Thots on evolution vs t'bird.

[Mark Komarinski]

Let me start by saying I used mutt for a number of years, but have been 
using tbird almost exclusively for quite a while.  I have a colleague 
who's using exmh and fetchmail if that's your cup of tea :).

Ben Scott wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 1:02 PM, Steven W. Orr <steveo at syslang.net> wrote:
>   
> For the most part, I find the graphical parts of most HTML messages
> are not worth reading.  They're generally advertisements and/or web
> beacons (AKA web bugs).  Most GUI MUAs don't fetch linked images by
> default for privacy reasons.
>   
Tbird does this.  Annoying in a small way, but I understand the need to 
do it.
>> * Does t'bird support local mail? How do I do it? Same for evolution.
>>     
>
>   One possibility is to run an IMAP server against your local mail
> store.  This has other benefits, like being able to access your mail
> from multiple programs and/or computers and/or operating systems (at
> once, even).  Got a Windoze box you keep around for whatever reason?
> Even Outlook Express (Windows Mail in Vista) can still open your
> *nix-based IMAP store.  So can most webmail systems.
>
>   Full disclosure: I'm a big fan of IMAP.
>   
I do the same thing on my home system.  IMAP rocks on toast for so many 
reasons, but the biggest is that your mail is always in one location.  I 
can read my e-mail from pretty much anywhere within a few minutes.  At 
work, I actually POP to my desktop so all my e-mail is there and my 
server mailbox doesn't overflow, but I leave 7 days worth on the server 
that I can get via IMAP if needed.

To answer the original question, I don't think Thunderbird has a way to 
read local files.  I just tried to add a new account and it supports 
'both' protocols: POP and IMAP.
>> * What do people like better (or best)?
$EMPLOYER uses Exchange, and I have never gotten Evolution to work in a stable manner.  I think the root cause was the version of Exchange we were using, but it would usually crash within a few minutes of loading my calendar, assuming I could get it to connect to exchange in the first place.  If you want the calendar and address book features of an exchange server, then give it a try and you'll probably have better luck than I.  I wound up installing Windows and Outlook in Virtualbox to manage my calendar


One problem I found with evolution, and I'll admit that I didn't look 
that hard, was having different sending addresses (identities).  At 
work, I often need to send an e-mail as my group instead of as me 
personally.  I set up an identity in thunderbird and it works fine.   
Thunderbird's plugin mechanism is also quite nice, allowing you to add 
GPG support, hide quoted text, etc.
>   Gmail.  I find it's just too damn convenient to be able to access
> all my mail from any web browser, and Gmail does certain things better
> than most webmail systems I've tried.  The AJAXy UI, threading, and
> search being big ones.  The filtering is a little weak, but oh well.
> With Greasemonkey user scripts, you can add on some missing features,
> like nested labels.
>
>   
I have a gmail account, and it's nice, but I only use it for some 
mailing lists.  It's great for tracking threads to keep things 
organized, and the labels are a great idea.  I guess I'm a bit 
old-school and hesitant to allow them (or anyone else) host my mail for me.
>   IMO, YMMV, etc., etc.
>   
This too.

-Mark