The Year In Review: LinuxPlanet's Picks for the Best and Worst of 2001 - page 7

Favorite Mail Client

• kmail
• Evolution
• mutt
• SquirrelMail

Favorite Mail Client: mph

Another year of change: I walked in swearing by mutt, and I walk out content with Ximian's Evolution for 95% of my mail needs, but a conviction that if I ever decide to become a command-line ascetic again, I'll run right back to mutt.

I wasn't sure I was going to get to write that last paragraph. I've been watching Evolution for a while, and following the nightly builds as religiously as possible, and it seemed as if every time I was getting comfortable, something broke. As the project moved into the release candidates, though, it got better and better and it removed a lot of doubts I had about Ximian's ability to focus all the talent and bring the project home. Evolution 1.0 is wonderfully stable for me, and I'm depending on a few features already. It integrates flawlessly with my Handspring Visor for addresses and appointments, too.

There are some concerns among people running procmail that they'll need to scrap their well-tuned recipes in favor of Evolution's filtering tools. I worked around that by setting up imapd on my machine, allowing procmail to remain in place. Evolution handles UWash IMAP with aplomb, allowing me ongoing use of my procmail filters, and Evolution's outstanding virtual folders (having a 'last thirty minutes' snapshot vfolder is wonderful). I'd probably take the time to drop procmail if I didn't have some remote access needs better addressed by mutt and/or SquirrelMail, and an ongoing love affair with Catherine Hampton's SpamBouncer.

Favorite Mail Client: bkp

I realize that I am starting to sound like a broken record, but I like Kmail for its ease of use. I'm sure Michael and Dennis have other ideas, since they both know how to use real mail software like sendmail and I am stuck using POP access thanks to the goofy acceptable use policies on @Home.

I am looking forward to trying out Evolution soon, though. Maybe I'll swing back to GNOME by this time next year!

Favorite Mail Client: dep

Here again, my needs are few, and KMail meets them.

I have a pretty much working broadband connection, so I do sendmail here. In that the domain I have is hosted elsewhere, it took a little configuration, but it works reliably. KMail grabs the mail from multiple accounts, has delightfully easy filter configuration such that the many mailing lists to which I subscribe all get filed neatly, and is reliable.

I wish it kept messages in seperate files, as with the old XFMail, but you can't have everything.