Thunderbird on Linux Mint comes from the Ubuntu package base and they are maintaining the ESR (extended-support release) version of Thunderbird instead of the regular release version. This is the current release of Linux Mint based on Ubuntu. Thanks in advance for any guidance anyone can offer me. Is it maybe just not possible to use Thunderbird with Linux Mint and gmail? I've worked on this for hours trying everything I can think of and find on the webs, and I'm obviously out of my depth (which is about as deep as a rain puddle in a parking lot). I found a reference that says to use Lightening 3.3.3 instead of 4.x with Mint, but although I found the Mozilla web site where it says I can download older versions, I can't even get it to work and download Lightening 3.3.3. In addition, the current version of Lightening won't even download because it says it is not compatible with the version of Thunderbird I have. The Linux Mint Software Manager does not seem to want to install a later version of Thunderbird it just says Thunderbird is 'installed.' I managed to download the Thunderbird-38.2.0.tar.bz2 file from Mozilla but can't figure out how to install it, or know if I should install it - is there a reason the Linux Mint Software Manager won't install a newer version? Is 38.2 not compatible with Mint? Gmail blocks it, saying it is out-of-date. The 31.8 version will not work at all with gmail. However, the version of Thunderbird that came with this Linux distro is version 31.8 while the Mozilla website says the current version is 38.2. I managed to do that under Windows 7 with few problems. What I want to do is get Thunderbird working with gmail and lightning. It says it's 'Rafaela' (I think) if that helps. I don't know the version because I'm such a newbie I don't know where to find that, but I downloaded it less than a week ago from the Linux Mint web site, so it should be a new version.

Download mozilla thunderbird 61