You can use Lightning to get a calendar that's fully integrated with Thunderbird, but what about Google Calendar synchronization? Well, there's an extension called "Provider for Google Calendar", which lets Lightning read and write events to Google Calendar.

According to a recent change, Thunderbird is now the default email client in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, replacing Evolution. The update should be available for Oneiric users in a few hours.

But this doesn't mean Thunderbird will be default in the final Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot release because according to the default email client blueprint, the final decision has not been taken yet. We should find out if Thunderbird will stay as default sometime around Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 3, after both Thunderbird and Evolution will be evaluated:

(Firefox passwords saved in GNOME Keyring)

Thunderbird 5.0 has been released today, bringing a new addons manager (Firefox-style), NotifyOSD notifications, tabs can be reordered and dragged to different windows, the account creation wizard has been improved and many other improvements and bug fixes. See the release changelog here.

The Thunderbird Next PPA provides Thunderbird releases from the beta channel so each time a new beta version is released, it will be available to install via this PPA, but of course with a delay because it takes a while for new versions to be packaged and tested.

Gmail had some issues a few days ago and reseted some email accounts so many people now want to backup their Gmail account(s). I got this request by email so I though I'd suggest a very simple (and free) way to backup your Gmail account: using Thunderbird.

Using the exact instructions in this post, Thunderbird will not delete your Gmail emails and will not mark them as read so it acts exactly as a backup, without interfering with your actual emails. You can of course use this to send emails too (just like with any email client - I've used Thunderbird because it's easy to set up and cross-platform) but the purpose of this how-to is to use Thunderbird just to download your Gmail emails (so you can turn off the outgoing server if you want) so you have a local backup in case something goes wrong with your Gmail account.

If you want to backup your Gmail account online, you can use TrueSwitch to copy all your emails into your Hotmail account or use Backupify which is free for a regular (non custom domain) Gmail account.

A while ago we were telling you about a PPA that provides a package called "xul-ext-indicator" that integrates Thunderbird in the Ubuntu Messaging Menu. This is actually a Thunderbird extension packaged in a .deb so you can easily get updates.

So you're looking for a really easy way to integrate Thunderbird in the Ubuntu Messaging Menu? You can try a package I've recently came across (called "xul-ext-indicator") that is available in a PPA, which adds Thunderbird to the Messaging Menu and provides quick access to your contacts, compose a new mail and unread emails. Using this package, you'll also get NotifyOSD notifications when new mail arrives.