[Macworld]

Post your comments for Email clients: Fast, fluid, ineffective here

[deemery]

I still miss Eudora.

[flowney]

I loved Eudora, even on Newton, but she let herself go.

[d00d]

Any reason for not trying to augment Mail.app with an AppleScript? The following seems to fit the bill for what seems to be the one specific gripe:

http://apple.stackex...oup-in-contacts

[sdebode]

I just tried the telegraph ... CBREENATMACWORLDDOTCOM but think there's a break in the line ......

[wardoggie]

d00d, on 18 January 2013 - 08:13 AM, said:

Any reason for not trying to augment Mail.app with an AppleScript? The following seems to fit the bill for what seems to be the one specific gripe:

http://apple.stackex...oup-in-contacts

Yet another reason to love AppleScript!

[BoxOfSnoo]

I am mostly pleased with Mail.app - provided I have Mail Act-On installed. I have MailTags, but I haven't really sold myself on it yet.

Mail.app at least leaves the mail in a directory structure, rather than inside a corruptible proprietary database.

The most powerful mail client I used, though, was mutt. Text mode but definitely flexible.

[JimO]

Morris code is tougher to read than it is to listen to! Amazing how the mind works. And, of course, there is no @ sign.

I'd also like to see Apple make the message composition page easier to use. I was appalled when I recently switched from a 10 year old version of Outlook. I guess us old-timers who still use e-mail will have to just tough it out!

Jim O (KC0AA)

[Hobowankenobi]

Some valid points, but sad to see that the primary point is to complain about Lookout (a more accurate name....).

There are lots of alternatives, and though each has their strength and weakness, it would be great to see reviews and comparisons. Here's a good list to start with:

http://alternativeto...k/?platform=mac

MailPilot looks pretty sexy. How about giving it a test spin and review?

[Chris Breen]

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Some valid points, but sad to see that the primary point is to complain about Lookout (a more accurate name....).

That really wasn't the primary point, though if Outlook wasn't so funky I doubt I would have written the piece. The broader point is that developers don't seem interested in creating powerful email tools. No one really seems to be going after the "I want to filter my messages to within an inch of their life and I'd like you to provide me with the controls to do that" crowd. Rather the applications are cleaner and provide simpler ways of doing certain things, but much of it seems designed to make as little work for the user as possible. (I'm not suggesting that's a bad thing. I just want the option to dig deeper if I need to.)

Hobowankenobi, on 18 January 2013 - 03:07 PM, said:

MailPilot looks pretty sexy. How about giving it a test spin and review?

For my specific purposes I see no way to tag a contact and then base a filter on the tag.

[avi8tor]

I could not have written a better piece, Chris. Well done.. if the developers listen or read that is. Email is the primary tool for correspondence and unfortunately the junk that comes with it. Having an email client that can be configured in any way possible... for the user, not the developer... would be a dream come true.

[d00d]

Chris Breen, on 18 January 2013 - 03:19 PM, said:

The broader point is that developers don't seem interested in creating powerful email tools. No one really seems to be going after the "I want to filter my messages to within an inch of their life and I'd like you to provide me with the controls to do that" crowd.

My guess would be because it's rather small and when you market to that, you lose the larger market. Look at what has happened to all the power email programs. They've disappeared from lack of profitability. You're witnessing the market at work.

Quote

Rather the applications are cleaner and provide simpler ways of doing certain things, but much of it seems designed to make as little work for the user as possible. (I'm not suggesting that's a bad thing. I just want the option to dig deeper if I need to.)

I think you're perhaps being a bit dismissive of Mail.app's capabilities when it comes to filtering. Sure, it takes a few steps to add people the filter group you have set up, but as I commented above, it seems fixable for power users (which seems to me is the target audience that wants that much out of an email client).

[Bill501]

I refuse to give up Eudora and so run Macs with 10.6.8. If I have a Mac that requires 10.7 or 10.8 and I cannot get 10.6.8 to install and run via a clone, I use Snow Leopard Server as a virtual machine. I do not have stability problems with Eudora in this setting. No other email program is adequate for my needs and I have tried them all.

I've been an inveterate Mac/OS X fanboi until recently since Apple has dumbed down the system. I have no need for iOS and don't want my Macs seem like iOS.

[whitedog]

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I refuse to give up Eudora and so run Macs with 10.6.8. If I have a Mac that requires 10.7 or 10.8 and I cannot get 10.6.8 to install and run via a clone, I use Snow Leopard Server as a virtual machine. I do not have stability problems with Eudora in this setting. No other email program is adequate for my needs and I have tried them all. I've been an inveterate Mac/OS X fanboi until recently since Apple has dumbed down the system. I have no need for iOS and don't want my Macs seem like iOS.

You can use Eudora OSE (Open Source Eudora) with current versions of OS X: http://www.macupdate...ac/7107/eudora. It's based on Thunderbird with the addition of the Penelope plug-in to provide a Eudora-like interface. And you can import your Eudora 6 mail, folders and contacts. Unfortunately, Penelope development stalled out late in 2010. Subsequently, the developers of Thunderbird have also abandoned modernization efforts, though they are still providing bug-fix and security updates. They claim lack of popular interest as the cause of their loss of enthusiasm, though there are still many millions of Thunderbird users. The developers have apparently bought into the motion that social media - and the ubiquitous web mail - are replacing client-side e-mail programs as preferred electronic communications products, mistaking, in my opinion, faddish fluff for serious business tools.

Eudora OSE handles HTML much better than Eudora 6 ever did. On the downside, it doesn't do as well with spam.

It's certainly true that open source and free - or inexpensive - e-mail clients have a hard time competing with a retail product like Outlook, which has become ever more expensive as it has become more unreliable - the typical Microsoft development strategy. Fortunately, Entourage, from Office 2008, still works in OS X - though I won't presume to say how long that will remain true.

It's also the case that, for all its popularity, web mail continues to be exceedingly clumsy and inefficient to use. I suspect most folks just don't know any better. It shows once again that people can get used to anything. In this case, you definitely get what you pay for. Personally, I'd be willing once again to pay for Eudora if development were to be maintained. But Mozilla has run out of steam and cannot be bothered to support anything but Firefox. So much for the virtues and vitality of open source.

I recently discovered that Apple Mail (in Mountain Lion) can import G-mail messages and mail boxes, though it does an imperfect job of grabbing G-mail contacts. I did this for a client when he bought a new iMac in order to show him how much easier a client-side e-mail app is to use than web mail. Sadly, most people don't know the difference. Apple Mail also did an excellent job of converting the G-mail iMap account to a POP account - much to my surprise. I was expecting to have to go through the usual tedious process of setting up the client side account, and Mail did it for me. Kudos to Apple for that one.