Preferred E-mail client

What is your preferred E-mail client software

  • Total voters
    68
I use mutt because it can be run directly on the mail server when I ssh in. Thus, the client works in the singular, no one from the outside has access to the imap and submission ports, the ports are custom and access from the outside is only allowed to port 25. The disadvantage, of course, is that my friends can't connect and I can’t see mail from a smartphone, but I don’t have a smartphone yet ?
 
I changed to Claws Mail a few years ago after being bitten by a Thunderbird bug which has remained unfixed for 14 years. Occasionally TB empties the contents of e-mails when copying or moving them into local folders, leaving no way to recover the lost messages. They are also deleted from the server at the same time. This critical bug is so random it has never been diagnosed, but I couldn't afford the loss so was forced to switch.
 
dnb said:
I use mutt because it can be run directly on the mail server when I ssh in. Thus, the client works in the singular, no one from the outside has access to the imap and submission ports, the ports are custom and access from the outside is only allowed to port 25. The disadvantage, of course, is that my friends can't connect and I can’t see mail from a smartphone, but I don’t have a smartphone yet ?
Click to expand...
I don't know about iOS, but Android has some ssh clients.
F-droid search ssh

I have termbot installed on my Pixel 6A/GrapheneOS and was able to sftp into my workstation.
 
dnb said:
but I don’t have a smartphone yet ?
Click to expand...
I have three perfectly good iPhones, all in mint condition. Two are retired because they are no longer supported by Apple. I take one of the old ones out when working on the farm alone, because I don't want to lose the good one, and any smart phone in Australia must be able to make emergency calls, regardless of whether it has a SIM or not.

The electronic waste Apple generates is disgusting. But, consider also that Apple has Aus$10 billion revenue in Australia, and pays 1.2% of that in tax. I suggest that most multinationals will not act ethically unless coerced.

Back on topic... Why anyone would want to read email on their phone is pretty much beyond me...
 
gpw928 said:
Back on topic... Why anyone would want to read email on their phone is pretty much beyond me...
Click to expand...
I am not a fan of smart phones, began very late to use them, but being able to read emails in them is one of
the few advantages for me of having one.
 
I was thinking about this question, and the answer is sort of shocking. On desktop machines, I now use only a single e-mail client, and that one rarely. It turns out that both my personal e-mail and my office e-mail have web-based interfaces, which are better than what e-mail clients give me.

On a Mac, I still use the MacOS built-in client to connect to my personal e-mail via IMAP (incoming) and SMTP (outgoing). I actually really like that, and it is the only one better than the web-based stuff.

On Android cell phones, I use the built-in gmail client (not just for gmail e-mail, but also for IMAP servers). Works OK but not great. On iOS cell phones, I use the built-in mail client for IMAP servers, and it also works OK but not great. I think with the limited screen real estate of a cell phone, there is no way to have a good e-mail system.

I have not used a CLI-based mail tool in about 10 years. I think the last one was alpine.

It's sort of amazing that the web has won.
 
Claws Mail has always worked fine for me and it's fast too.

Normally the (standard) theme looks a bit old-fashioned, but with my particular XFCE theme I've become really attached to how it looks overall.
 
ralphbsz said:
---

On Android cell phones, I use the built-in gmail client (not just for gmail e-mail, but also for IMAP servers). Works OK but not great. On iOS cell phones, I use the built-in mail client for IMAP servers, and it also works OK but not great. I think with the limited screen real estate of a cell phone, there is no way to have a good e-mail system.

---
Click to expand...
I've degoogled my Android phone and tried both Fairmail and K-9 mail from the F-Droid repository. Both have open source code and do not require any Google registration. Both worked fine with IMAP from Charter/Spectrum's email server. I went w/ K-9 because it was a little smaller memory wise.
 
Other: exmh2 and nmh. Sometimes claws-mail (using MH style directory tree) when I'm feeling fancy.

