Email clients
From MacFAQ
Sono Software, shareware $33, http://www.sonosoft.com/musashi/ [this information is probably out of date]
For a program written and maintained by single author, Musashi sports some surprising and impressive features: hierarchical mail folders, multiple accounts, multiple users and multiple language support (including Japanese). It looks attractive - its author clearly has a good eye for design - and its interface is well-engineered, with only minor complaints. Much of this is achieved with good use of icons supported by optional text tags. It works well, and is comfortable to use. It runs happily in 2.7MB of RAM, and occupies little more than 1MB of disk space. It also has some nice touches, including one I have not seen before: a New Mail window displaying the most recently received messages, no matter where the filtering system has filed them.
Musashi is an agreeable program to work with, but it is very badly let down by some surprising examples of poor design. The most serious problem is that Musashi fails to respect one of the fundamental rules of email correspondence, which dictates that in replying to a message one should only quote relevant material. Instead it follows Microsoft's appalling example and appends the entire message to the reply, offering no option to quote selectively. This alone is reason enough not to use it, and it is compounded by another serious problem: Musashi doesn't wrap quoted text properly, leaving lines broken up, and having to be repaired manually. Between them this pair of nuisances impose a lot of extra and quite unnecessary work on the user who wants to send decently-formatted email replies. This is a shame, because other defects in the program are mostly quite minor. The documentation could be more extensive, some of the screen views attempt to cram too much into a single window, and the scroll bars seem to have a very odd idea of porportionality, but that's about it in the way of genuine complaint.
Musashi is currently in version 3.1. If a future version addresses the problems the program has handling replies, Musashi will be a remarkably good email client.
---+ %C%%X% <nop>PowerMail
CTM Development, $49, http://www.ctmdev.com
PowerMail has grown into a fully-featured and very flexible email client, bristling with features. It has an extensive set of mail-management functions with a clear and elegant interface, and copes well with huge (80,000+ messages) email databases.
<nop>PowerMail offers support for IMAP servers, multiple users, powerful Search tools, and excellent support for non-Roman script systems, such as Cyrillic and Japanese. This alone may make the choice for some. All of this could add up to a messy and baffling interface and command-structure, but doesn't. It is one of the few email clients which has a responsible attitude to HTML email (i.e. it doesn't permit you to send it), though it does do a decent job of displaying it.
A free 30-day demonstration version is available for download, which can then be registered and unlocked after the trial period. Site licences are also available, as well as bundles with SpamSieve.
---+ %X% Mailsmith
Bare Bones Software, $99 ($79 for owners of BBEdit or rival mail clients), http://www.barebones.com
Bare Bones Software's BBEdit has become an indispensable program for HTML programmers and others who require no-nonsense heavy-duty text-editing tools. With Mailsmith the company is obviously hoping to do the same for those who require a powerful and flexible email program. If you are familiar with BBEdit then you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Mailsmith - they are clearly from the same family.
Mailsmith can do just about anything you want it to do with your mail. it handles numerous accounts well (and one especially useful feature is that it is capable of accessing all of them simultaneously, rather than sequentially). Given its heritage, it is perhaps not surprising that it translates HTML messages to plain text extremely well. It offers nested mailboxes for stored mail, and a search system whose only limitation seems to be that it is unable to find misplaced car keys. It can search for simple Literal strings, Grep patterns and can even look for approximate matches in a Fuzzy search (extremely handy for retrieving half-remembered messages lost deep in the ancient history of last year's mail archives). Spam handling is handled via a copy of [[1][SpamSieve]] ($25) included with the application.
All these features and power don't make Mailsmith a difficult program to use, though the 11 menus it puts in the menu bar inevitably look a little intimidating. It's simple enough to set the program up for use, but the fact that there are so many other options too makes it less than obvious to the beginner what's important. And while it is by no means an unfriendly program, its interface is spartan and clearly nowhere near as inviting and intuitive as that of Emailer - but then, whose is? The interface is logical and well-thought-out - it's just that of necessity there's a lot of logic at work.
Mailsmith doesn't support IMAP though for most people that is not yet an issue. If it becomes one, it may be taken almost for granted that it will be answered. Bare Bones invite suggestions and requests for future versions, and respond promptly and helpfully to enquiries. Spotlight support is not included and neither is spell-checking as you type although Bare Bones recognise that this last facility is highly sought after.
Some design aspects of Mailsmith are fairly baffling and there are recognised design problems that are still present within the application. The mail queuing system seems to take an all-or-nothing attitude. Once the Queue button has been pressed, that's it - you aren't going to be able to change the subject, or the recipients, or the account from which it will be sent. The only means of revising unsent outgoing mail is to select re-send and then edit the message and queue it again, deleting the original. Filtering is extremely powerful but not particularly intuitive compared to Apple's own offering or competitors. The Mailsmith manual is 200 pages long and this is needed given the flexibility of this application.
Version 2 has been around quite some time now and it starting to get a little long-in-the-tooth compared to some of the competitors who appear to have faster development cycles.
Mailsmith is available from the URL above in a 30-day demonstration version.
---+ %C% Outlook Express
Microsoft, free
Thanks to Apple's 1997 deal with Microsoft, Outlook Express became one of the most widely-used Mac email clients. Outlook Express (what is that name supposed to mean?) is a combined emailer/newsreader, with a vast array of features. Microsoft don't charge for the program, which is installed by default by the MacOS? installers and is readily available for downloading over the Internet and on all the cover-mounted CDs that Macintosh magazines offer.
Until version 5, Outlook Express was a disaster. In operation it was simple enough to use. The difficulty lay in working out how to operate it. Its interface was a bewildering mess, sporting more buttons than a pimp's outfit in an episode of Starsky and Hutch, and half of these buttons did completely counter-intuitive things anyway; setting any preferences in the program meant you ran the risk of losing all the other Internet preferences you may have spent time setting up, because it could write all over them without any warning or permission whatsoever; and to add insult to all these injuries Outlook Express defaulted to HTML-format message composition and non-standard handling of quoted material, to help ensure that unsuspecting users would incur the disgust and disdain of everyone they correspond with.
Outlook Express 5 addressed many of these complaints, though it still betrays the dreaded Microsoft heritage. But at least it now offers an acceptable quality mail client, even if the newsreader remains dire.
---+ %C% Emailer I
Claris, free
Emailer was quite a sweet piece of work, despite some limitations and some very annoying bugs. It is by far one of the most attractive email programs to look at, and thanks to its thoughtful use of colour and 9-point Geneva manages to cram a lot of information into a small space without looking cluttered or confusing. Somehow its visual design guides the eye in just the right ways, and the eye guides the hands to just the right places on-screen. This is a remarkable feat, and beginners (but not just beginners) often love it for this reason. It is also extremely easy to get to grips with.
Emailer's limitations make it unsuitable for those whose email needs are more demanding. It can manage a maximum of five email accounts (only one in the Lite version), and while its filing system for keeping messages is simple to use, it is also a little primitive. Searching through any quantity of saved messages is astonishingly slow, and doesn't cover messages still in the In Box. It is only possible to order messages stored in its various Filing Cabinet folders by Subject or Date (whereas the In Box and Out Box offer numerous other options, including the all-important one to sort by Author). This all conspires to make locating particular messages a trying affair.
More serious are the bugs, which affect even those with limited demands. Emailer manages to create incorrect x-sender headers, sending out the POP account details instead. This has to be corrected (automatically, elsewhere down the line of communication) using the details in the From header. I am not sure of any serious consequences that might arise, but all the same this could be a problem. Another bug is that Emailer gets confused by 1999 dates. If your email preferences are set to show the date and time that received messages were sent to you, the program will claim that some of them were sent in 1919. This is more of a blasted nuisance than a serious problem, but it can, for example, make following discussions in mailing-lists very difficult.
For these reasons Emailer is no longer recommended as an email client.
---+ %C%%X% Eudora
Eudora is one of the great grandmas of the Mac mailer scene. In some way that shows, which is both the good and the bad news. Bad because it has a few awkwardnesses - but they are few and in my opinion unimportant. Good because it has the overwhelming advantages of robustness and simplicity. And it's almost infinitely tweakable.
It exists in several versions.
There's the latest version, 6.2, for OS10.2 and later.
There's 6.1.1, which is the last version that will run in the Classic OS. Although it's still available, development of the Classic version has stopped.
