On Thu, Jul 12, 2001 at 09:28:41AM -0700, Kurt Lieber wrote:
> OK, I've read with great amusement all the chest-thumping going on about
> MUAs, MTAs and how Microsoft email products are things that you scrape
> off the bottom of your shoe.
>
> I, for one, am brand-spanking new at Linux and have yet to find a Linux
> MUA that meets my needs. I really do like Linux and would like to
> transition over to it for my desktop machine, but because of it's
> weakness on the MUA side, I haven't been able to do so. ("weakness" is
> my perception - you can prove me wrong by continuing to read)
>
> So, here's a list of my requirements and I'm hoping you guys can point
> me to an MUA that meets them. If so, I'll gladly switch over to Linux
> full-time and forswear Microsoft forever. :)
>
> - Must be able to handle multiple IMAP-based accounts. (not necessarily
> on the same server)
> - Must be able to easily change which account I'm sending email from,
> ideally selectable from the individual message composition screen.
> - Must support caching of IMAP messages to local folders (i.e. offline
> mode) no -- POP3 won't work for me.
> - Must be able to provide a view similar to Outlook's folder list that
> shows me, *at a single glance* how many unread messages I have in each
> of my IMAP accounts. No switching around, no multiple keystrokes -- one
> screen.
> - Must have preview pane capabilities or, at the very least, something
> similar to Outlook's show first 3-lines capability.
> - Must have sophisticated filtering/rules capabilities. (pretty sure
> procmail can fulfill this)
> - Must support automatic spell-checking of emails.
> - Must seamlessly handle MIME attachments (meaning I click on the "add
> attachment" button/key, select the file from the hard drive and send the
> email message with no other farting around.)
> - Must have integrated address book (or seamlessly integrate into
> another address book program) This includes auto-completing email
> addresses as they're entered and the ability to enter actual names and
> have the address program substitute the email address upon sending.
> - Must have integrated calendaring program (or seamlessly integrate into
> another calendar program)
> - Must synch up with Palm Pilots (at least address book and calendar --
> don't care about synching email)
> - Address book must support exporting for use in other programs.
> - Nice to have a debian package, but not required.
> - Nice to be free, but not necessarily required.
> - Be as stable (or more) as Outlook 2002.
> - Does not have to be one single program, but does have to integrate
> reasonably simply. I'm not willing to write custom code or spend 12
> hours on fiddling with things to get them interoperating correctly.
> (especially as this is not something I have to do with Outlook)
>
> These are, IMO, very reasonable, standard requirements and they are
> things that I *rely* on to get my job done. Again, I really hope that
> there's a package (or set of packages) that will allow me to do what I'm
> looking for. So far, I haven't seen it. And yes, I will gladly
> sacrifice a *little* stability in order to achieve these features and
> capabilities.
>
> If there isn't, then I hope the person who stated "anyone who uses MS
> email products is ignorant" will reconsider their statement.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --kurt
>
Hello Kurt,
To be honest I'm not sure about all you're requirements, but I think
'kmail' might be something worth looking into. I have heard good things
about 'Sylpheed' but don't know anything about it or it's capabilities,
just know the name and what's it general purpose is. Has anyone
mentioned and/or are you aware of 'Evolution'? It looks a lot like
Microsoft Outlook. One bad thing about it though is that it doesn't
support standard mbox mail format, but if it is all you would use for
mail on you're linux system then that wouldn't matter I reckon. It's
also still heavily in development and therefore somewhat unstable, at
least the last time I checked it out, which was quite some time ago now.
But I was very impressed with it nonetheless as far as a graphical
e-mail client goes. I soon thereafter started using mutt though. I still
have a lot to learn about mutt's usage and configuration myself.. but
boy, do I like it!
HTH,
Jim Richards
HTH,
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