e-mail client

Since modern Thunderbird is what it is, I'm looking for a new e-mail client. My requirements are:
  • no GTK3, dbus, pulseaudio or similar junk
  • must have full IMAP support, not just for downloading new messages
  • must be able to handle HTML messages
Doesn't seem like much but still I am unable find anything that would just work.
 
I'm very happy with mail/neomutt. Of course, "handling" HTML messages means piping them to a text browser, e.g. I use the following mailcap entry:
Code:
text/html;w3m -cols 72 -I %{charset} -T text/html -s | sed -e 's:^[[:blank:]]*$::' | cat -s; copiousoutput
edit:
For example: mail/getmail6 to retrieve mail (not sure that it have full IMAP support)
neomutt already supports IMAP. Not sure what would be missing there? For sending, any local MTA should do, e.g. I just use the dma from base configured to send everything to a "smarthost".
 
You want a fully functional HTML IMAP e-mail client, without any useless baggage.

So do I. Have not found one yet.

With social media so popular, fewer people use e-mail, and there is less development and choice of e-mail programs, at both ends. Especially MTAs.

I will watch this thread in case any good ideas come up. But I still use thunderbird.
 
Here “handling” means to correcly display and compose HTML messages including images and tables 😎 And I send and receive a dozen or dozens of such messages every day, so it cannot take 10 minutes of typing in the terminal to process one of them.

And yes, frankly a web browser based client like roundcube is the only reasonable thing that I've come across so far.
 
Well, I still think HTML in email is a horribly wrong idea 😈 – of course, if you want to compose those things, a console-based UI won't do (while it's perfectly good enough to read 99% of all HTML emails, cause they're just text with a few needless bells and whistles anyways).

Indeed, I use a roundcube installation on my mail server for the rare cases when I have to read an HTML mail where the text representation created by w3m won't do.
 
As far as mutt and neomutt, I too, find them excellent. It can handle imap, I use it on my work machine which I access remotely. Not sure about using getmail to retrieve IMAP. I have a page on mutt which has some neomutt info which might be useful, though its use of getmail is for pop3. https://srobb.net/mutt.html

On there, it also copies some instructions from an ArchLinux user for putting html mail into a browser when needed. As the GUI reliant become more and more common, sometimes, piping it to w3m isn't enough.
Those instructions are for vimperator, I think, but work equally well for firefox.
Zirias you might even find those instructions more convenient than roundcube, (though as it's become my habit to do it that way, I'm definitely prejudiced).
 
you might even find those instructions more convenient than roundcube, (though as it's become my habit to do it that way, I'm definitely prejudiced
I tried something similar long time ago and wasn't really convinced ... much nicer to have the content directly in the terminal window ;). Maybe I'm lucky, but receiving an HTML mail where this isn't good enough really is ultra rare (once every few months).

Of course, if OP wants to compose HTML mail, it won't help anyways ;)
 
Kmail does exactly that, it's no GTK3 and is able to handle HTML quite well. But I doubt that this is what you really want.

What you want is basically something which does not exist - a lightweight yet full featured mail client which supports HTML writing and display. That's quite the contradiction in itself due to the HTML part, so this is like chasing unicorns. Interesting idea, but makes no sense.
 
Kmail behaves quite nice and IMHO has a clean and useful UI, but it relies on the pretty heavy-weight akonadi, so I'd also guess it's out here ;)

That's quite the contradiction in itself due to the HTML part
Not necessarily, it seems. For sending HTML mail, it's still the common recommendation to e.g. only ever use "inline" styles. I conclude many MUAs supporting HTML do it pretty poorly. A simplistic engine for that could probably be lightweight. Doesn't mean something like that actually exists, of course ;)
 
Not necessarily, it seems. For sending HTML mail, it's still the common recommendation to e.g. only ever use "inline" styles. I conclude many MUAs supporting HTML do it pretty poorly. A simplistic engine for that could probably be lightweight. Doesn't mean something like that actually exists, of course ;)
I am pretty convinced that the OP wants something WYSIWYG like in order to create HTML emails, and having not to do this manually. This really narrows down the number of possible options a lot. What it even unnecessarily further narrows down the list is his refusal to use the libraries which nowadays come with such an application.

Other options in general: Evolution, GNU Balsa, Trojita, Geary, Sylpheed Claws. Im terms of spirit and such Claws comes the nearest to the ideal so far on X11 aside the lack of an HTML editor.
 
I've been using [ports]mail/claws-mail[/ports] for several years now. I'ts lightweight and fast.

HTML email is a bad/stupid idea, but if you really want to see cluttered html messages instead of the *actual* content of a message, claws offers 2 plugins to view html messages: [ports]mail/claws-mail-dillo[/ports] and [ports]mail/claws-mail-litehtml_viewer[/ports] I have the latter installed in case someone sends me an rfc-ignorant message without plaintext (and I actually care enough to view the html part).
Of course claws defaults to writing text-only messages and also supports external editors (e.g. vim).

There are also plugins e.g. for pgp or sieve available.
 
I haven't used Sylpheed (or claws) in ages but it was lean and did everything you want, albeit HTML mail was a tad funky. I hate HTML mail though so never used it. Looks like Sylpheed uses GTK+ but the author's site hasn't had any updates for a year.
 
claws offers 2 plugins to view html messages: [ports]mail/claws-mail-dillo[/ports] and [ports]mail/claws-mail-litehtml_viewer[/ports] I have the latter installed in case someone sends me an rfc-ignorant message without plaintext (and I actually care enough to view the html part).
Yep, and the good news is that in-email HTML standards are a lot more reserved so dillo's engine is still able to stand a good chance at rendering it correctly. No Javascript bullsh*t basically.

For mailing lists I tend to use Mutt (mainly because configuration is cleaner/simpler/deterministic compared to GUI alternatives). Most of them also stick to plain text and it all flows quite well.
 
Pretty sure claws works well for IMAP also - I have exclusively used IMAP for years so I have access to email anywhere.
I've been using IMAP exclusively for easily 10+ years now, most of that time with claws-mail. So yes, it works very well.

As for webmail:
We're running Horde groupware which has a really nicely working webmail part that even works with sieve for e.g. filters/autoresponders and can edit ACLs for shared mailboxes. Some might say Horde looks "aged" - i'd say it is a sane UI, not that "mobile-optimized" bullsh*t that uses only 25% of your screen and forces you to constantly scroll like an idiot...
For personal use however I'd consider it quite overkill. I wouldn't want to set up and manage a fully fledged groupware only for my personal mailboxes.
 
I do not think the OP said that thunderbird was in a poor state. He wants an alternative.
"Since modern Thunderbird is what it is"

To me that sounds like they are insinuating that these days Thuderbird is a heavy bloated mess. Though perhaps that is just me projecting ;)

The OP might be able to clarify.
 
"Since modern Thunderbird is what it is"

To me that sounds like they are insinuating that these days Thuderbird is a heavy bloated mess. Though perhaps that is just me projecting ;)

The OP might be able to clarify.

It is heavy and bloated. And yes, lets wait for the OP.

But I cannot see that it is in a poor state. Many times I have thought about changing, but for what it does, it is in a pretty good state.
 
but for what it does, it is in a pretty good state.
In my mind, when something gets in such a bloated state, it cannot be said to be in a "good state".
Whereas even if something is 100% unmaintained, the code might still be in a great state.

Not all code needs to be maintained and for other projects (i.e Thunderbird), maintenance alone isn't enough, stuff probably needs to be removed, not added.
 
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