Oooh, time for a Holy War.

[venta]

Well, it looks like the computer glitch I've been complaining about really is caused by running Outlook.


I'd like to find a new mail client. So, I'd require it to do the following:
Allow me to read emails quickly (ie, minimal number of keystrokes/mouseclics to go from one to the next, delete mails, etc)
Allow easy filtering of messages (I don't speak procmail, though might be prepared to learn)
Handle attachments in a nice way (otherwise I'd just bite the bullet and use pine)
Preferably one which can be easily operated by keyboard alone.
Preferably one which will cope with the 'add comment' emails replying to LJ updates. Eudora doesn't (though that might be because it doesn't talk to IE)
Probably some other things I haven't thought of.

Any advice ?

At home I use the free version of Eudora, but am not entirely happy with it. I love the fact that you can rearrange its components to suit yourself (the list of mail folders belongs on the right hand side of the screen, dammit), and it does have many good things going for it. On the other hand, its error reporting is crap, and the handling of messages if you read them in the preview window is very poor indeed.

(For bonus points: explain why Outlook causes this problem :)

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Allow me to read emails quickly (ie, minimal number of keystrokes/mouseclics to go from one to the next, delete mails, etc)
Preferably one which can be easily operated by keyboard alone.

Well, mutt can do both of those, as it's a console based client. There is a windows port, but I've never used it.

It doesn't allow you to rearrange the components (at least the unix version doesn't), because it only puts one type of thing on the screen at once:
either the message headers, folder names or a message body (it possible the windows version actually uses separate windows for these, in which case you can organise them to your hearts content). It doesn't have the annoying problem of marking a message read because you've spent 5 seconds previewing it (whilst waiting to it to do something else).

It is aware of mailing lists, so that if a message is sent via a list, it displays the list name (and/or the sender's name), and you can send the reply to the list or the sender easily.

It doesn't do filtering: that's the job of a filter program ;-)

To some extent, it depends on whether you're bound to a windows platform. I'll second the vote for Pegasus if you are, although I haven't used it for a few years. It created all it's interface windows as panes within a main window, so again, you could reorganise them to your hearts content, rather than being stuck with the 3 different layouts that lookout offers.

[venta.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have the annoying problem of marking a message read because you've spent 5 seconds previewing it (whilst waiting to it to do something else).

Er, I'd regard any other behaviour as annoying :) I have my "mark as read after" set to the lowest time that it'll let me.

It doesn't do filtering: that's the job of a filter program ;-)

I gave you a spec. Telling me why my spec is wrong and what it should be is not how one ought to go about these things :)

From lathany's description, Pegasus sounds pretty awful; I'll have a look at it, but would probably use Eudora for preference. Guess it's just a matter of which one's going to annoy me least :(

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I have my "mark as read after" set to the lowest time that it'll let me.
But doesn't that mean that you've got problems using the keyboard to navigate? Looking at message 1, fine. Press down twice (to skip message 2, and examine message 3). Oh look, it decides to stop and think somewhere in the process. Message 2 is now marked as read. This might actually be more of a problem with the news reader than the mailer, as the news reader does tend to stop at inopportune moments, while it downloads some more messages.

I gave you a spec.
And you also said you might be willing to learn procmail, thus causing confusion. Ok, I'll rephrase my comment: Mutt's philosophy (being a unix program) is that a filter program should do the filtering.

The only awful part of lathany's description (to my mind) is The help doesn't. Depends on how much you need the help ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

The only awful part of lathany's description (to my mind) is The help doesn't. Depends on how much you need the help ;-)

I hate things not handling line-wrapping properly.

And I regard "can't convert html email to text email" as pretty much non-negotiably unacceptable.

I automatically assume that help functions won't, and more or less never use them :)

[narenek.livejournal.com]

How does mutt's lack of filtering differ from pine's (the stated default it everything else fails).