[aclug-L] Re: mail apps for linux

[John Goerzen <jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My all-time favorite mail reader is GNUS.  I have no qualms about
saying this is the most powerful Internet e-mail reader that exists
today, for any operating system.  It is quite amazing and a real joy
to work with.

GNUS is an add-on to Emacs or XEmacs.  (Which, incidentally, are
probably the most powerful general-purpose editors available today
<g>)  If you have some maniacal aversion to Emacs, you will not like
GNUS.  If you use Emacs or are willing to learn a few simple basics,
GNUS will work well for you.

GNUS is great for people that meet any of these:

 * Get lots of mail
 * Subscribe to mailing lists
 * Also read news
 * Like powerful filtering capabilities
 * Want lots of configurability

The most nifty features are:  (keep in mind ALL of these are optional)

 * Present mail as news
   + automatic threading
   + delayed expiry
   + scorefiles (see below)
 * Full newsreader integrated
   + Not a half-witted attempt like Pine
   + GNUS is also probably the most powerful news reader
   + scorefiles
   + etc
 * Multiple mail import capabilities
   + standard inboox
   + procmail
   + pop or imap import built in
   + arbitrary
 * Use its internal splitter or choose procmail.
 * Scorefiles
   + Concept like killfiles but more powerful
   + Identify important and unimportant messages/posts by pattern
   + Highlight important ones, hide or delete-on-sight unimportant ones
   + Linear or exponential time-based score adjustment
     (ie, temporarily block an uninteresting thread)
 * COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZABLE.  You can change ANYTHING.
 * Multiple mail storage formats
   + mbox (pine, elm, mutt, etc), mbx, mh (mh, exmh), arbitrary,
     and nnml (GNUS's own super-fast, super-capable format)
 * Built-in MIME, uudecode, rot-13, etc
 * Built-in PGP/GPG encryption/decryption support
 * Virtual folders
 * Arbitrary backends.  For instance, there is an interface to
   dejanews that lets you use it to emulate a news server.  You get
   the same powerful GNUS interface to it as you do to your normal
   news server and mail, plus searching.
 * Unplugged operation.  Great for laptops.  Selectively download
   your mail and/or news while "plugged" (on Ethernet, modem,or
   whatever) then read it (and reply) offline with no apparent
   difference.   Sync up when you connect back to the network next.
 * A whole slew of other things.  It's amazing!

GNUS is not so good if:

 * You get very little mail (ie, a couple messages a week, total)
 * AND you are not on mailing lists.

It is somewhat of an overkill in those cases; elm would be a better
choice there.

The other downside is that GNUS takes a bit of time to configure for
the first time.  After that it will run with no changes.  I have done
some significant work there and would be glad to assist anyone needing 
help; you can also post to gnu.emacs.gnus for help.

Details: www.gnus.org

glandix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

> does anyone on this list use Postilion for e-mail?  i'm messing around
> with it now, and it's a bit overwhelming...  until now, i've just been
> storing all my e-mail in /var/spool/mail/<username>...  is this still a
> good idea, or would it be wise to setup procmail to sort my incoming
> email to something like ~/mail/*, where * is a different mail folder
> for each usergroup, important person, relative, etc...  i'm working on
> doing it now and i'm interested in how it will turn out...  are there
> other apps that support reading stuff like this (it works in pine, but
> i always have to browse to each diff folder to make sure i've read
> everything...
> 
> any input is appreciated...
> jesse
> 
> -- 
> "If we don't stand up to Micro$oft, who will?"
>      - The Boycott Micro$oft Web Page
> 
> http://www.boycott-ms.org/
> 
> 
> 

-- 
John Goerzen   Linux, Unix consulting & programming   jgoerzen@xxxxxxxxxxxx |
Developer, Debian GNU/Linux (Free powerful OS upgrade)       www.debian.org |
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