Seriously though. And yes, like anything after I left the mainframe for UNIX, it has another story which is yet another TL;DR. I started out with DEC's DXmail an MH client. While under FreeBSD exmh2 was the best thing compatible (using MH directory trees) to DXmail. MH is gone but nmh, its rewrite, is here and exmh2 sits on top of it. claws-mail and sylpheed are fine but kinda quirky with signature blocks and a couple of other things because they try too hard to be "Outlook". They'd be better if they tried to be like "DXmail".

I've been off and on looking for DXmail source code on the 'net but all I can find are docs about how to use it. Too bad. I'd love to import it into the ports collection. It was probably one of the best, if not the best email client I'd ever used.
 
shepper said:
I've degoogled my Android phone and tried both Fairmail and K-9 mail from the F-Droid repository. Both have open source code and do not require any Google registration. Both worked fine with IMAP from Charter/Spectrum's email server. I went w/ K-9 because it was a little smaller memory wise.
Click to expand...

K-9 mail is great. Google's client stopped working with dovecot on my mail server after a google-play upgrade years ago. I'm glad it stopped working or I never would have had the impetus find this little gem.
 
I couldn't do nmh without smtp login, i.e. login type none.
As my smtp server does not require a password or login.
Error:
post : problem initializing server ; RPLMY 530 5.7.0
Authentication required
send: message not delivered to anyone
 
cy@ said:
K-9 mail is great. Google's client stopped working with dovecot on my mail server after a google-play upgrade years ago. I'm glad it stopped working or I never would have had the impetus find this little gem.
Click to expand...
The Android app itself is one of the mail apps with the lowest ratings.
play.google.com

K-9 Mail - Apps on Google Play

K-9 Mail is a 100% open source, privacy focused email client for Android
play.google.com play.google.com
3.1/5

There are a few other open source projects that all get higher ratings:
play.google.com

FairEmail, privacy aware email - Apps on Google Play

Fully featured, privacy oriented email app
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Proton Mail: Encrypted Email - Apps on Google Play

A trusted email app that uses end-to-end encryption and offers advanced security
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

p≡p - The pEp email client wit - Apps on Google Play

pEp (pretty Easy privacy) adds security on Gmail, iCloud or any IMAP account
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Tutanota - Encrypted Email - Apps on Google Play

Encrypted email & calendar app - fast, secure, easy by design, and open source.
play.google.com play.google.com
github.com

GitHub - itprojects/InboxPager: An E-mail client for the Android platform. Imap, pop, and smtp via SSL/TLS, with AES/PGP support.

An E-mail client for the Android platform. Imap, pop, and smtp via SSL/TLS, with AES/PGP support. - GitHub - itprojects/InboxPager: An E-mail client for the Android platform. Imap, pop, and smtp vi...
github.com github.com
play.google.com

Criptext Secure Email - Apps on Google Play

Encrypted. Private. Simple.
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

SimpleLogin | Anti-spam - Apps on Google Play

Your anti-spam superhero
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Type App mail - email app - Apps on Google Play

Make your email smarter
play.google.com play.google.com
play.google.com

Open Mail - Apps on Google Play

Full-featured Open Source email client
play.google.com play.google.com
f-droid.org

SimpleEmail | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Simple and minimalistic email app
f-droid.org f-droid.org
 
bob2112 said:
It depends how you use it; a common criticism is that it blocks too much because it's not multi-threaded. When I used it with local Dovecot IMAP I didn't have much of a problem.
Click to expand...
Redis is the fastest database and it's single threaded: https://medium.com/javarevisited/go-crazy-is-redis-single-threaded-or-multi-threaded-96fe8ff99ab9

I've been using Claws Mail for many years and you really can't complain about the performance.

Claws Mail: What an email client SHOULD be like

Claws Mail: What an email client SHOULD be like

Jack Wallen has been around the block with open source applications. And it's not often that one will sneak out of the woodwork and win him over as quickly as Claws Mail did. Can you be persuaded to give up your email client for the powerful, flexible, reliable Claws Mail?
www.techrepublic.com www.techrepublic.com

Claws Mail has to be one of the fastest to open applications I have seen in the Linux operating system. In the time it takes Thunderbird to open I can open and already be composing a new email in Claws Mail. It really is that fast.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top