Travel Technology - I need a new email client - convince me what to use...

OK, so I've been using Outlook for several years now, and it's starting to make me more and more annoyed.

I need a new email client and want some advise :)

Please let me know what you prefer, and why...

OK, so I've been using Outlook for several years now, and it's starting to make me more and more annoyed.

I need a new email client and want some advise :)

Please let me know what you prefer, and why...

Mutt. Text-based, fast, small & powerful. Of course, it doesn't play that well in a gui-based world. Still, when I have to read mail and I have to read it fast, this is what I use

Having tried Thunderbird and Eudora, personally, I'd stay with Outlook.

Netscape 7.2 with its integrated e-mail client: Powerful and doesn't come with the Micro$oft junk embedded in Outlook. Plus a great browser...

How can we answer that for you, Scott? We don't know what your personal preferences are or what your requirements are.


I use t-bird. It's very good. It doesn't hurt to try it. But, in the end, it's up to you, isn't it?

-David

Pine :cool: .

I can recommend the USPS. A little slow at times, but very flexible.

I liked Eudora.. just too bad not everyone else uses it.

Outlook is nice for stuff like planning meetings and stuff.

Pegasus Mail
I prefer version 3.12 to version 4 but that's more a matter of style preference.
I particularly like the way it handles distribution lists.

Incredimail :o

I just love all the smilies :)

Their latest version is more robust than the old piece of crap they used to have. Then robust is a very serious overstatement :D

i using thunderbird.

is nice , and free

Lets see...

There is Eudora. Then there is Eudora. Or you could choose Eudora.

Seriously, I have never run into a more robust, full-featured, and stable e-mail client.

Hey, good enough for UCLA, good enough for me.

Pine :cool: .

Elm, with a procmail whitelist filter :D

Friends don't let friends use MS-Outbreak.

When on Windows I use Eudora. I've been using it for 10+ years and it handles the HUGE pile of old messages rather well, I'd say!

I also use elm and pine in certain situations. Those work well too.

Can you specify what annoys you about Outlook? While I'm an avid Firefox and less avid OpenOffice user, I do strongly prefer MS Outlook to Eudora, Thunderbird, or Netscape 7. I find Outlook's integration of contact management, calendaring, messaging, and tasking superior, though I've never used the project management features.

I'm willing to overlook security problems because I usually read or preview messages on Pine first, and only download my POP mailboxes a few times an hour, and have virus and firewall software installed. So either Spamcop or I will have cleared out any suspicious messages. That may not mesh with your work patterns.

I'd take Eudora Lite over Outlook Express, though.

Lets see...

There is Eudora. Then there is Eudora. Or you could choose Eudora.

Seriously, I have never run into a more robust, full-featured, and stable e-mail client.

Hey, good enough for UCLA, good enough for me.

Eudora is great, but I don't like how it doesn't support Unicode. My only beef with an otherwise excellent product.

FewMiles..

Scott, you might want to try Microsoft Outlook. It works for me!

Anyway, don't you have more important things to be worrying about at the moment than upgrading your email software?

Another vote for Eudora - I've used it since its first version, and simply stated, it works. The latest version of adaptive spam ("junk") blocking is excellent. Good filtering tools too.

What does Eudora offer that t-bird doesn't? I didn't see anything obvious on their web site.

I vaguely remember using their client years and years ago. I switched to netscape when it became available, so that was a long time ago.

-David

Can you specify what annoys you about Outlook? While I'm an avid Firefox and less avid OpenOffice user, I do strongly prefer MS Outlook to Eudora, Thunderbird, or Netscape 7. I find Outlook's integration of contact management, calendaring, messaging, and tasking superior, though I've never used the project management features.

I'm willing to overlook security problems because I usually read or preview messages on Pine first, and only download my POP mailboxes a few times an hour, and have virus and firewall software installed. So either Spamcop or I will have cleared out any suspicious messages. That may not mesh with your work patterns.

I'd take Eudora Lite over Outlook Express, though.

I have over 4Gb of mail between 5 PSD files, and Outlook doesn't cope to well with that.

First, delete all the porn, that should take care of 95% of your problems :D

But if "size" is the problem, then you might want to use Lotus Notes.

Never used it without being connected to a Domino server, but it's the only email client out there that can handle, and I mean really perform with large size emails.

First, delete all the porn, that should take care of 95% of your problems :D

But if "size" is the problem, then you might want to use Lotus Notes.

Never used it without being connected to a Domino server, but it's the only email client out there that can handle, and I mean really perform with large size emails.The problem with Notes (and I've been a Notes user at work since R2 back in 1992, and was a developer from 1994 until R6 came out) is that it's proprietary elements make it more difficult for true interaction everywhere. The Notes client is bulky if all you're going to do is mail and not use it for groupware/knowledge management, and the Domino web client seems to only really want to work well under IE6.

But what Notes does excel at is the offline capabilities, such as working on the plane. Unconnected distributed collaboration was what the product was originally designed around, and while other products have caught up, Notes is still excellent at it.

It is bulky, but it's the only one I have seen that is capable of handling such large amounts of data.

I was going to recommend that you take a look at Bloomba. I downloaded a trial and found it too much for my personal needs. but for someone who maintains such large files, its searching capabilities seemed ideal. Unfortunately, Yahoo bought out the company three weeks ago and has taken the product off the market. :(

There is Eudora. Then there is Eudora. Or you could choose Eudora.

Seriously, I have never run into a more robust, full-featured, and stable e-mail client.

I used Eudora for several years, but S/MIME wasn't bundled with it, and I could never find a plug-in. Both Outlook/Outlook Express and Netscpae's mailer have it bundled. This is important for me.

