Connecting with GNOME Mail Clients
By: Michael Hall
Monday, June 19, 2000 09:07:48 AM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/1978/1/
An Overview of GNOME Mail Clients
There's a common belief that e-mail is the Internet's "killer app," the thing that made Net access essential to the masses. Despite Microsoft's creation of virus-vectoring e-mail clients as a sort of literal "killer app," there's no sign that e-mail will stop being popular any time soon. It's a communications conduit that offers a nice blend of information density (attachments), immediacy (Internet speed), and privacy (turning off requests for return receipts.)
There are a lot of good mail clients for Linux. Pine, for instance, is a common choice for shell-based mail (and an X front end is underway), as are mutt and even elm; and there's exmh, tkRat, XFMail, Aileron, and Postilion for those who prefer a GUI. Emacs fans can use RMAIL, vm, Gnus, and mew.
With the rise of the desktop environment, integrated GUI environments that bind lots of useful and small applications together, there's some room for expansion in the mail client scene. KDE, for instance, has its solid kmail and the upcoming Magellan.
When the GNOME project began to take shape, the de facto mail client for the new environment was Balsa. Over time, GNOME's developers announced a new mail framework (Camel), and Balsa's development seemed to slow. Several other projects have since taken shape, offering a variety of mail clients ranging from the rather simple to at least one commercial effort that offers Microsoft Outlook-like features right down to the calendar. A quick look at the GNOME Software Map's mail client list shows fifteen projects under development.
Miguel de Icaza hasn't been sleeping, either. His new company, Helix Code, in addition to providing a top-notch binary release of GNOME, is also hard at work on the mail and scheduling program Evolution, a clear run at the corporate messaging environment.
We took a look at several of the available clients and found a good diversity of features and simplicity. Though all are still under development, each shows promise and a few offer enticing extras.
Balsa: New Developments After Some Inactivity
Project Homepage: http://www.newton.cx/balsa/
Balsa has been around for a while. Though it seemed to go through a slump in development, things have recently picked up and version 0.8 was recently released. Balsa offers a solid basic mail client that integrates well with whatever existing mail infrastructure you have set up.
Those who have less technically inclined users sharing their computer will like the way Balsa is able to handle POP3 and IMAP directly from the server, which introduces fewer points of failure. Those with more sophisticated setups taking advantage of procmail and fetchmail will find Balsa able to handle local mailspools and existing directories with no trouble. Balsa can be configured to use a local mail transport agent (such as sendmail) or it can send messages directly to an SMTP server, too. Again, this is useful for those who have a simple connection to the Internet and prefer to have their ISPs handle the heavy lifting.
Balsa also offers integration with the default GNOME address book, and, by extension, PalmOS-based PDAs. It takes a little tweaking to get this to work well with the GNOME Pilot package, since the two look for the default address book in different directories, but setting a symlink did the trick.
Balsa has some filtering functionality, though this isn't generally compiled into binary packages since it's not fully stable yet. Since Balsa works so well with procmail, there's really no need from the perspective of experienced Linux users who aren't afraid to work with procmail.
We were impressed by the Balsa setup druid, which would allow most users to set up a mail account just as easily as they would under comparable GUI-based packages under Windows, like Eudora or Outlook Express.
Finally, Balsa supports drag-and-drop attachments from GNOME-compliant file managers, though we had some trouble getting this to work smoothly, and it took toggling the attachment window from a drop-down menu. In other words, it wasn't the most obvious procedure, and it didn't work all the time. Attachments did, however, work fine by adding them from a menu.
Balsa doesn't, at this point, support PGP or GPG, which was a disappointing oversight in an otherwise solid (if basic) mail client.
In all, we found Balsa pleasant and intuitive to use. It offers keyboard shortcuts for those who prefer to keep their hands off a mouse. It was stable and quick to load, and it was also easy to set up with a nice set of configuration options, including setting the default character set, basic reply mode indenting options, and flexibility in terms of which message headers are displayed and how messages are printed.
We'd have little problem setting a new user in front of Balsa, and we'd even recommend it for power users who have a good foundation established with other traditional mail tools but want a nice GUI front end.
Spruce: A Solid, Featureful Client
Project Homepage: http://spruce.sourceforge.net/
Another solid, all-around entry is Spruce. A little newer than Balsa, Spruce offers a similar look and featureset, though it does include PGP/GPG support and filter support is part of the current set of releases. Spruce is currently at version 0.64 (stable) and version 0.7 (the unstable, developer version).
Spruce is a stable and solid mail client. It is able to deal directly with POP3 and IMAP servers, and it also offers users the option to use any preexisting fetchmail configuration they may have. Unfortunately, it doesn't integrate seamlessly with local mail spools, but it does work with them and it's fairly flexible in this regard. In general, though, Spruce is oriented around handling POP3 and IMAP for the user, without the need to resort to the more traditional Linux mail tools.
Spruce has a basic address book (the contact manager), but this feature still feels largely tacked on. It doesn't offer any way to automatically gather addresses or even add an address from a message.
Spruce also has mail filtering. We were pleased to note that its filtering feature allowed for the use of either shell wildcards or regular expressions, making for an easier translation of existing procmail recipes the user might have on hand.
Spruce offers a wide variety of configuration options, allowing users to designate the fonts for read and unread messages. It also has a random signature feature.
Finally, Spruce has an excellent online user manual explaining the program's features in a good amount of detail with some useful illustrations. More free software should have this amount of attention paid to the critical detail of telling users how to use the package.
We enjoyed using Spruce and found it to be reliable and simple. There are some small usability features that would help the program overall, but for a program still considered a bit away from being feature complete, we were impressed. Spruce will meet the needs of most users with little trouble, and we expect it will continue to improve.
Mahogany: A Cross-Platform Surprise
Project Homepage: http://www.wxwindows.org/Mahogany/
Mahogany is a cross-platform mail client being developed under the Mahogany Artistic License. Mahogany sports a remarkable set of features, including a built-in Python scripting component. In addition to Linux, Mahogany is being developed for SunOS, Solaris, FreeBSD and the MS Windows family.
Mahogany provides support for POP3, IMAP, NNTP, and PalmOS-based devices. We found it fairly easy to configure it to deal with multiple accounts. It also works with existing mbox and MH format mail files.
We were very pleased to note that Mahogany supports an external editor. Those migrating from the Windows world may not mind the notepad most Windows mail clients use for a text editor, but we've developed a preference for favorite text editors over the years, so it was a pleasure to be able to invoke vi or emacs-server to edit messages.
Mahogany also has solid address book support, including an auto-gathering mode, not unlike Emacs Big Brother Database (bbdb). In addition, Mahogany is also able to use existing bbdb files, which is a very nice surprise. Coupled with a decent lookup tool, multiple address books, and the auto-gathering mode, Mahogany is outstanding. Mahogany's filter support is also excellent, allowing for and/or filters to be set up.
Mahogany sports a wide array of other features, including in-line MIME viewing, support for invoking a browser to handle URLs, dialup connection management, and support for receiving faxes.
Mahogany has a very good setup feature that helps new users configure the client quickly and easily, but it also allows the setup wizard to be toggled off, allowing advanced users to handle things their own way.
There are a few warts with Mahogany. There are some acknowledged stability issues with the latest release. In addition, there isn't any support for PGP/GPG, though that's currently under development. Finally, file attachments weren't the simplest thing to figure out. Integration with GNOME's file manager is still on the TODO list, and we're not sure how that will dovetail with the upcoming Nautilus project, which will supplant GMC on the GNOME desktop.
We were a little surprised at Mahogany. It isn't a client that turns up in a lot of discussions about common mailers, but it provides a wonderful amount of functionality and outstanding features despite its low profile. More experienced users will enjoy the configurability and rich featureset, and new users will have a mail client that functions well at the basic level and provides plenty of room to grow. In addition, the documentation is outstanding (and searchable).
Mahogany is an outstanding program, and well worth checking out by just about anyone interested in a GUI mail client under any environment, let alone GNOME.
Bynari Tradeclient: Some Outlook Functionality in a Pleasing Package
Project Homepage: http://www.tradeclient.org/index.shtml
The Bynari Tradeclient package (currently at version 0.2) is a mailer and calendar program released under the LGPL, built with the GTK toolkit, and another package you don't hear a lot about in general discussions. Since the program isn't mentioned on the GNOME software map, it may seem inappropriate to cover it here. On the other hand, the level of GNOME integration demonstrated by the excellent Mahogany is no higher. Those looking for a mail client that matches the general look of their GNOME desktop, in other words, may want to look at this package, even if it isn't integrated with GNOME.
Tradeclient, unlike the other entries, is designed around POP3 support alone. Though IMAP support is pending, there's no indication that the development team plans to include support for mbox or MH mail files, or traditional UNIX mail spools. Despite the lack of breadth in transport support, Tradeclient still manages to distinguish itself as a good client that most Outlook users would feel at home with in pretty short order.
It features flexible address book support (allowing for multiple address books) and an easy enough right-click option to add an address from a message. The filter support is basic, but solid.
We found the program easy enough to use and reliable. We liked the fact that we could create signatures for each POP account we set up. With three different POP servers to deal with, and three distinctly different sets of correspondents as a result, we liked the ability to compartmentalize our "mail faces."
Finally, Tradeclient includes a useful calendar element that allows users to send meeting requests much like other corporate PIM packages. It's clear that the eventual goal of Tradeclient is to allow shared calendaring functionality. In the meantime, the calendar works fine "standalone," and may be just the ticket for people who like that sort of integration.
With the exception of the limited mail delivery options, we were generally pleased with Tradeclient. We're curious to see how the project shapes up, especially in the face of the higher-profile Evolution project, which is positioning itself for the same market.
CSC Mail: A Perl-Based Performer
Project Page: http://www.cscmail.net
Finally, we looked at CSC Mail, which is based on Perl and GTK. CSC Mail supports POP3 and mbox mail and provides an interesting entry into the GNOME mail-client field.
The most noticeable element of CSC Mail arrives upon installation. A Perl script is provided that obtains and builds any necessary Perl modules you may require, and also grabs RPMs or tarballs of the core distribution. The project recently changed web addresses, so a small modification of the installer script is required, but it's to a variable that's clearly marked at the top of the installer file.
CSCMail offers the basic array of mail client functionality, plus a few other tools that make it a client well worth considering, including solid URL support, the ability to read HTML mail (for those of us who haven't broken their correspondents of the habit), and multiple signature support for multiple mail accounts.
It includes a basic address book (that includes a slot for public keys), and an option allows for the addresses of those you reply to to be entered in the book. In today's spam-filled 'net that's a mercy compared to indiscriminate auto-gathering arrangements. It also allows for autocompletion of addresses when composing a new message.
The filtering system is unique among those we covered for this in that it allows the user to score based on their rules. This is a useful feature for those involved in mailing lists with heavy traffic and more than their share of disruptive types. CSCMail also has configurable colorizing of nested replies. Anyone who's struggled to sort out an extended mail exchange making heavy use of ">'s" will appreciate this feature.
Finally, CSCMail allows for easy import of existing mail files.
CSCMail has the feel of a piece of software written by someone using his or her head. The features included are excellent, and they're implemented well. CSCMail is reflective of a "better living through engineering" mentality that seems a little strange compared to the feature blunderbuss big commercial mail programs level at the user, where the goal is piling stuff on. Because of this sense of thoughtful design and useful feature inclusion, CSCMail was a pleasure to use. We'd recommend it to anyone, but especially users who participate in a lot of busy mailing lists.
In the End
GNOME is blessed with a solid collection of mail clients. Not all of them are feature-complete, and they aren't all perfect for everybody. On the other hand, users looking for a mailer that will fit in with their GNOME desktops will have little trouble finding something. And if none of the ones we mentioned here suit, well, there are ten more that we just couldn't get to this time around on the GNOME software map.
Now to wait and see what's in store with Evolution.