E-mail programs for Mac OS X: what do you use?

[Phil St. Romain]

You do not have to post a comment to vote.

----------------------

Eudora here, although I've tried many others. It's still got some rough edges--like not allowing copy/paste of URLs into the link editor--but all in all, it does the job for me very well.

Using Mozilla as my web browser, I'm often taken to its email client when I click on an email link. Email in Mozilla is decent.

I tried Entourage in the Office test drive, and thought it simply wonderful. If I could purchase just Entourage as a stand-alone email client, I'd probably do so.

Mail.app is very nice, but lacks some of the power features of Eudora that I constantly use.

I've also used Power Mail and a few others, and found them OK, but just keep relying on Eudora.

[Craig R. Arko]

I use Mail.app but am not overly fond of it. I'm considering PowerMail as a replacement.

If Entourage X was available on it's own I'd also consider that. Julie seems quite happy with it, despite the PowerBook hard drive issue.

[Benad]

I use both mutt and Mail.app.
Yes, mutt, the command-line application. I had to configure sendmail, install mutt with Fink and configure mutt to use fetchmail (which I previously configured also).

I also installed urlview (manual configure/patch/install) and w3m (through Fink), and I can read HTML attachments and go to web sites, using the terminal alone.

That way, I get securely get all my email and browse the web through an ssh connection to my home computer.

I guess I'm starting to be a UNIX geek... ;)

(edit: "mutt", not "Pine". I use Pine at my university, and mutt on Mac OS X...)

- Benad

[DSHwrd]

Do you Yahoo?

Well, when I got OS X, I learned to Yahoo. I do not like Mail.app, Eudora, or any of the others, they just don't float my boat. I do like Euntorage(Spelling?), so when Micromoney finally decides that they'll let you buy it as a stand alone application, I'll buy that.

Right now, I have everything forwarded to my Yahoo account. So I can easily check it wherever I am.

Just my two pennies,

[cubester]

Mail seems to display HTML messages better for me than Eudora could, and I find it generally appealing. I don't need poweruser email features, but I would like a "recipients list" like Eudora has, so I can quickly send a new email or forward to a frequent recipient (drop down menu of recipients) I hope apple integrates this into a future version. Also, I don't understand why the keystroke command for get new mail is command + shift + N, instead of command + N, as I will be getting new mail more often than anything else, and I shouldn't require two hands to do it.
Mail also seems to fail to display Base 64 encoded messages. Is this true for all?

[yoyo52]

I've paid for Eudora, but it isn't up to prime time on X yet, so I use Entourage exclusively. I started off with Mail.app before Entourage became available, but it just can't compare to what Entourage offers.

[Phil St. Romain]

Just curious, yoyo, about what makes Eudora not up to prime time yet for OS X. It's pretty much 99% of what the OS 9 and Windows versions are. And seems very stable. Maybe there are some features we can help you discover.

[yoyo52]

The thing that I've found least satisfactory/reliable is html rendering. The latest version does render html, but there are times when layout gets skewed so that the mail is hard to read. I'm hoping that when the non-beta Eudora for X comes out that will be resolved.

I'm also not happy that to open a URL you need to hold down the command key, but I can live with that. Importing mailboxes from Entourage I still haven't figured out how to do--nor addresses from Entourage. Any suggestions on how to do those things would be very welcome!

[JayBee]

I must admit I REALLY like Mail.app. Can't say I've tried much else, but since OS X Beta I've been using it as my main client.

On my old windows machine, I was always on the lookout for an app as pared down and functional as Mail, but couldn't find one. All I want is a simple client that grabs my mail, displays it nicely, and lets me send clean plaintext mail. Add to that an address book integration and an easy way to backup, and I'm a happy camper.

I've always been a little wary of the "eggs in one basket" approach of some other clients - the seem to be screaming "Hey! Put all your contacts, appointments, reminders, planners, attachments, emails, receipts and other such important data in HERE! That way, when I die, I'll kill your life in one fell swoop...!"

Hmm. No thanks. At least when Mail.app dies, I don't lose Address Book data ;)

<edit>
And who needs Entourage to organise your life when you have STICKIES!?
</edit>

[durandal64]

I'd like to use Mail.app, just because I try and use as many Cocoa apps as possible (I can't stand the crappy font antialiasing in Carbon apps, nor their nonstandard interface), but alas, it's a piece of crap. I use Entourage.

[DSHwrd]

Hey,

Thanks to a recent birthday!! I now have Office v.X! It's sweet! But alas, Entourage is terribly slow when listing the messages I have received. It takes a good 10 seconds or longer to show any number from 15 - 100 messages. Is this normal? Or is this just my computer?

- G3 500Mhz
- 512MB RAM
- 16MB VRAM ATI 128 SomeOrOther(Rage Pro?)
- 40G HD, 3G Swap

Just wondering,

[xchanyazy]

This sounds somewhat familiar - something about leaving the messages on the server without downloading them.. make sure you are downloading the messages to your harddrive.

