

Ask HN: recommendations for a mail client? - jackfoxy

Looking for a desktop mail client to replace Outlook. I'll use it to access a Gmail account as IMAP and a POP3 account. I'm dissatisfied with Outlook 2007 (home) and even more dissatisfied with Outlook 2010 (work). I'm also dissatisfied with Gmail's web-based client. Outlook is unintuitive in practically every common task (and worse for the uncommon tasks). Gmail is too minimalistic. I'm getting ready to evaluate Thunderbird. I just want to solicit some recommendations. Seamless interface to Google contacts and calendar would be a plus.
======
sidmitra
\- If you want to go old school, you might try Alpine.

\- I use Opera a lot, which has an email client built in. Since my browser is
open all day, it makes it easier to search through old indexed mail with just
a click. I don't like keeping multiple apps open all the time. So it works out
for me. Its RSS feed client interface is neatly tied into that as
well(although minimal). I subscribe to important notification, project
activity feeds there(which don't belong in my regular Google reader). So i
would you suggest you take take it out for a spin. it doesn't have GCal
integration, but thats on my speed dial anyways.

~~~
bediger
You beat me to recommending "alpine" (<http://www.washington.edu/alpine/>).
Alpine is super fast, you can use it just about under any OS (as long as it
has terminal window) and it understands SMTP and other protocols well enough
that I've managed to use it in a lot of different situations from my basement
DSL server.

------
madhouse
Thunderbird would be a good choice. Mozilla has a few calendar solutions
aswell: <http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/> (haven't used them, I'm
happy with google calendar's web interface).

~~~
jackfoxy
I like Google calendar, and Google contacts meets my needs, so I'd like to
work with them, and I see Thunderbird has several add-ins to work with both,
but see my reply above, I just can't come to terms with the Gmail client.

------
sandipagr
May I know why do you think outlook is unintuitive and also why is Gmail
minimalistic? I love Gmail personally and would love to know if I there can be
other features in other clients that you are looking for which will make
managing emails easier.

~~~
jackfoxy
Outlook unintuitive -- Here's an example: Try to access your signature(s) for
adding/updating without starting a new email message first. I think I'm mostly
peeved at 2 things: changes to menus in Outlook 2010, and poor handling of the
message list for IMAP accounts.

Gmail minimalistic -- I just never caught on to the label thing. I know some
people love it. It also seems I can't choose a different signature while
composing an email. And the arrangement of buttons never seemed right to me.
Probably the biggest thing is by default I want to see a folder tree of my
email, arranged in the state I last left it in. The Gmail client is just a
different paradigm.

