My copy of the Thunderbird email client was automatically updated to version 78.4.0 today. However the “calendar” application, previously implemented as an add-on which could be uninstalled, now seems to be an integral part of Thunderbird together with an associated “tasks” application.
Would anyone who knows how to disable or (preferably) uninstall these components please describe the process?
Alternatively, is it possible to revert to the previous version in the Leap 15.1 repository?
David
Take a look at the 4th post, by “@morat” in this thread: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3064776
Personally, I do use the calendar feature of TB, so haven’t had reason to try the above.
Thanks for the reference, Paul. It seems this enhancement hasn’t been universally welcomed.
Does anyone know whether it’s possible to downgrade a package which has recently been updated from the Leap repository? Is there an archive of Leap 15.1 versions of Thunderbird? I suppose I could install from the original ISO image, but it would be a very old version and probably couldn’t be updated. There’s also a Thunderbird archive, but those downloads don’t have the OpenSuSE seal of good housekeeping.
Regards,
David
Thunderbird 68.12.0 is in the standard 15.2 repositories.
https://paste.opensuse.org/view/raw/dbcab204
Select it from the “versions” tab in YaST Software Management, and lock it after install.
You’ll need to start Thunderbird once from the command line with the option --allow-downgrade after which you can start it normally.
Ah! Sorry, Just noticed you’re on 15.1 — No matter, MozillaThunderbird-68.12.0-lp151.2.50.1.x86_64.rpm is in the 15.1 update repo…
Many thanks for your great advice! I’ve noticed that “versions” tab before but assumed it was just a version history, not that those versions were available for installation.
Launching 68.12.0 in the usual way pops up a Thunderbird warning about incompatible profiles with a link to more information:
At the time of introducing this change [a separate profile for each installation] there are no known incompatabilities with using an upgraded profile with an older version of Thunderbird, other than add-ons which may need to be removed and correct versions for the version of Thunderbird in use installed. However, Thunderbird 68.5 implements non-reversible changes to password storage. Thunderd 78 [the recent upgrade] completely changes the formats of address books and they will not be “downgraded” should you use this proceedure.
But my address book is backed up, and all should be well now…
P.S. In passing, I see Leap 15.1 is apparently now available from the Microsoft Store, see openSUSE-Leap-15-1 - Official app in the Microsoft Store I guess this is an outcome of the agreement between SuSE and MS some time ago.
Regards,
David
Further to the above, next time I upgrade Leap the Thunderbird 68.12.0 package will probably be long gone from the relevant repository and the version current by then will be Personal Information Management bloatware rather like Kmail, in my opinion at least.
Will SeaMonkey go down the same path? It’s probably the other main option.
I think many people don’t need a PIM, just a good, secure, well maintained, email client and address book. If calendar and associated functions are thought to be desirable they should be optional packages with properly defined calling interfaces, not bloatware
End of rant…!
David
Download the rpm
and squirrel it away in, for example, ~/local-repo, you can add that as a repository and install from there…
Although I don’t know how long it would remain compatible with future versions. (I’ve an approximately 6 year old version of “Master PDF Editor” saved like that and it still works with the current TW…)
Done. I already have a local repository for odd RPM packages on my hard drive. Thanks again…