Claws-Mail versus Eudora

Phishfry

Phishfry

I was a Eudora Email client user for 20 years before coming to FreeBSD.
mail/claws-mail is where I ended up. It felt similar to Eudora.

Claws-Mail has always felt 'almost there' in usability terms. It has not changed in 6+ years.
Here are some of the quirks in my opinion.
1) When I doubleclick on an address book entry it opens the recipients address book entry.
It should add the recipient to the current email.
Not an extra click> Send to:

Double click on person and added to email.
This is standard email software practice. Am I wrong? Extra click for a common task.

2) Email Attachments location makes attachments easy to miss.
The whole email body screen just dont work well. Even adjusting the sliders to my preference.

What do you think of Claws-Mail?
 
Eudora is hard to replace. (I like that there are updated versions for Windows, at least.)
Claws Mail is decent if you can live with the weird user interface.
 
Yes that was the impetus of this post. Thunderbird survey.

My thought was 'whatever happened to Eudora'. At one time Thunderbird was going to use it.

Before I would consider Thunderbird I would have to research the moz foundations participation.
They seem mis-aligned with their user base, overfunded and mis-managed.

Cthulhux said:
I like that there are updated versions for Windows, at least.
Click to expand...
That is a good point. Portability is nice too.. Qualcom really made a nice client.
My old Eudora with all 20 years of email still resides on a Win32PE USB stick.
If the encryption schemes were updated I might still be using it.
 
Phishfry said:
At one time Thunderbird was going to use it.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was the other way around: Qualcomm wanted to make an "all-new" Eudora "8", based on Thunderbird. Nobody wanted that, so Qualcomm ended the Eudora project instead of just making "Eudora 9" without all that Thunderbird cruft.

Phishfry said:
They seem mis-aligned with their user base, overfunded and mis-managed.
Click to expand...

Yup, sounds like Mozilla.

Phishfry said:
If the encryption schemes were updated I might still be using it.
Click to expand...

The HERMES team provides updated encryption for Eudora 7. :)
 
Sad thing that at some point in the past, evolution was an awesome email client almost head to head with Eudora, but after some years (IMO) it got head to head with Outlook. ?
 
Now, the tricky part …

I have little patience with discussions that bash Mozilla. Exceptionally, I'll participate. Be nice, please, people.

Phishfry said:
Before I would consider Thunderbird I would have to research the moz foundations participation.
Click to expand...

Emphatically: Thunderbird is no longer funded by Mozilla.

It saddens me that nearly a decade has passed without people becoming suitably aware of this essential fact. It's the first thing that's seen when Thunderbird starts:

1641796933198.png 1641797508154.png

2012

From Thunderbird: Stability and Community Innovation | Mitchell's Blog:

… Much of Mozilla’s leadership — including that of the Thunderbird team — has come to the conclusion that on-going stability is the most important thing, and that continued innovation in Thunderbird is not a priority for Mozilla’s product efforts. (For more information about the path to this conclusion, see the “Background Information” section below.) As a result, the Thunderbird team has developed a plan that provides both stability for Thunderbird’s current state and allows the Thunderbird community to innovate if it chooses.

In this plan, Mozilla will provide security updates through an Extended Support Release process. We will also maintain mechanisms for the Thunderbird community to organize for ongoing development. Here are additional details about this plan. …
Click to expand...

The present day – frequently asked questions

Answers about funding and independence are second only to the most basic question, What is Thunderbird? …

Who makes Thunderbird?

Thunderbird is developed, tested, translated and supported largely by group of dedicated volunteers, plus paid staff. Thunderbird is an independent, community driven project. Therefore its paid staff, budget and fundraising are entirely managed and overseen by the Thunderbird Council, which is elected by the Thunderbird Community. Thunderbird development is made possible by funds donated by the Thunderbird community. (Mozilla Corporation, the makers of Firefox, and Mozilla Messaging no longer develop Thunderbird. But Mozilla still supports Thunderbird by hosting many of the Thunderbird resources.)
Click to expand...

Give to Thunderbird
 
Claws Mail is nice as long as you don't need to use HTML mails. If you need to do that, then Claws Mail is not a good choice for composing such emails.

Thunderbird's UI itself is really, really dated. This is how a modern vertical mail view does look like:

wSG8R.png


And this is Thunderbird, which is just downright ugly:
thunderbird-verticallayout.jpg


Since I'm anyway always in a browser, I stopped using Thunderbird and replaced it with Roundcube.
 
hardworkingnewbie said:
Claws Mail is nice as long as you don't need to use HTML mails. If you need to do that, then Claws Mail is not a good choice for composing such emails.

