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Take a look at the The first alpha release of Thunderbird 3, the open source mail client built on the Gecko rendering engine which is now open for developer preview. The Mozilla Messaging team has named this release “Shredder a”1 to signify that this release is early, buggy and should NOT be used in a production environment.

Thunderbird development community aims to release the first alpha of Thunderbird 3 next month. Plans began to take shape yesterday during the very first Thunderbird weekly status call meeting, at which developers discussed potential features and other issues of relevance. Early plans for Thunderbird 3 first emerged last month when the Mozilla Foundation announced the official launch of Mozilla Messaging, a new subsidiary that will focus on communication software. This alpha release is primarily intended to let Thunderbird fans know that the project is alive and well and the team is working hard on the next version of the open source

e-mail client. Shredder Alpha 1 builds on the Gecko 1.9 platform which also provides the underpinnings for Firefox 3. The primary goal of the recently released alpha version is to discover to what extent the platform will cooperate gracefully with Thunderbird. Thunderbird 3 will use Gecko 1.9, a new version of the rendering engine that serves as the foundation for the Mozilla platform. Gecko 1.9, which has also been instrumental in the making of Firefox 3, offers a number of very significant improvements, including a new Cairo-based rendering backend and support for JavaScript 1.8. Improving the Thunderbird user interface is another very high priority for version 3.

Plans include a visual refresh and refactoring the configuration interface to improve basic usability and support for calendaring are the two killer features that will make Thunderbird a success. Resolving usability problems with the configuration system is one way that he thinks Thunderbird could be made more accommodating for new users.

The most interesting-looking feature that is part of this alpha release is the ability to open messages in tabs, which looks like a fantastic way to keep frequently needed messages easily at hand. There are some other new enhancements, too, like a new add-ons manager similar to the one found in Firefox 3, and a much-improved search tool for finding text within messages.

Again, be aware that this is a developer preview and is certainly not ready for prime time. If you feel ready to give the newest alpha a try, you can download it for your platform of choice here.