Each version is available as 'Light" (note this is not 'Lite' but is spelt properly - one of the small continuing pleasures of Eudora). This lacks a number of advanced features, including spell checking and multiple accounts which are available in the free 'Sponsored' version, which puts an advert onto the corner of your screen although not into your email (although multiple accounts are easily handled in the Light version using a simple workaround). Then there's the 'Paid' version, which comes without ads but with professional support from Qualcomm.
Very useful and friendly support is also available on line on the comp.mail.eudora.mac newsgroup.
The great advantages of Eudora are that:
It can handle huge volumes of mail without breaking or slowing down.
It keeps its mail stored in standard Unix mbox format, which means that in an emergency you can read your mail, even from a corrupted mailbox, using a standard text editor.
It has an extensive and very quick Search function, both across mailboxes and within mails.
All versions include extensive filtering of messages; Sponsored and Paid mode include spam filtering that learns as it goes.
It has a simple and quick address book.
There are lots of Qualcomm and third-party plugins.
Managing mail and using mailboxes is extremely simple.
It's not a 'one-pane' or 'two-pane' or even 'three-pane' mailer; it's whatever you want it to be. For instance if you want to see your mailboxes listed next to your messages, just open the Mailboxes window, position and size it as you wish, and it'll stay there forever. You can drag and drop messages between mailboxes to your heart's content. Alternatively if you're pushed for space, you can just close the mailboxes window until you need it again.
It is almost infinitely configurable, both from within the application with its 'Settings' (a.k.a preferences) and with the unique system of 'x-eudora-settings' in which you set up a new mail message containing an x-eudora-setting; when you queue the email, Eudora offers you settings dialogues to alter just about every possible aspect of its behaviour, including headers and layout. They are available here: [[2]] Much of this is also in the GUI-driven Settings, but if you need more control it's jolly well there.
In fact the interface isn't fancy at all- more spanner-like than anything. You are totally in control. Which is the point about Eudora.
There are some drawbacks.
Eudora doesn't handle HTML mail natively; it delivers a text view with graphics and links so you get a good idea of the content. To view the full HTML, use an 'open in browser' menu item and it uses the Mac's default browser. I'm an old fart, so I find this to be a Good Thing, but if your life depends on HTML email, then Eudora may not be for you.
Some people have reported problems using Eudora with IMAP servers. I've never used IMAP and in general for my purposes regard the idea as being akin to writing letters on a communal rubbish tip- I prefer to have my own mail-base right here. Anybody with experiences, good or bad, might care to add their tuppence-worth here?
---+ %X% Thunderbird
I have recently switched to Thunderbird, having tried out most of the other offerings available. I like Mail very much, it is clean and simple to use, if a little clunky in parts. I used this for the majority of time since getting OSX installed (back at 10.1). I found it to be a very stable client, although it gets annoying to be asked to enter your passwords everytime there's a network failure.
I have also extensively used Eudora, and it is indeed a great workhorse. However, I find Eudora is just looking too dated for me now, and the poor HTML display is the main factor that has decided the change for me. I also fnd that not all HTML pages can be sent to a browser.
This year, as it reached v1.0 I found that Thunderbird has come of age, it is so very nearly a complete application now. So far it has been very stable, and it is quick enough. HTML is handled very well, possibly better than in Mail. The Junk filter seems to work very well, and has the advantage of being included for free (you have to pay to get this in Eudora).
Filtering is good too, it seems a little more flexible than in Eudora and Mail, although it can only auto filter incoming messages.
Overall it seems to be a more complete mail client than any of the other free options for OSX. The extensions and themes that are available also add to the features of Thunderbird, and seem certain to make this a very powerful package to contend with most of the commercial options.
As for compatibility, Andreas Amann has some very useful tools for converting mail boxes between the major clients now - http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/. I have also found a little quirk for importing OSX Address Book files. Set Eudora to use the OSX Address book, then import the Eudora addresses into Thunderbird, it will also import the OSX addresses too.
The basic version also has a spell checker, and you can also download localised dictionaries (including UK).
The only major issue I have is the inability to select multiple signatures. You can use templates to create new messages, but not in replied messages. There are ways around this though, my favourite is using the 'KeyStrokes' feature of Butler.
All three clients here use mbox files for mail storage, so can easily be retrieved by a text editor (such as Text Wrangler) for rescue, should things go belly up. The only proviso there is that Eudora does not use an entirely standard format, as it seperates attachments.