[tarmaque]

I use Mail.app exclusively and it suits my feeble needs. I only get about two messages a day or so. I must say that I don't particularly like it, and all I can say is that I like it better than any thing else I have tired. I would use Mozilla, except that I have the same complaint about it's mail UI that I have about Mozilla's UI in general-- It's ugly and complicated. If Chimera ever grows up maybe.... For the time being, I'll use Mail.app and Omniweb (with Mozilla around for those things that these two won't do) and keep my fingers crossed for something better.

Eudora? don't like it.

Anything Microsoft? I avoid it like the Herpies symplex III.

[sarcasmatron]

The Citrix Java client is pretty cool and it another reason not to have to use my Dell at the office.

I can also VPN into work from wherever I am and I have access to all of my Outlook functionality.

[durandal64]

I'm changing my vote. I figured I'd switch to Mail for an extended period of time, just to give it a shot.
I have to say, I'm a sucker for Quartz font rendering and the Cocoa interface in general. Mail isn't as extensive or customizable as Entourage. For example, I can't choose to start my replies below quoted text, which really peeves me. However, I do like the way mail handles inboxes much better than the way Entourage does. All in all, I believe that I'll stick with Mail.

[sangandongo]

nothing beats mutt in my book.

[brodie]

hey Phil, all these polls, you sure your not a market researcher? ;)

[Phil St. Romain]

Originally posted by brodie
hey Phil, all these polls, you sure your not a market researcher? ;)

Ha, brodie, I'm just curious about some of this, and also trying to get some involvement going . I think the polling feature on this software is kind of fun. :)

I have to say that on this particular topic, I'm surprised at the popularity of Entourage. I knew Mail would be up there, but given that Entourage is not a freebie, I would have thought Eudora would have been second. Guess it just goes to show how many people use Office for X.

[Cheerios]

mail... it's there, it suits my needs, it's easy... I'm happy! :D The 9 version of eudora annoyed the heck out of me, i abhor Enterough... :shrug: Why fix what isn't broken?

[carrollr]

I realize I'm a little off topic, but what are people who use groupwise going to do with OS X?
We are forced to use it by the suits. They do have a webmail, but it ain't the best solution.
Any ideas?

[marcv]

I'm using Eudora now, but I need better, multi-language spellchecking. just installed CocoAspell, which works fine for me. I don't like mail so much, any other recommandations, GNUmail maybe?

[xchanyazy]

Right now I'm using pine (with fetch/sendmail), but can't wait for the new version of Mail (see this (http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2744) thread) to come out. I'll probably still use fetchmail, so I don't have to put up with all of the "can't recieve mail at this time, so I'm going to take 20% of your CPU and bounce in the dock like a madman" type error messages and just use mail to check my unix mailbox, but it'll be nice to have a gui that doesn't suck (hopefully)

[greenfruit]

i use mail.app, im no power user so far as email goes, and its great.

in fact i just wish theyd do a 9 version so i can use it at work. Ive recently moved from Quickmailpro to Netscape at work.

[sao]

I use mail.app and Entourage.

But, what I really enjoy these days, is using "evolution".

I think is very cool !


Cheers...

[macmath]

I like Mail.app, except I cannot figure out how to interrupt the download of graphics for a letter from MacMall or someone else. With Eudora, a command-. would stop the download and then I could delete the letter. Unfortunately, I only have a license for Eudora 4.3 and I'm not going back to OS 9 for that one thing. I've learned to adapt, but I still miss that function. [If I delete another letter, I hold down on the Option key and I'm not taken to the next letter. Also, I select a harmless letter and use the command key and the mouse to select the graphics-laden emails and delete them all at once.] Sigh.

[greenfruit]

its in viewing preferences, turn off download images/attatchments

[DougAdams]

I have yet to find an email client that can do what Classic OE does for me. Using AppleScripts and Rules, my mail is sorted, filed, replied to, and managed beautifully (and I get scores of emails a day). If any other email client was as 'scriptable and configurable as Classic OE, I'd switch in a second (and stop running Classic). As it is, my email would be a mess without it (as I have proven to myself several times by attempts to switch to ANYTHING else, even Mozilla Mail, which is pretty darn good too).

Doug
Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes (http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/)

[macmath]

I've turned (download images) on and off before. In general, I want it on, but I'd like to turn say 'No' on a case-by-case basis (as with the Command-.).

[Morpheus]

Explain to me what mail.app is? Sorry im a newbie sort of... Ive always used Mac but when it comes to UNIX im a newbie.

Im assuming its the default email program OSX comes with.

I use Entrouge. my cable company gives me and account but i also use Mac.com because Entrougue supports it and i can check it anywhere i am now.

[Benad]

Mail.app is Mac OS X's default mail application. It supports POP and IMAP servers, and can display several message attachments types (HTML, JPEG, RTF...). More info here (http://www.apple.com/macosx/whatyoucando/applications/mail.html).

The ".app" is a hidden extension that identifies Mac OS X bundles as applications, but often the "file extension" is hidden by the Finder. So, while it says "Mail" everywhere, the "Get Info" window should show you "Mail.app".

