[TriLUG] thunderbird

[John Franklin]

[snip many posts about Evolution vs Thunderbird]

I've used four major e-mail programs over the last year or so: 
Thunderbird, Evolution, Mail.app, and mutt.

Mail.app (once you install the PGP addon) works very nicely under Mac 
OS X.  Granted OS X isn't a Linux distro, but a look around any TriLUG 
meeting reveals the Mac as a serious alternative to Linux.  It handles 
connecting to Exchange servers, IMAP, POP, spam filtering, local 
caching, thread listing... all the basic things you really expect from 
an e-mail client.

Thunderbird and Evolution are head to head alternatives to each other.  
Evolution is more integrated with calendaring built-in, Thunderbird is 
lighterweight.  I prefer Evolution because a deleted message in 
Evolution has a strikeout through the entire line, subject, date, 
everything, whole line.  Thunderbird only changes a little icon on the 
far left.  It's easier to see which are deleted in Evolution.  I know 
this is a very minor UI issue, but it's these little things that really 
do set one client apart from another.

Mutt is entirely text based.  So, I loose the inline images when a 
friend of mine sends baby pictures or images of kittens with sniper 
rifles.  HTML rendering is really basic, and not nearly as clean.  No 
mouse and icons means it's not as click-and-drool simple as the other 
three.  Such is the limitations of a text only interface.  But, because 
mutt is entirely text based, it is really fast and doesn't bother with 
a mouse.  This is the old "fingers never leaving the keyboard" 
argument.  Mutt has fantastic filtering, integrates with spamassassin, 
does threaded lists, IMAP, POP, everything.  I find myself able to 
manage far larger mailboxes with far more ease with mutt than with any 
of the three I've mentioned above.  The downside is that it can't let 
you pause composing an e-mail and check your inbox without having to 
fully quit the editor and save it in the Drafts folder.  Not a major 
problem since you usually finish writing an e-mail before you go back 
to browsing, but it is nonetheless a limitation.

I gotta say, even with the text-only limitations, if I had to choose 
only one e-mail client, I'd go with mutt.

jf
-- 
John Franklin
franklin at elfie.org
ICBM: 38º 56' 32.6"N 77º 24' 47.7"W Z+62m
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