Thunderbird gets system tray notifications after 24 yearswww.theregister.comAfter 24 years, bug report finally gets fixed

Mozilla's Thunderbird team has fixed a 24-year-old feature bug, bringing system tray mail notifications to GNOME and KDE desktop environments for Linux users.

The missing interface capability, reported back on Friday, November 12, 1999, was closed on Monday, July 22. Those using Thunderbird with applicable Linux desktops should henceforth see an appropriate system tray notification upon receipt of new mail.

Some effort was made in 2004 to come up with an XPI component that provided the same notification functionality available in the Windows version of Thunderbird but that didn't work out.

By 2006, there was a complaint wondering why it has been so difficult to implement a mail notification icon in system tray for Unix-like desktop environments. That grousing was answered, "Welcome to Mozilla's bugzilla! Don't worry, you will get used to it. And patience is a virtue "

Indeed, another 18 years of patience would be required.