As for Mail.app itself, it's good for most users, but "power users" might prefer other non-Apple mail applications (I use the UNIX command-line "mutt").

- Benad

[Morpheus]

thought so. Thanks anyways..

[phidauex]

I use Mail.app. I think its neat, clean and simple. I don't want a million features, I just want to send and receive plain text emails. I like how it parses and colors quoted text, and I like how it shows me that I have new mail in the dock. Simple = good.

I use Lotus Notes at work on my Wintel machine, and so far i've had to use iNotes webmail to check that mail from my OS X machine, but Lotus is supposedly coming out with an OS X version of Notes. It will be useful, but I don't like notes much in general, so I'm not jumping for joy or anything :)

I have Entourage, because i have office v.x, but i don't like it.

peace,
phidauex

[greek-irish]

I have found for the little bit of emailing that I do in OS X (and receive 5-10/day), Nisus Email 1.6.1 (OS X) works fine. I have never gotten Mail.app to work properly, so I use NE. In OS 9 I use NE as well and like its drag and drop and word processor (any) integration.

[Treavize]

I use Yahoo mail. I have used it for 4 years with no problems. I can check my mail from any computer. I do miss the free POP access which prevents me from using Mail.app.

[Jacques]

Have you noticed that Yahoo! mail in Omniweb has VERY large fonts now? (the new version of Yahoo! mail that is, there were no font problems with the older version)

Mozilla shows Yahoo! mail just fine though, but I can't shake Omniweb - it's just much more Mac-like to me.. I'm thankful for the auto font-resizing gidgets!

[rusto]

Eudora Mailbox Cleaner now updated for Jaguar:

http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/

[evbvd]

I'm trying to move everything from outlook express 5.0.4 (classic) into mail.app. I successfully imported my mail, but no go with the address book. did I do something wrong, or does mail actually not harvest the OE address book and put it in 10.2's address book?

any advice, etc. would be welcome....

[danimal]

I get around 100 messages a day, and I use Mail.app quite happily. I formerly used Mozilla but there is an IMAP bug that was driving me crazy, I even tried to help fix it but the ones in control apparently do not have OSX.

However, though I don't use it regularly, Pine is the most powerful email client available IMO -- though arguably it is not user intuitive. I also use procmail for powerful mail filtering... no graphical client comes close to it's flexibility -- though again not super intuitive.

Why would anyone use that MS junk, do you not have any principles?

[Jacques]

I've been using Mozilla Mail more often, I'm curious.. what IMAP bug?

Any other observations about Mozilla Mail?

[SunByrne]

I'm a big fan of Mailsmith, even though I didn't think really hit its stride until OS X. Powerful filtering, incredibly scriptable, and made by a terrific company (Bare Bones). And it had unix-ish features long before OS X (like regular expression-based searching/filtering and emacs key bindings).

Some people don't like that it's not an HTML-based email program, but I consider that an advantage, since HTML email is just a waste of bandwidth anyway.

And no, it's not Cocoa, but it's still a very solid email client!

[danimal]

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130359

[Jacques]

Originally posted by danimal
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=130359

The bug may have been corrected, see this short Macintouch blurb about the new Mozilla 1.2 alpha release:

Mozilla 1.2a is an alpha-test release of the next version of the open-source web browser. This alpha release adds Type Ahead Find (which allows quickly finding links or text on the page), adds drag-and-drop from the message search results window, offers preliminary XML pretty-printing, improves Mac OS X IMAP mail header performance, expands keyboard access, and more. Mozilla is available for Mac OS 8.5 and up and Mac OS X (as well as Linux, Windows, and other systems).

The Mozilla project rolls on..

Have a good weekend,
Jacques

---

PS - the last comment dated yesterday concerning this insect (did you know mosquitoes have 47 teeth?):
------- Additional Comment #65 From Stephen Donner 2002-09-12 18:55 -------
Note: I just tried on OS X with the latest 2002-09-12-08 build as well, same
setup as my prior comment, and no crash yet. I'll keep an eye out, though.

[rekowmac]

I greatly appreciate this question.

I was very happy running my home business with OE until I went to OSX, and was forced to use OE.5 in the Classic mode.

The application had gotten needlessly complicated with annoying pop-up boxes in the "to/cc/bcc" areas, which make it confusing to navigate with the tab key. It also was missing the "quit box" in the upper left hand corner, which I thought was a bit strange. I haven't been able to customize it to my liking, and the help/manual doesn't seem to work correctly either. Anyone else have these gripes?

Coupled with their refusal to provide an OSX version, it seems that MS does not want to court Mac users.

I will almost certainly switch to Mail.app in a matter of days, esp. if I can figure out how to control the encoding of attached files. Help?

[zed]

Well I use Mulberry to read my mail, It is very very powerfully, it's a Fully functional IMAP client.

If your not happy with mail.app, outlook, etc then check this out..

http://www.cyrusoft.com

they've just release 3.0

The preferences are extensive and take a clear head to understand but when you get the hang of them...wow! you'll never look back!

Cheers,
---Zed :cool: