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Ask HN: Email on Linux?

5 points by sincerely ↗ HN
Finally making the switch to a free OS and was hoping to get some perspectives on how to do email now. Do most people just use webmail these days? Is Thunderbird still the acceptably-slow "best choice" client for most people? Thanks!

12 comments

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themew
Slow? T-Bird is the best non-web based email there is. I'd rather my email on my server than sitting on a Google server somewhere...
ColinWright
I mostly use scripts I wrote, falling back to alpine when I want something more comprehensive, and then finally web-mail (I use Squirrel) when the GUI is useful.

I'm admittedly odd.

Most people I know who use Linux either use alpine, or webmail.

techjuice
I would recommend giving mu4e a try. It is pretty fast and you can also use mu too.

If you need help initially getting things setup: http://cachestocaches.com/2017/3/complete-guide-email-emacs-... https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/12927/reading-and-...

A good benefit to using these terminal based type apps is you are able to see more information up front so you are not so susceptible to web based phishing exploits as you can see all the links, can fully automate what your doing and integrate it into other custom apps your building.

If you are more of a vim user you could get used to using Mutt https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mutt#Mutt_and_Vim

sincerely
Hmm I don't have any emacs experience yet but maybe I will give that a shot. I am concerned that I might need to be able to read/send html emails in the near future though.
dredmorbius
My preferred configuration is fetchmail or getmail for IMAP providers, mutt as my MUA, and if possible, local management of mail delivery. If you run your own MX, this caan bevfurther simplified.

For a GUI client with full inteegration, I'm partial to KMail and Kontact, a personal information manager with email, calendar, contacts, RSS/Atom feeds, and web.

Sylpheed is a nice, lightweight, simple, and effective GUI mail client.

Other routes include emacs, offering org-mode and email, and mh.

I tend to avoid Mozilla and Gnome's clents, though yes, they're popular.

sincerely
What's MUA?
detaro
"mail user agent": email client
dredmorbius
As detaro said, apologies.

MUA: mail eser agent. The email program or app you use directly.

MTA: mail transfer agent. The email server, such as sendmaill. postfix, exim, etc.

MDA: Mail delivery agent. Procmail is an example.

navjack27
I just use the webmail for Gmail on my Manjaro install
sombragris
I use Claws Mail. It's simple, quick, uses the MH mailbox format which is human readable and where each email message has its own separate file, and it can go over inboxes several gigabytes in size without a hiccup.

https://www.claws-mail.org

stop5
i have my own Domain with an VPS and i use SOGo4 and claws mail