Mail User Agent Comparisons? 14
tjgoodwin asks: "I'm the SysAdmin in an astronomy department. Our currently supported mail user agent is pine [?] , but I'm looking at alternatives. I'm particularly interested in strong support for qmail's maildirs. I need to support at least one text-based UA: mutt [?] does what I need with maildirs, but is it really suitable for a user base, many of whom are new to Unix? I'm also considering graphical UAs, preferably gnome-based. I've failed to find any useful comparison information (the UNIX Email Software Survey FAQ is seriously out of date). Any pointers?"
One word. (Score:2)
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Separate implementation from interface (Score:3)
Most web browsers provide a direct means of reading IMAP mail. Certainly Netscape Navigator does, and the Open Source version "Mozilla" does. By allowing them to read mail through the browser, your users have one less program to learn.
Bruce
Re:One word. (Score:1)
But there is a patch! (Score:1)
So what's wrong with pine then?
btw, you can also directly access you're inbox with "pine -i".
Re:Separate implementation from interface - text? (Score:1)
Ralf
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
Re:Separate implementation from interface - text? (Score:1)
Pine can do IMAP. I think it may be a compile-time option to de/enable it, though.
Re:One word. (Score:1)
Yes, it would seem so, wouldn't it?
Re:Separate implementation from interface - text? (Score:1)
PINE is something of a 'reference implementation' of an IMAP-capable mailreader, I think it was the first. Mutt may 'support' IMAP, but everything I read suggested it supported it somewhat.
However, virtually every non-UNIX GUI mail client nowadays supports IMAP -- Outlook, Mulberry, Eudora, Netscape Messenger (PMMail for Windows and OS/2 does not sigh). Virtually every X-based mail client is 'working on it.'
Re:Separate implementation from interface (Score:1)
S/MIME Too! (Score:1)
And where is Pine's support for S/MIME? While I think Netscape Communicator is an underpowered MUA it has the minimum features I require:
Is there any other MUA with these three features?
Mutt (Score:1)
IMAP is a very nice technology, especially since you can put clever backends behind it (mail in a proper database has always struck me as a Good Thing), but it's generally received quite a cool reception in the UNIX world. That's changing now, but a lot of admins still aren't quite happy with it. *sigh*.
Re:Separate implementation from interface (Score:1)
Re:But there is a patch! (Score:2)
Re:Separate implementation from interface (Score:2)
What I hope to see from this thread is a clean, simple, IMAP (or POP, sigh) based GUI email client for X.