Thunderbird's UI itself is really, really dated. This is how a modern vertical mail view does look like:

wSG8R.png


And this is Thunderbird, which is just downright ugly:
thunderbird-verticallayout.jpg


Since I'm anyway always in a browser, I stopped using Thunderbird and replaced it with Roundcube.
Click to expand...
Thunderbird have bugs that comes from a long time ago that was never fixed, but like all mozilla products, the priority is changing the interface and cutting off options instead of fixing bugs. The most annoying bug IMO is the duplication of messages at inbox that occurs from time to time (I have 4 mails accounts configured).
 
Phishfry said:
1) When I doubleclick on an address book entry it opens the recipients address book entry.
It should add the recipient to the current email.
Not an extra click> Send to:

Double click on person and added to email.
This is standard email software practice. Am I wrong? Extra click for a common task.
Click to expand...
You can do a right click on a person in the address book (list view) to write an email to. I'm not using this feature, instead I'm starting to type in a few chars of the person I want in the To, Cc, Bcc etc. field, and press [Tab] for completion. If it isn't unique, you will get a list for a simple selection.
 
hardworkingnewbie said:
Well there are some mail deduplication addons around for Thunderbird...
Click to expand...
The mail isn't duplicated itself, it just shows duplicated. If you archive or delete one, both will disappear or show an empty mail. I've tested with linux and the same behavior occurs. I'm not sure what is causing this issue.
 
Cthulhux said:
Choose a different one then?

How to change the Thunderbird layout | Thunderbird Help

Thunderbird contains three layout options for you to choose from to best fit your preference.
support.mozilla.org support.mozilla.org
Click to expand...
That's not the issue I've got with Thunderbird. My issue with Thunderbird is that even it's up to date version just offers an ancient, out of date vertical email view, which is in most modern mail programs nowadays the common standard.

It's simply not changeable enough out of the box nor with addons. So something which the authors really should update sometimes.
 
Phishfry said:
(The Mozilla Foundation) seem(s) mis-aligned with their user base, overfunded and mis-managed.
Click to expand...
This is the best description of their current state I've ever read. I'm gonna steal it!

Menelkir said:
Thunderbird have bugs that comes from a long time ago that was never fixed, but like all mozilla products, the priority is changing the interface and cutting off options instead of fixing bugs.
Click to expand...
They may not longer be funded by the Mozilla Foundation, but they sure learned the hate-your-users product management techniques well from their former parents.

I've been using some form of Mozilla mail for decades, and recently they've become more shiny and less useful with every release. The move to the new UI killed all legacy add-ons, which means I now have to copy-paste foreign characters out of a fully functional program and into every Spanish-language email I need to send.

I've been meaning to try out jmos 's port of Seamonkey for a while.
 
hardworkingnewbie said:
My issue with Thunderbird is that even it's up to date version just offers an ancient, out of date vertical email view, which is in most modern mail programs nowadays the common standard.
Click to expand...
If you prefer other layouts, use programs offering them, rather than expecting Thunderbird to adopt the layout that's currently fashionable. Why have choice if each program looks the same?
 
Jose said:
This is the best description of their current state I've ever read. I'm gonna steal it!
Click to expand...

What pisses me off is imagine what FreeBSD could do with more funding.
Heck it was a big deal when the encryption app guy left the FreeBSD Foundation 1 Million dollars.
Now think about how much Google gives the Mozilla Foundation.
Sickening Anti trust insurance.

Mozilla announced that the contract was once again renewed for at least three years to November 2014, at three times the amount previously paid, or nearly US$300 million annually
Click to expand...

This partnership came with an annual price tag of US$375 million to be paid by Yahoo!
Click to expand...
 
Jose said:
I've been meaning to try out jmos 's port of Seamonkey for a while.
Click to expand...
Time to tell that I don't use SeaMonkeys mail client - I'm using just the web browser. Claws Mail is the one I'm using. I've used Thunderbird years ago for a few months, but the concept of saving many mails in one file is to fragile - seen to many users with that format loosing their mail spool (and IMAP isn't an option - my private and commercial stuff is nothing I want / being allowed to lay around on servers out of my control). Claws Mail gives me MH. Save, usable by scripts, controllable.

And I prefer a classic layout. But I also prefer never being forced to use an application in fullscreen mode; Claws Mail just uses the upper left corner and about 25% of the monitor ;) So a three columns layout would cost me horizontal space, which would limit other applications. And seeing more and more new monitors being able to be used not only for viewing movies… And I give a damn about what is trendy - usability is much more important. A compact window is better than a flat & wide one.
 
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