Thunderbird 7 or 8 "updated" to 3.1

[okok]

I am on Ubuntu 11.04. Shortly ago I accepted the updates suggested by the Update Manager without looking in detail at the suggestions. When the updates were installed I found myself using Thunderbird 3.1 instead or the 7 or 8 which I had been using prior to the update.

So far I see no difference I care about, and my add-ons seem to be working, but I am curious as to what happened. Have others been suggested the same "upgrade" to an old version?

[Paddy Landau]

I'm curious as to how you were using TB version 8 in the first place. You must have installed it manually.

I don't know why your Update Manager updated it to a lower version; that seems odd to me.

However, Mozilla has bizarrely changed their numbering system for both Firefox and Thunderbird so that what would normally be point-updates receive full update numbers. Version 9 will not be much changed from version 3. I don't know what Mozilla will do with its numbering when they do have a major update!

[okok]

Thanks. I don't recall installing TB from a source other than the official repositories, but perhaps I am mistaken. But as far as I know, it shouldn't have been downgraded in any case. It is strange, and this is why I posted my question here.

Yes, the version numbering is of TB Firefox is a bizarre choice, and even a somewhat misleading one with each new version being no more than a slightly improved version of its predecessor. Maybe version 10, and then multiples of ten, are planned to be major ones.