Outlook Express (which I normally use) does an o.k. job with multiple accounts. Netscape does a better job, and its aesthetics are better. Outlook/Express is better for integrating with Hotmail (which I also use).

Bottom line, there are so many individual differences, it's hard to recommend something for another person. In the end I use multiple clients.
:(

I have over 4Gb of mail between 5 PSD files, and Outlook doesn't cope to well with that.

I have 3GB in a single unicode pst file (i.e., 2003 format pst) and it handles it just fine. Couple it with Google desktop and I can find any darn thing I need.

I have 3GB in a single unicode pst file (i.e., 2003 format pst) and it handles it just fine. Couple it with Google desktop and I can find any darn thing I need.

I haven't been keeping up with Outlook (now that I'm not in the computer support world)...

Does Outlook 2003 handle PST files larger than 2GB better than its previous versions? Oh, the issues I saw when PST files surpassed the 2GB mark...

I haven't been keeping up with Outlook (now that I'm not in the computer support world)...

Does Outlook 2003 handle PST files larger than 2GB better than its previous versions? Oh, the issues I saw when PST files surpassed the 2GB mark...

Yes, the new version elimiates the 2Gb limit. Caveat: You cannot just start using O2K3 with your old pst and expect to exceed the limit. You need to create a new pst, and copy all the old stuff into the new one. Quite tedious.

Evolution is the way to go. It's from Ximian, now part of Novell. Hope you don't mind moving to Linux. :D

Evolution is the way to go. It's from Ximian, now part of Novell. Hope you don't mind moving to Linux. :D

I already use that on my Redhat box. It's nice, but not as nice as Thunderbird or Outlook.

Thunderbird is busy importing my email (and has been doing that all day:D)

Is all that mail stored locally, or stored on a server somewhere?

For work stuff, we use imap, and I use filtering at the source. Really old stuff goes into folders that I don't normally subscribe to, but I can if I need to.

In reality, I end up using grep or other such tools to find really old stuff I need to find on the server.

-David

I have over 4Gb of mail between 5 PSD files, and Outlook doesn't cope to well with that.

Those are some large Photoshop images! :D

I agree with Cx4... pine is the way to go. I have 1.5GB of mail, and it handles it like a champ. I also use Squirellmail for Webmail access when I'm on the road or if I need to view an HTML email.

Eudora is great, but I don't like how it doesn't support Unicode. My only beef with an otherwise excellent product.

FewMiles..

Apologies if I confuse technologies here... Kanji is displayed with Unicode, right? Does Eudora display Kanji correctly with the Windows Language Pack installed?

Displaying non-English characters easily (aka I never think about it) is one of my favorite things about my mac. I spent 2 hours wrestling with Win XP to make it display Kanji correctly in Outlook and IE, downloading language packs and updating preferences. I've installed no wonky language packs on my ibook, it just... works. :D

To be on-topic:
Outlook -> tolerated
Pine -> prefered
Apple Mail -> very very nice

Pine :cool: .

I pine for the days of Pine...


Seriously, I don't think the ideal email application exists yet. It's one of those situations where the technologists haven't been able to catch up with the way people use it.

Mark my words, there will be a tipping point here in terms of the types of tech that underlies the infrastructure and how and what kind of tech is used by people. Way beyond the Blackberry stuff.

I have over 4Gb of mail between 5 PSD files, and Outlook doesn't cope to well with that.

Interesting dilema. I've recently started using Outlook at home because I understand what it actually does with my email (I know where the PST files are and how to use them as opposed to the MSN client which is a mystery and Outlook Express which is a mess). I currently have 1GB of email at home and will use the same strategy as I use at work:

-Never let a PST file get too big to fit uncompressed onto a CD
-Only have open the PSTs that I need
-Try to organise my emails such that things I know I might need again are always available with any less important stuff more than a year old going onto CDR.

I take it you regularly compress your PST files?

Obviously, if you need all four gigs open at once (say for searching) then you might have a problem on your hands.

One more thing I will add: When it comes to searching, even with my relatively small PST files, Google Desktop Search is lightning fast compared to Outlook's own search.

Regards
I

I pine for the days of Pine...


Seriously, I don't think the ideal email application exists yet. It's one of those situations where the technologists haven't been able to catch up with the way people use it.


Sure it does. Pine :).

I do exactly what markbach does--pine, and squirrelmail over an SSL connnection when I'm in a pinch, and the combination has managed e-mail for me for 10+ years. CLI based e-mail is so much faster than any GUI application could ever hope to be....

t-bird, with popfile as a spam blocker, for the past few months. Before that I used Eudora.

I have over 4Gb of mail between 5 PSD files, and Outlook doesn't cope to well with that.


I have had similar issues for years, and was very pleasantly surprised by Outlook 2003. Not only have they finally fixed many of the 2Gb problems, but they finally handle multiple email services decently.

--Laird

I can recommend the USPS. A little slow at times, but very flexible.

ROTFLMAO

If I get ambitious over the holidays, I might start playing with different mail clients.

Sure it does. Pine :).

I do exactly what markbach does--pine, and squirrelmail over an SSL connnection when I'm in a pinch, and the combination has managed e-mail for me for 10+ years. CLI based e-mail is so much faster than any GUI application could ever hope to be....
I've been using Pine for email since 1992 and can't see any reason to stop! I've just upgraded to Pine 4.61 and my inbox has 9,166 messages in it dating back to April 2000. It is fast enough for me to use via a mobile phone dialup link at 9.6kbps. It does everything I want it to. Additionally I've put the Mindterm SSH applet on my webserver so that I can connect to my email securely from almost any PC including those in Admiral's Clubs.

For those who aren't fortunate enough to have a shell account on a Unix box I'd suggest Thunderbird - http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird - it will import Outlook and Outlook Express PST files and converts storage to plain text which makes much more sense to me.