Open Source Email Client

cousin_borat

Looking for a program that has as much functionality as Outlook 2003. Calendar, Tasks, etc etc.

Recommentations appreciated

croo

I've never used Outlook 2003 what does the "etc etc" include?
On windows, I use thunderbird for email with the lightning addon for the basic calendar & tasks functionality.

forbairt

You're looking for opensource ... so ... Thunderbird is the way to go and lightening plugin as was mentioned: )

cousin_borat

Thanks for the replies lads.

Well I bit the bullet and shelled out for Outlook 2007. Will continue to use Zoho for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

There was no equivalent to the Categories functionality in Outlook in any of the other email applications

croo

There was no equivalent to the Categories functionality in Outlook in any of the other email applications

As I said I don't use outlook so I don't know what its "categories" functionality is but it sounds like "tags" in thunderbird. A colour coded grouping of emails?

Outlook looks nice but security is more important to me.

cousin_borat

Hi Croo,

tags work fine for email. In outlook the categories can be used to assign to contacts, tasks and emails.

croo

it's too late for cousin_borat but my lightning plugin for thunderbird updated today and the new version looks like a full blown integration of sunbird [the mozilla calendar application]. And there are now definable categories for tasks & appointments ... there are still none for contacts however but you can have multiple address books. Still, a contact can only be in one book & an item have only one category so it's not perfect. It looks well but not as pretty as outlook of course. Mind you I was looking at some demos of the new OS X leopard and I think it must win the pretty prize. I really liked the stacks & also time machine. I think if I knew someone who was new to computers this is the machine I'd recommend... still there are big downside ... DRM for example not to mention price!

Overall I am still extremely happy with the new 3d enhanced ubuntu gutsy gibbon running compiz-fusion & screenlets... and it's still early days for this technology.

Anyway, I just thought I update this post with the categories news.

Conor108

I'd say Thunderbird as well

TimTim

I've tried Thunderbird as a replacement for outlook and I hated it. I've found no mail client that comes anyway near the usability and functionality of Outlook.

I've always been tempted to learn how to code and make a clone of sorts.

croo

The gnome app evolution is the closest I've in looks & functionality .. but it's more an outlook 2000 look-a-like.

I like thunderbird because I use linux & windows (a notebook to demo cross platform app), so it's nice to have one interface I can use on both. Does Outlook work on Linux?
I also believe thunderbird it is more secure.
I like that is correctly recognises spam saving me a lot of time.
I also really like the choice of all the plugins I can choose to add in if I want.

But for me, personally, it's an email client all it has to do is read and respond to emails! Now perhaps outlook is doing a lot more than that? And when someone says what that is and asks perhaps there are groupware solutions out there that might match better. I guess it's more fair & correct to compare the basic thunderbird with no plugins to outlook express... there of course it wins hands down.

I haven't actually used outlook since Outlook 2000 so I don't know all the new functionality it provides but I do know that everyone I know who uses outlook do not know how to use a fraction of even the 2000 functionality... ditto for word & excel. So do they really need it all?

But if it's all just about looks then I think I'd switch to a MAC!

And finally Open Source (what this forum is about!) requires everyone to chip in & contribute ... some people contribute by developing code, some test, some use the product when they know it's not providing 100% of an equivalent (commercial or open source) because they know using it leads to understanding what works and what doesn't... and this leads to further enhancement. Using OS is part of the process to develop & improve the applications. Without OS there would be no real alternative to MS and I myself dislike doing business with a company with such low ethical standards as Microsoft... I accept in the world we live some business is still a requirement but I do my utmost to reduce this to a minimum.
In this global economy the only real vote we have is where we spend our money... I choose, where possible, to spend mine with companies that have not been proven to have used their might against their customers. And as an old DR-DOS user I now know they used that might against me when they purposely programmed windows to create random failures when I ran it on my choice of DOS.
MS isn't the only reason I chose OS... there are many other good reasons but it is an added bonus that it allows me to work without them!

oscarBravo

I really, truly hate Outlook with a passion that exceeds my hatred for pretty much everything else Microsoft. The very thought of running it on Linux gives me the shakes.

Evolution rocks, but there are no plans that I'm aware of to make it available on Windows. I especially love its "search folders" feature.

monkey tennis

TimTim wrote: »

I've tried Thunderbird as a replacement for outlook and I hated it. I've found no mail client that comes anyway near the usability and functionality of Outlook

Outlook is groupware, not just a mail client. Thunderbird is designed to be a mail/news client specifically (albeit extensible).

Tobias Greeshman

oscarBravo wrote: »

Evolution rocks, but there are no plans that I'm aware of to make it available on Windows. I especially love its "search folders" feature.

I take it you haven't seen this site: http://shellter.sourceforge.net/evolution

Downloading it now to give it a whirl!!

I agree that evolution is a great mail client, but I had trouble with it that it would crash on me when I used it in work to access an exchange server using IMAP. When I switched over to using evolutions exchange port, it was extremely slow. So I ended up going back to Thunderbird in the meantime.

[EDIT]: Works like a charm!!

croo

@ silas
very interesting!

cros13

Have to second the vote for evolution.

Most users don't notice the difference between it and outlook.
I Don't think the windows port is stable though.
There has been fairly active discouragment of windows development.
The majority developers dont want to encourage continued use of
windows.