Latest Thunderbird release - 112.0b1 (64-bit) - some observations

[myfoxacc]

I have been using Thunderbird for a few years and I have seen it evolve. The latest beta release 112.0b1 (64-bit) is certainly a step backward. The previous release was awesome. It has a UI that was professional looking and the navigation was easy. Here are some of my observations - 

1. My favorite folders are now at the bottom, not sure who made the decision to move the favorites at the bottom. The whole objective of a favorite is to put it in front of your eyes. 

2. The view pane and the email list pane do not seem balanced. The new UI is very unbalanced. The real estate to view your email has been shortened.

3. Why did the global search appears on the top? seems very weird. In the previous release, it was nicely synced with the entire UI. 

4. Why is my email account folder all expanded? I have to scroll down to see all my emails which are more clicks. 

[rrk]

I have done a clean install of Thunderbird beta. I don't have release version installed on my device. Overall new UI is quite good. Here are some of my observations.

1. the height of Top Bar is a little to long. With only global search bar in it that is high enough for text to appear in it, it looks especially jarring and out of place. Reducing its height so that lower edge is just in middle of Mail and Address-book icons in Spaces toolbar will make it look much better.
2. UI now is very clean and nice but I have one issue with dark theme. In dark theme, top bar and tab bar doesn't have that nice shadow line separating them on lower brightness settings.
3. By default UI density was compact for me instead of "Default". Compact mode without visible separators in message list unlike old UI feels a little congested to me.
4. Message Header area can be a little darker.To me, it doesn't feel separate enough from main message body.
5. It is my personal opinion but currently is no different then previous UI. We need a quick option to shrink and expand message header view in classic layout. Currently messages body have very little screen space in classic layout.
6. Message list in vertical view mode is quite nicely done but message filter box need to be expended a little. As it is now, usable amount of search text is not available at the first glance.

[wsmwk]

What is currently on beta is a major refresh with some big changes and is still in developement, so it is being finished and improved.  Please check the release notes https://www.thunderbird.net/notes/beta/ - there is much information there, including why this release is different and will be incomplete for a few more weeks to complete the development and improvements. Plus there are pointers to a beta forum.

1. The order of folder types is determined by the order they were enabled. If you uncheck the other folder types to the point where only favorites is listed, then you favorites will be at the top and you can enable the other types.

2. "The view pane and the email list pane do not seem balanced." is difficult to understand without a screen shot. But I suspect you are using Vertical View?

3. "Why did the global search appears on the top?"  This is an area that is not yet complete. It is now a unified toolbar. Please see https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/beta/T99ff74f89b697778/unified-toolbar-description-and-statu...

4. Hard to understand without a screen shot.

Hopefully some things are better with beta 113.

Hope this helps.