Thunderbird 130 Beta Includes a Tray Icon for Linux
Quoting: Thunderbird 130 Beta Includes a Tray Icon for Linux - OMG! Ubuntu —
In the Thunderbird 130 beta release notes the ‘what’s new’ section lists “added Linux system tray icon”, and what’s mind-blowing about the addition is that it developers a feature request first filed on the Mozilla bug tracker a staggering 25 years ago!
Tray icons are a bit old hat, but they remain useful on systems that don’t handle background apps in an intuitive or familiar manner.
Thunderbird for Windows has a system tray icon/applet, but the e-mail client has not (to my knowledge) ever had one on Linux or macOS systems.
Over the years Linux users have relied on a multitude of workarounds, Thunderbird add-ons, and API-leveraging third-party apps, scripts, or extensions to get a functional Thunderbird tray menu (Birdtray being one I used in the past).