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QotD: Email

Question: What email client do you use?

My Answer: Entourage. I've considered Mail several times, and I've considered Mailsmith several times, but neither fit me as well as Entourage. About the only thing I dislike in Entourage is some text editing things (that Mailsmith and Mail "do right"), but the other two seem to be missing sooooo much more.

You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.

18 Responses to "QotD: Email"

  1. Primary (Where all my mail ends up eventually) Mail.app. Work - Thunderbird. Occasionally Thunderbird at home when I'm on a PC, occasionally a Web e-mail client. I'm really impressed with Thunderbird so far. Not impressed enough to replace Mail.app on the Mac, but it's what I use everywhere else.

  2. I still use Outlook in classic. because it is the only app that has true exchange capabilities.

  3. Mail.app. I used Entourage before Jaguar introduced a version of Mail.app that didn't suck. I like the integration with Mac OS X's addressbook. If Entourage could use the built-in addressbook and iCal, I would use it, since I like to sync with my iPod and Bluetooth phone.

  4. I use an AppleScript to synchronize my AB and Entourage. I don't use the calendar - iCal or Entourage - for much.

  5. Mail.app

    Which features do you actually miss at Mail.app?

  6. The list is too large to post specifics, but it doesn't "feel right." The method of quoting (those stupid lines) annoy me every time. Everything in the UI feels "too big" including fonts, etc. It's not as customizable. It lacks sound sets. It's not as scriptable (or as easily scriptable, anyway). It does enriched email (ick!). It insists on having that preview window open far too often. I don't like its keyboard shortcuts (yeah, petty, I know). I can't colorize folders with labels. I can't set up signatures to be as flexible as I want the (random for some accounts, pre-set for others). I want all of my mail in the same mailboxes (and saved on my computer), not in different mailboxes. That last one's a big one.

    Even if there are some solutions to these (I use Mail at work where I have exactly one account, and it's IMAP), that won't convince me to use it, because I already know how to do these things in Entourage. No gain, much time wasted.

    Mail and Mailsmith have no compelling feature over Entourage. Their better text-editing capabilities don't make up for their several shortcomings.

    Plus, Mailsmith is rather spartan. I understand that it's one of the goals, given BBEdit and the company name, but I want a little more glitz in my email client. Just a little. However, I'd quickly "get over it" and "just love it" (as I do BBEdit) if it did all I want. I'm closer to using it than Mail, I think.

  7. Mail.app

  8. Mail.app's big win is handling multiple email addresses. I have several aliases (for shopping, mailing lists, etc) forwarded to one mailbox. With other mail apps, I have to set up a separate account for each address. Mail.app lets me set up one account and list all of the email addresses separated by commas and all of them will appear in the compose menu.

    I haven't seen any other mail app that handles addresses that way, and that's my biggest reason for sticking with mail.app.

  9. I to hate Mail.app my choice email client is Mozilla Thunderbird.

    One question for Mike Cohen... if you have multiple email address which just forward all the email to one account so that:

    Account A is the Master account

    B is your shopping account

    C is your finicial account

    B -> A and C-> A

    Why on earth would you ever need to set up multiple email accounts? The only thing you ever need to check is A since everything ends up in A.

  10. Entourage - I just don't miss anything.

  11. PINE - Simple, quick, effective. Most robust IMAP client around.

  12. Samual Icky- I'm not Mike Cohen, but...

    The problem is not recieving mail, the problem is sending it. Mail makes it really easy to set the From field to the approporiate address.

  13. Eudora. I'd like to switch to Mail.app, but it's speed and lack of robust features is holding me back. The integration of addressbook and ical, though is very tempting, especially since I'm probably getting a modern bluetooth phone soon (finally).

    Eudora handles huge mailboxes better than anything. It's filters are very powerful. The only thing it really sucks at is rendering html mail (and it really sucks at that). And it lacks integration with at least AddressBook.

    I'll probably bite the bullet and switch to Mail.app when I get my new phone, the temptation will be too great. BTW, anyone use the SE T616? If so, what do you think of it?

  14. Samuel, Daniel said it. I only need to check one address, but I need to be able to send from each address.

  15. Eudora.

    Keyboard control. Configurability (and how!). Filters. Really fast deep searching (I can search 100 MB of mail in seconds). Handles huge mailboxes with aplomb. Drag and drop. Attachment handling. Signature management, account management, works with my Palm, works with POP and IMAP happily. Does the right thing when quoting mail. Busts open formatted mail to show you the code (Blah blah button). Can transfer entire mailbox/filter clusters from PC to Mac and back. Really good strong spam filtering (in paid mode) -- nearly as good as Mail.app's. Did I mention configurability? And speed? And that quoting mail thing? (I hate mail.app's bad handling of mail quoting.) Works in 'one window/three pane' mode or 'many individual open windows' mode.

    If Safari is a browser for everyone and Mozilla is a browser for power users, then Mail is an email client for everyone and Eudora is the email client for power users. It defines what email clients should do.

    Which does not include HTML, IMNSHO. I don't care that Eudora's handling of HTML email is bad. In fact I prefer it -- less chance of malignant mail doing evil things behind a pretty facade.

    I use Mail.app on my laptop for an IMAP account and a Hotmail account. The Hotmail is for spam signups and anything important in the IMAP account gets left in there until I check it from my desktop in Eudora and file it there.

    Did I mention configurable?

  16. Mail right now. I used Entourage until Jaguar beta or so. Initially switched because Mail felt a lot faster. I haven't tried the latest updates to it, maybe I'll fire it up and see how it compares now.

    I recently checked out MailSmith and Eudora again. Eudora I didn't really like. The interface was the main problem. The floating tool bar was my pet peeve with it.

    MailSmith had a lot of cool stuff in it. I really liked being able to attach filters to a folder and have them trigger when things like a new message is added. Seemed great for processing stuff. Few things I didn't like about it though. I wish the folder list could be moved to the right side, having to go to the window menu to get a browser felt awkward. I like how mail opens it when you click on the dock. $99 also seems a little steep. I don't mind paying for a client, but it didn't offer enough over the cheeper options to justify the price.

  17. mutt and Mail.app. mutt for reading stuff on the go, before it arrives in Mail.app at home.

  18. I use Entourage. I've tried every mail client out there, and none work as well for me as Entourage does. I gave up on Mail.app simply because it "forgot" which account received a message if said message was filtered to a folder.

    As far as a reason not to use mail forwarding on all accounts. I can give you two:

    1. If you have an account set up to catch all mail sent to @domain.com, then often (always?)it can't be a forwarded address. At least my host won't allow it so I have to check those addresses separately.

    2. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If you receive all your mail at the same location, and that one location has a problem you're out all your email across all accounts. If I'm having trouble getting email on one domain, it doesn't affect any others.

    On the other hand, I'm webmaster@domain.com on the sites that I have designed and maintain and I just forward that mail to my main account. I don't get enough email there to make it worth checking another box.