Thunderbird 8 lands with Lightning calendar
![zd-defaultauthor-stephen-shankland.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/1b9564b255ea6b1c543d315a654aa616c7739268/2014/12/04/b8cc3fce-7b71-11e4-9a74-d4ae52e95e57/zd-defaultauthor-stephen-shankland.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
Thunderbird 8 has arrived, a new version of Mozilla's email software that now is linked with the Firefox rapid-release program.
![Thunderbird 8 Lightning add-on](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/2014/10/02/db64c65b-4a0b-11e4-b6a0-d4ae52e95e57/thunderbird-8-lightning.jpg)
The Lightning add-on brings calendar capabilities to Mozilla's Thunderbird 8 email update. Photo credit: Mozilla
Thunderbird 8, made available for download on Tuesday, is built using the Gecko 8 browser engine used in Firefox 8, also released the same day. Notably, the new version of the email software is accompanied by Lightning 1.0. The add-on, which has been under development at Mozilla for years, gives Thunderbird a calendar module.
The Lightning add-on makes Thunderbird a more capable replacement for Outlook for those opting for an open-source approach to sending, receiving, searching and archiving e-mail. It is built to work with Thunderbird 8, but also supports older versions.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Thunderbird 8 arrives--with Lightning 1.0 calendar on CNET News.
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