Best Desktop Email?

October 18, 2007 5:41 AM

Recommended Open-Source Desktop Email Client?

Which open source desktop email program do you prefer, and why (as compared to others if you've used more than one)?

I have been using Thunderbird for a couple of years; prior to that I had used Outlook and Outlook Express.

I like Thunderbird well enough, but am frustrated that my message filters don't work (they disappear if I close down and restart the program). Also since development has ceased on Thunderbird I'm leery about using it indefinitely.

Although I have had good luck with some freeware (or paid solutions), I prefer an open source program; I like the custom add-ons individuals come up with.

I love GMail but need a regular POP client at work.

posted by jjsonp to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Thunderbird developent ceased? Since when? As far as I know, the project is still active -- the 1.x branch has ceased, but 2.x branch had a release as recently as 20Sept07.
posted by SpecialK at 6:15 AM on October 18, 2007

Geeks use PINE
posted by yoyo_nyc at 6:23 AM on October 18, 2007

Thunderbird (delete your profile, or use ThunderbirdPortable to diagnose problems).
posted by SirStan at 6:57 AM on October 18, 2007

IMO, it's still Thunderbird.

FWIW, my message filters never disappear. Maybe your goal should be finding resolution to that issue rather than choosing a new client?

Another option would be to use the integrated email client in Opera
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:18 AM on October 18, 2007

Ditto on Thunderbird, never had any problems.

Where are you hearing that development has ceased on Thunderbird? Official development has ceased on 1.08 and will cease soon on 1.5 but its continuing on v2.0... v2.0.0.6 was released in August 2.0.0.8 is under development.
posted by missmagenta at 7:52 AM on October 18, 2007

Sylpheed is great. It never crashes. It is the fastest client I ever tried. It shows no slowdown when working on my 1 GB e-mail archive. Filters works and are powerful. Sylpheed can integrates with external programs. It is the only GUI whose keyboard shortcuts don't need the CTRL key.

It works on Linux and Windows. Under Windows mailto: url don't work, and although Bayesian junk mail works, it is a pain to set up.

This geek stoped using PINE when he discovered Sylpheed.
posted by gmarceau at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2007

Response by poster: I was confused. Thunderbird development hasn't ceased...but Mozilla is dumping them; that is what I was (mis)remembering. It may be this will expand the product but it seems more likely to me that the opposite will happen.

With regard to my install being faulty...I asked about correcting this after being unable to find a solution but received no useful answers. I'm glad to know that others' filters do work though - hopefully I can find a fix for this because I really need my filters to operate correctly.

I am still curious as to what other options are available. I will check out Sylpheed; thanks.
posted by jjsonp at 8:20 AM on October 18, 2007

Thunderbird sucks so much. I feel your pain. I tried Sylpheed on OS X for a little while. It seems alright. Pine, Mutt, etc might be worth checking out as well, but they are hardly the most straight forward to use.
posted by chunking express at 8:38 AM on October 18, 2007

Oh, I remember why I stopped using Sylpheed. It's IMAP implementation is single threaded, so when you check for new mail the whole program locks up.
posted by chunking express at 8:50 AM on October 18, 2007

Mutt is amazingly powerful, if you can get over not having graphics and HTML mail.

If I wasn't already quite happy with Apple Mail, it's probably what I'd use. It has nice integration with MIME and PGP, too.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:25 AM on October 18, 2007

I wish Thunderbird worked with Office's mail merge (or had its own). Any client that offers that gets my mail.
posted by Yogurt at 10:45 AM on October 18, 2007

Thunderbird is really the only player in this arena. You can try Evolution, which I use and like on Linux, but I've never tried the Windows version.
posted by chundo at 11:09 AM on October 18, 2007

since you specifically said "Desktop Email" I'm assuming you mean "gui-based mail user agent" . Aside from the aforementioned Thunderbird (which has by no means ceased development, as others have mentioned), your big three choices are Evolution, Sylpheed, and Kontact/Kmail.

I've used all of them at one point or another, and they each have their merits. Kontact integrates tightly with KDE, so if you are a KDE user, that is probably your best bet.

Evolution integrates almost as tightly with Gnome - so if you are a Gnome user, etc, etc.

If speed is your biggest priority, Sylpheed wins hands-down. Probably the fasted graphical MUA in existence for Linux (or at all, really).

If you aren't averse to a learning curve, real geeks use mutt. It adheres to the Unix tool philosophy (do one thing and do it well). It does take some getting used to, but it is extremely fast, standards compliant, extensible, and awesome. It is also still in active development after 12 years, and I have never (and I do mean never) crashed it.
posted by namewithoutwords at 3:09 PM on October 18, 2007

silly me, I assumed you were using Linux. nevermind my entire commend then, as on Windows your only real bet is Thunderbird. Maybe Chandler, but it is still beta, and we might very well see Duke Nukem Forever go gold before Chandler does.
posted by namewithoutwords at 3:14 PM on October 18, 2007