tag:dreamwidth.org,2022-02-24:3887720Liam on LinuxLiam Proven's thoughts on IT, especially FOSSLiam_on_Linux2022-04-24T12:46:43Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2022-02-24:3887720:83201The best FOSS email client, and what's wrong with it2022-04-24T12:46:43Z2022-04-24T12:46:43Zpublic4 About 5Y ago, I got a job at a big FOSS vendor and needed a desktop client. The company no longer maintained its own client for its own in-house email server.<div> </div><div>I started with Thunderbird.</div><div> </div><div>I found a problem -- later identified as being server-side -- and tried as many others as I could find in the distro's repos: Evolution, Sylpheed, Claws, KMail, Balsa, GNUstep Mail.app, Geary, and more.</div><div> </div><div>Evolution is better than it was and isn't quite so determinedly Outlook-like any more. (I do not like Outlook.)</div><div> </div><div>Claws is pretty good, but it isn't multithreaded, so it hangs when collecting mail. This is very annoying.</div><div> </div><div>Claws and Sylpheed <strong>desperately</strong> need to merge again. They are basically the same app, but with slightly different feature sets. AIUI the author of Sylpheed, Yamamoto Hiroyuki, refuses to accept patches/PRs. He really needs to get over himself and learn to act a bit more like Linus Torvalds did. This intransigence is crippling both programs.</div><div> </div><div>It is the 21st century and I do not want a CLI/text-mode email app. They have their place, for instance if you need to do email over ssh. I do not. But I want something that readily scales to a large window, has a CUA UI, can show basic formatting, etc. So, no Mutt/Neomutt/Pine for me.</div><div> </div><div>In the end, I went back to Thunderbird and I still use it today. It is, after considerable research and experimentation, the best FOSS email app there is.</div><div> </div><div>It is cross-platform: I can and do use the same app on Linux, Windows and macOS.</div><div> </div><div>It talks to everything. I have or have had it connecting to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Exchange Server, Groupwise, CIX, and more different accounts and servers than I can remember.</div><div> </div><div>It does address books and calendaring as well.</div><div> </div><div>It has integration with handy features like Google's various chat and note-taking services.</div><div> </div><div>It uses standard storage formats that can be accessed from other apps.</div><div> </div><div>It's big, it is a bit sluggish, and like Firefox Quantum, some add-ons no longer work. This is a foolish decision of Mozilla's. However, it still has a useful range of add-ons.</div><div> </div><div>It handles secure email and encryption well.</div><div> </div><div>Snags: it <strong>really</strong> needs a working sync function.</div><div> </div><div>But, after a lot of time and effort, it remains best-of-breed for my needs.</div><div> </div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=liam_on_linux&ditemid=83201" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments