7 is slated to arrive next spring, and here are some of the things Mozilla is working on.

Recently, we covered Mozilla's overhauled version of Jetpack, which is designed to make it easy for almost anyone to create Firefox extensions. Jetpack is one of several initiatives from Mozilla focused on the main advantage that Firefox has over other browers: the huge ecosystem of outstanding add-ons. Today, Mozilla's Firefox Add-Ons Lead Nick Nguyen and his team have announced the Contributions Pilot Program. It's a way for developers to better showcase themselves next to their Add-ons, as well as be eligible to receive a suggested contribution for their work through PayPal.

In May and June, we covered Mozilla's Jetpack, which is an API and framework designed to make building extensions for Firefox easier and faster. It won't require extensions to be written in XUL, and will allow developers to use standard technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Notably, Jetpack will also allow Firefox users to load extensions without annoying browser restarts, and will resolve compatibility issues between older extensions and newer versions of Firefox. Over the weekend, Mozilla announced a 0.3 update to Jetpack, downloadable now, and provided some information on how the project is moving along.

As Kristin covered in April, the upcoming OSCON conference will be immediately preceded by an unconference called the Community Leadership Summit, to take place July 18th and 19th in San Jose, California. The event is free for anyone to attend, although if you're planning to attend you should pre-register. There are some scheduled presentations, panel discussions, and social gatherings planned, but much of the event will consist of free-form discussion on what it takes to build a thriving, productive community around an open source project. More details are emerging on the participants, and it looks like a solid event.

Ubiquity, the extension that adds command line functionality to the Firefox browser, got a major upgrade this week. Ubiquity 0.5 supports a bunch of new languages and drops the need to use hyphens in commands. The development team is also experimenting with smart suggestions, a feature that lets Ubiquity make educated guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar data.

The good news is Ubiquity 0.5 adds nice features and updates to this handy tool. The bad news is that it breaks compatibility with third-party commands. That is sure to cause headaches and workflow problems for some of Ubiquity's 400,000 users. Fortunately, Mozilla has a plan.

You may already have the new Firefox 3.5 browser, but now, courtesy of the folks at PortableApps, you can get the portable version of Firefox 3.5 as well. It's downloadable here, and, like the other portable versions of popular open source applications that PortableApps offers, it's perfect as a lightweight app that you can keep on a USB thumb drive or other portable device. ?It comes bundled with a PortableApps launcher, so you can launch it directly from a USB thumb drive and have Firefox available with your customizations no matter where you are.

Now that Firefox 3.5 has been released, you may be interested in customizing your experience with it, and learning more about the many new features available in it. Here are over five good resources worth spending some time with if you want to get the most out of what I consider to be the best, most extensible browser.