I just updated to the new Thunderbird 17 on my Linux Mint 14. Its trully worth to upgrade to this new version of Thunderbird. The most significant changes are that this new Thunderbird 17 comes with a fresh and sleek design compared to any previous versions. See the main window of this application below.
The main tab design has a modern curvy style which makes it a lot easier to switch between tabs. Thunderbird also integrates chat into it. We can connect to several chat protocols such as Facebook, Google Talk, Twitter and some more.
