OT: Email client recommendations?

[Leif K-Brooks]

My mother needs a new email client. I've had her using Mozilla Mail for
a while, but it doesn't seem to handle large quantities of email (she
has tens of thousands of messages spread over dozens of folders--not my
fault, she refuses to delete any of it) very well:

- It loads an entire folder of email into memory when it's opened, and
doesn't release the memory when the folder is closed.
- When a compact operation is stopped in the middle (which happens often
for her since compacting takes so long with the amount of email she
has), it creates huge folders with names nstmp-###.
- If compacting isn't done regularly, it spends hours rebuilding summary
files. She can't use her email while it's doing that, either.

Needless to say, I want the new email client to support large quantities
of email better than Mozilla does. Also, it should be
Windows-compatible, and easy enough for her to use it. Linux
compatibility would be nice (I've been trying to convince her to make
the switch for years, and I still hope to some day), but it isn't a
requirement.

Any suggestions?

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

My mother needs a new email client. I've had her using Mozilla Mail for
a while, but it doesn't seem to handle large quantities of email (she
has tens of thousands of messages spread over dozens of folders--not my
fault, she refuses to delete any of it) very well:

- It loads an entire folder of email into memory when it's opened, and
doesn't release the memory when the folder is closed.
- When a compact operation is stopped in the middle (which happens often
for her since compacting takes so long with the amount of email she
has), it creates huge folders with names nstmp-###.
- If compacting isn't done regularly, it spends hours rebuilding summary
files. She can't use her email while it's doing that, either.

Needless to say, I want the new email client to support large quantities
of email better than Mozilla does. Also, it should be
Windows-compatible, and easy enough for her to use it. Linux
compatibility would be nice (I've been trying to convince her to make
the switch for years, and I still hope to some day), but it isn't a
requirement.

Any suggestions?

Using Mozilla Mail I have thousands of email...I do move to subfolders
for archive and easier searching but no problems. > 730 MB at present....

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Leif K-Brooks:

tens of thousands of messages spread over dozens of folders

Dunno about tens of thousands, but my InBox currently has 3,520 messages in it
with no apparent problems.

alt.webmaster currently has 6,893 messages - no problem.

I'm using Forte' Agent 2.0.

The only negative I can think of is that it's possible to inadvertantly change
the method of screen presentation with a single combination keystroke and it's
not at all intuitive how to get it back to the way that's become near and dear.

Other than that, I'm as happy as a clam with it.

Seems like almost 10 years now....

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

[Per Leif K-Brooks:]

My mother needs a new email client. I've had her using Mozilla Mail for
a while, but it doesn't seem to handle large quantities of email (she
has tens of thousands of messages spread over dozens of folders--not my
fault, she refuses to delete any of it) very well:

- It loads an entire folder of email into memory when it's opened, and
doesn't release the memory when the folder is closed.
- When a compact operation is stopped in the middle (which happens often
for her since compacting takes so long with the amount of email she
has), it creates huge folders with names nstmp-###.
- If compacting isn't done regularly, it spends hours rebuilding summary
files. She can't use her email while it's doing that, either.

Needless to say, I want the new email client to support large quantities
of email better than Mozilla does. Also, it should be
Windows-compatible, and easy enough for her to use it. Linux
compatibility would be nice (I've been trying to convince her to make
the switch for years, and I still hope to some day), but it isn't a
requirement.

Any suggestions?

[(PeteCresswell) wrote:]

Dunno about tens of thousands, but my InBox currently has 3,520 messages
in it with no apparent problems.

alt.webmaster currently has 6,893 messages - no problem.

I'm using Forte' Agent 2.0.

The only negative I can think of is that it's possible to inadvertantly
change the method of screen presentation with a single combination
keystroke and it's not at all intuitive how to get it back to the way
that's become near and dear.

Other than that, I'm as happy as a clam with it.

Seems like almost 10 years now....

KMail, which I used almost exclusively, had poor handling of folders too so
I moved over to Thunderbird which handles large folders (totalling around
10,000 messages) very well and opens them instantly. It generates .msf
indices from .mbox archives only the first time (after installation and
import) and from there onwards it's quick.

Roy

 

[Adrienne]

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed Leif K-Brooks

My mother needs a new email client. I've had her using Mozilla Mail for
a while, but it doesn't seem to handle large quantities of email (she
has tens of thousands of messages spread over dozens of folders--not my
fault, she refuses to delete any of it) very well:

- It loads an entire folder of email into memory when it's opened, and
doesn't release the memory when the folder is closed.
- When a compact operation is stopped in the middle (which happens often
for her since compacting takes so long with the amount of email she
has), it creates huge folders with names nstmp-###.
- If compacting isn't done regularly, it spends hours rebuilding summary
files. She can't use her email while it's doing that, either.

Needless to say, I want the new email client to support large quantities
of email better than Mozilla does. Also, it should be
Windows-compatible, and easy enough for her to use it. Linux
compatibility would be nice (I've been trying to convince her to make
the switch for years, and I still hope to some day), but it isn't a
requirement.

Any suggestions?

I use a combination of Mailwasher and Pegasus.

Mailwashers downloads the headers and first 20 lines of a message. It does
not display HTML email. I clean the mail with Mailwasher first, then read
it with Pegasus. I like Mainwasher because it already knows what certain
spam is, and learns to recognize other spam. It will also bounce mail, but
I don't use that feature. The pro version works on multiple servers, the
free version only one. Mailwasher <http://www.mailwasher.net>

I really like Pegasus because it, too, has its own spam filters, and has a
neat feature for phone messages. It doesn't display HTML email very well,
but that's fine because I don't like HTML email anyway. It takes a little
while to get used to, but that's because it doesn't do thing as
automatically the way other clients do, but I like that, too. Pegasus
<http://www.pmail.com>

 

[jafar]

I moved over to Thunderbird

I use Thunderbird too. Great client!

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

I use Thunderbird too. Great client!

It frustrated me only a few times, I must add (under Linux and Windows), but
not as often as I see people suffer from Outlook 2003 crashes.

Thunderbird keeps my mail in an open format that allows me to 'dance' from
one client to another shall I decide to do so. It also has very
sophisticated filtering mechanism built-in (I don't receive spam on the
accounts I access via POP3, but I use Thunderbird to productively channel
and flag messages for me). It also offers features that other clients can
only dream of at the moment, not to mention the huge number of extensions.

Bugs are rare, but even when they occur, they never result in data (mail)
loss. So having tried many clients, I strongly advise you to give
Thunderbird a go.

Roy