Make two different Thunderbird versions cohabit in the same Ubuntu installation

In my recent post "Make two different Firefox versions cohabit in the same Ubuntu installation" I explained why (and how) I have two different Firefox installations sharing the same settings, bookmarks and add-ons.
This time things get a little more tricky, but don't worry and let's get the party started.

1. Download Thunderbird
2. Unzip to your home directory (tar xf thunderbird-2.0.0.6.tar.gz , TAB is your friend, use TAB)
3. Now you have to make mailboxes, settings and the other stuff be shared between your two Thunderbird installations (the "native" one and the "new" one). NOTE: follow these steps before you start your newly downloaded Thunderbird
   
1. Locate in your home directory the folder ".mozilla-thunderbird" (you must select "View > Show hidden files" or press "Ctrl + H" if you are using a file manager)
2. Look at the files that the folder contains: we are interested at the file "profiles.ini" and at a folder named "XXXXXX.default" or "default.XXXXXX" (where "XXXXXX" can be "whatever-Thunderbird-decided" sequence of letters and numbers)
3. We must link this folder and "profiles.ini" to the folder "/home/$USERNAME/.thunderbird" (if this folder doesn't exist, create it):
1. cd
2. ln -s ./.mozilla-thunderbird/profiles.ini ./.thunderbird/profiles.ini
3. ln -s ./.mozilla-thunderbird/XXXXXX.default ./.thunderbird/XXXXXX.default
4. Start Thunderbird: /home/$USERNAME/thunderbird/thunderbird
   

NOTE: You can use both Thunderbird installations and this HOWTO can be applied to any version of Thunderbird and Firefox. This comes pretty useful especially when testing beta (and/or alpha) versions of the two products.

As previously said: let me know if that works (it seems that my comments aren't accessible from the home-page of the blog: to comment you must open the post in its own window by clicking the post title and scroll the page down until you see the "Comments" box).