Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 08:34:50 -0800 (PST) From: John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> To: Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Subject: Re: Good Mail Programs Message-ID: <XFMail.011112083450.jhb@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1011112054740.16646F-100000@fledge.watson.org>
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On 12-Nov-01 Robert Watson wrote: > > On Sun, 11 Nov 2001, Mike Meyer wrote: > >> Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org> types: >> > There are no good e-mail programs. Every last one of them has serious >> > problems. >> >> That's a religious statement. I claim VM has no serious problems, so >> long as you're willing to convert to the emacs religion so you can use >> it. > > Actually, it's derived from evidence that I failed to provide. :-) > > I suspect the problem is that I'm not sure what I want out of a mail > client. For example: > > (1) I want it to be text-based so I can use it efficiently over a network > connection, and easily using only a keyboard. > > (2) I want it to have integrated support for multi-media, easy access to > attachments, and tight integration with the system file manager. I > a clean mouse-driven GUI that can be used to sort mail into folders > using a more visual paradigm. As otherwise mentioned, these are two different animals. For my text based reading, I just ssh into my mail server, do a 'ls -ltr' in the mail directory, and read the files newer than 'cyrus.seen' using 'less'. :) For X I use xfmail which has most of these things. It's only problem is that it is buggy. :( > Likewise... > > (1) I want the power and flexibility of the UNIX-like mh and procmail > tools, allowing integration with arbitrary tools, including the > command-line PGP, shell scripts, arbitrary content handling, and > automated mail handling at delivery-time, not when I read the e-mail. xfmail supports pgp and using helper apps for different mime types for attachments. It doesn't have completely arbitrary handling, but you can always use an external editor and use it to do other weird things with your e-mails as you compose them. Since you are using Cyrus, you should use a sieve script on the server to sort your incoming mail. :) XFmail does have filtering rules however for incoming mail, outgoing mail, and a set of special rules you can manually invoke. > (2) I want my mail to be stored on a central mail server, transparent to > the operating system and mail client I use, capable of supporting > multiple client instances without locking conflicts or inconsistency, > and with support for cached and disconnected operation. I want my > mail client to be stateless and to be changeable like a lightbulb, not > like an apartment. Agreed. I've used xfmail on many different workstations concurrently to read my mail. > (1) I want my mail client to be flexible and confirable, adapting to my > complex mail needs: the ability to auto-sort mailing lists, even when > messages must be redundantly delivered to multiple folders; I want the > ability to have individual "sending" profiles automatically when > responding to mail in different folders, or pulled from different > souces; I want the ability to have arbitrary highlighting of message > contents, interest-based sorting, and other highly customized > feature-sets. Oooo. The 'sending profiles' can be done in Mutt and XFmail, but they aren't really pretty yet. xfmail can do sorting of mailing lists, but I'm not sure how easy it is to change teh sorting on the fly. > (2) I want my client to do the right thing out of the box, and to support > simultaneously the "configuration file" format, and complete > access to that format using easy-to-use text-driven or gui-driven > interfaces. I do not believe in m4 configuration, I do not believe in > configuration files that are hard to understand, counter-intuitive, > and a seemingly endless exploration of inconsistent variable names, > arbitrary hacks, and poor design. xfmail does have this. The config file format is a simple name value pair text file, and you can edit all of it from the GUI fairly easily. > Oh, and.. > > (1) I want my mail client to be native to the operating system, operating > smoothly, quickly, and in a manner supported by the vendor. > > (2) I want my mail client to be secure. This one xfmail chokes on. I use a ssh tunnel to do imap (which works cause I can specify teh port for my imap connection). You could probably use ssltunnel or some such for SSL, but I haven't played with that. Xfmail itself doesn't support SSL. When reading new mails, xfmail will only pull down index entries for new mails into its folders, but if you select a folder, it will download the entire index which will probably be a pain for you. Also, you forgot to mention offline IMAP support. :) -- John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!" - http://www.FreeBSD.org/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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