Thunderbird upgrade

[Arran]

Hello

I have no idea, where else to place my question.

I realised today, that the new Thunderbird 52.5.2 is already available since the second half of December. Why is this certainly very important upgrade not in the repos? I rely 100% on it for all my mailings and my calendar. So, I searched around for a ppa, which I did find and installed. But for this program, this is really a bad situation. I often remark that Kubuntu lags quite sometime behind other distros who use KDE. Usually, I do not mind very much as I do not need immediately the newest gags, but important security upgrades not immediately in the repos leaves a bad taste and a bit of uncertainity.

Kubuntu 14.04-5

[vinnywright]

well ,,,,first off thunderbird is not a Kubuntu specific application but rather an Ubuntu one that comes from

Maintainer: Ubuntu Mozilla Team <ubuntu-mozillateam@lists.ubuntu.com>

and they are packaging for the Ubuntu/Kubuntu version you are running .

and I think you can get it right hear ,,,,https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

You might try a single google search before laying blame on the Kubuntu devs. If you want a faster update before Ubuntu gets around to it, install this ppa;

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozill...ive/ubuntu/ppa

Thunderbird is not an Ubuntu program nor a Linux one, it is developed cross-platform and by the Mozilla Foundation. Many, if not most, Kubuntu users don't use it anyway.

[jglen490]

Hello

I have no idea, where else to place my question.

I realised today, that the new Thunderbird 52.5.2 is already available since the second half of December. Why is this certainly very important upgrade not in the repos? I rely 100% on it for all my mailings and my calendar. So, I searched around for a ppa, which I did find and installed. But for this program, this is really a bad situation. I often remark that Kubuntu lags quite sometime behind other distros who use KDE. Usually, I do not mind very much as I do not need immediately the newest gags, but important security upgrades not immediately in the repos leaves a bad taste and a bit of uncertainity.

Kubuntu 14.04-5

I am one of those Kubuntu users who has been using Thunderbird for years. I understand your concern about having the latest and greatest version available, and making use of the resources quoted by others in this thread is appropriate. However, I almost always wait for what shows up via Kubuntu and have never had a problem - securitywise.

[Qqmike]

jglen490: I am one of those Kubuntu users who has been using Thunderbird for years. ... I almost always wait for what shows up via Kubuntu and have never had a problem - securitywise.

Yep, ditto that -- same here for me.

[oshunluvr]

I am one of those Kubuntu users who has been using Thunderbird for years. I understand your concern about having the latest and greatest version available, and making use of the resources quoted by others in this thread is appropriate. However, I almost always wait for what shows up via Kubuntu and have never had a problem - securitywise.

Good comment and sound advice.

[TWPonKubuntu]

I too am a long time Thunderbird (TB) user and, at one time, did have a version from the Mozilla PPA rather than the repository. It was a pain to maintain and I reverted to the repository install.

I see nothing in the "bleeding edge" TB release which warrants its installation rather than the earlier (stable?) versions from the various Linux repositories.

I know it is hard to resist the call to "Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade" but there lie dragons too.

I do realize that, with the current flurry of kernel patches (NOT RELATED TO THUNDERBIRD), there is a heightened urge to move to the most current version of software... Some due diligence research is always necessary...

[jglen490]

It's always wise to update and upgrade, but have a plan. Bleeding edge is fun, but it is very easy to get ahead of yourself in some areas and end up with a less secure total mess. The *buntu bunch is usually done with a plan/plans in mind. Hiccups do happen, but so far I've stuck with them because of the results. I run Kubuntu on my home built desktop machine and have since around 6.x - ish. Very few problems. I was running Linux Mint 18.2 on my laptop, but was starting to have problems, so I moved to Lubuntu 16.04. Lubuntu isn't flashy, but so far so good on the much older Toshiba laptop. I can't tell anyone else what to do, but I appreciate stability and a plan that includes some of the fun, also.

Yes, kinda boring, but I require systems that work and are fairly predictable.

[TWPonKubuntu]

... I was running Linux Mint 18.2 on my laptop, but was starting to have problems, so I moved to Lubuntu 16.04. Lubuntu isn't flashy, but so far so good on the much older Toshiba laptop...

I'm running Linux Mint 18.3 on a Dell laptop, D820, 4GB ram. I have two hard drives, one with XFCE and the other with KDE DEs. I swap just to keep both updated and as backup. The HD slot on the laptop makes swapping into a simple 3 second operation, plus shutdown/bootup time. No problems found (crossed fingers, etc.).

These are both Ubuntu 16.04 based.

Whatever works on your systems.

[GreyGeek]

IF I were going to run "bleeding edge" I'd for sure run Btrfs so that I could roll back to an unbroken snapshot in under 3 minutes.

With all my P2P and Snap and Flatpak experimentation that is what I've been doing to clean up the detritus.

[WaltS48]

I too am a long time Thunderbird (TB) user and, at one time, did have a version from the Mozilla PPA rather than the repository. It was a pain to maintain and I reverted to the repository install.

I see nothing in the "bleeding edge" TB release which warrants its installation rather than the earlier (stable?) versions from the various Linux repositories.

I know it is hard to resist the call to "Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade" but there lie dragons too.

I do realize that, with the current flurry of kernel patches (NOT RELATED TO THUNDERBIRD), there is a heightened urge to move to the most current version of software... Some due diligence research is always necessary...

The fix for the security vulnerabilities isn't a good enough reason to update to the current release version, which the Thunderbird developers made the effort to provide so users would be protected? Ubuntu should have had this out long ago.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/securi...s/mfsa2017-30/

Now if you want a "bleeding edge" version try Thunderbird Daily 59.0a1.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderb...-comm-central/

[TWPonKubuntu]

With all due respect to the Ubuntu devs, I think they have their hands full with the BROWSER and CPU vulnerabilities (Meltdown and Spectre) right now. Thunderbird (TB) (at least the version in the repositories) is of lower priority due to the smaller number of people using it. I am one of those people and I'm less concerned about Thunderbird security.

Since anyone who really wants this TB fix can install directly to their /home folder Without using the repository version, this isn't a cause for serious complaint. I also keep in in mind that this is free software, a fact for which I am very grateful.

This is not a rant, just my view on priorities.

[WaltS48]

Well maybe Ubuntu doesn't support point release security updates for Thunderbird and will have the 52.6.0 version out soon. They did update Firefox to version 58.0.

Version 52.6.0, first offered to Release channel users on January 25, 2018

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/52.6.0/releasenotes/

[TWPonKubuntu]

I drilled down to the security fixes for V. 52.6.0

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/securi...s/mfsa2018-04/

They appear to be (mostly) only potential and no identified (known) exploits.

I can live with this and I do expect the repository to be updated in a reasonable time (real soon now).

[TWPonKubuntu]

And Thunderbird 52.6.0 appeared from my repository (Linux Mint) this morning. It is running now and I'll report if any problems are encountered.

Check your distro repository...