Talk:Comparison of email clients/Archive 1

Archive 1

List of Features

The comparison as it stands today is of limited use since only a small number of features are discussed and the differences appear only minor. A lesser problem is the limited number of mail clients listed. Linux Weekly News made an overview http://lwn.net/Articles/72937/ that should give ideas on useful features to list. It will be also useful to add in which version the feature was introduced.

Someone has just placed half a dozen new columns in the 'features' list. Some are probably useful, some look redundant, and the are all unreadable at the moment. Any thoughts on how to group them? DStaal 14:51, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

This is a great page of data, but to my mind the level of detail obfiscates its meaning with regard to my interest, which is deciding which client i should get ... I just wonder if there was somebody competent at this sort of thing, who was able to edit it so that one could systematically hide aspects (I mean, rows or columns) of it as a reader decided they were irrelevant and cluttering up his simple picture of the world? i.e. if a feature is uninteresting (e.g. "server capabilities") or of great interest (e.g. "free"), it could be excluded, and if a particular client or operating system had already been rejected, it could be removed from the screen. It occurs to me that this might seem to fall outside the mandate of the wiki, but perhaps it shouldn't: I'm thinking information analysis (data mining?) is what I used the wiki for all the time. User:Obiter 19 jan 2007

Why isn't spell check listed? -I ought to get a user name...

I would like to see total mailbox size comparison. Evolution breaks at 2GB, Thunderbird starts losing emails around 4GB, etc... Which email supports database backend would also be useful information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.253.135.218 (talk) 10:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Mailody?

I went to this page to find out some information about the "darling of the moment", Mailody but no one seems to have added it yet. If someone has used this client and knows a bit about it, can you please add it in?

I have even heard it may eventually replace Kmail in Kontact, though it is an IMAP-only client at this stage, with no plans by the chief developer to add POP3 support. Thanks. 211.26.1.6 05:17, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

POV security comparisons

I think these "security comparisons" were really only added to bash an MS product. First of all, it is misleading to use vulnerability counts as a measure of security. This is an encyclopedia and really, adding such a vuln count would require too many qualifications regarding what they mean to the point where it would become meaningless to include. Second of all, these vulnerability counts are just flat out WRONG. The search engine for bugtraq, when you select by vendor and product name, doesn't work that well for a lot of products. You need to do a keyword search. A simple keyword search for "thunderbird" or "The bat" reveals many results. See this advisory as an example of an "extremely critical" vulnerability in Thunderbird.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Ptomes (talk • contribs)

Have to agree with the vulnerability table is VERY skewed against MS

I agree the table is somewhat biased, as the clients in first place proablly do have security vulnerabilities that are unknown because they are not frequentlly used. So the chart becomes a inverse listing of how frequentlly a client is used. Lotu 23:17, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, I guess the reason that a lot of clients don't have security bugs is because they have a lot of security releases and don't recycle version numbers. We are comparing Outlook Express 6 with Mutt 1.4.2.1/1.5.11 for example; we cannot determine if certain security bugs are already fixed. --EdSchouten 14:26, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

What about deleting this complete vulnerability section (table) entirely? --Maxim Masiutin 18:37, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Based on the above opinions, I have deleted this section entirely. --Maxim Masiutin 21:21, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Merge from List of e-mail clients

Object: Support: The two articles offer different information. All of the clients in the list are not included in the comparison (unfortunately) and are also categorized. Note that several other comparisons and lists are separate as well such as Comparison of web browsers/List of web browsers and Comparison of media players/List of media players. It is odd that the person who requested the merge, and therefore opened this discussion, didn't even feel the need to state their reasoning here. --Kamasutra 06:17, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

The purpose of a merge would be to put all of the clients into the comparison, which could be categorized the same way as the list (if appropriate). If the comparison did have all of the clients which were in the list, in the same categories, wouldn't the list be redundnat? See also Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_image_viewers for precedence. If we don't merge the two, I'd like to replace this list with categories (which also has precence).

I proposed the merge (as I did for ~1/3 of the lists, many of which I started to clean up (rming entries which had articles AfDed, red-linking articles, and rming many external links). Sorry for not piping in with my reasoning sooner. This list is fairly well-maintained, but I think it offers nothing that categories and/or the comparison would be able to (and the merge tag provides motivation to add a few more clients to the comparison article). --Karnesky 12:59, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

If you are personally willing to categorize and add all of the missing entries and their information, or find someone who will, then I do not object. The problem I find is if they were "merged" and the comparison remained incomplete as the unmerged ones I've cited. I almost always use webmail, so I'm not one to contribute much to this article. However, it would be nice to see it nearly as robust as the web browsers' one, not only in clients but also in comparison attributes. I'm all for redundancy removal as long as they are truly merged and no other information is lost. --Kamasutra 17:00, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I am willing and do plan to

• Improve categorization, based on what the software lists have dictated as useful
• Add more entries (with info) to the comparison pages.

Obviously, this is a good amount of work (and I'd welcome help). As long as the majority doesn't object to this kind of FULL merge of the list to the comparison page, I think it is worth working on & worth leaving the merge tags up so others might also be inclined to help. --Karnesky 18:10, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Object: From reviewing the List... and Comparison... articles referenced above by Kamasutra, I presume their separation by category was in anticipation of the articles becoming particularly long and unwieldy. Looking at the Comparison of Web Browsers in particular, it is far more robust than the Comparison of E-Mail Clients, comparing several more categories of features than the latter. Assuming that the Comparison of E-Mail Clients will be expanding (e.g. to include comparisons of encryption integration, message managment, etc.) then the separation of the List from the Comparison remains in order. --Theaphro 03:54, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Would you object to using categories instead of the list? Categories would be more maintainable and more useful than the list. I personally think that the comparison would be able to support every client in this list. Even if it can't, I don't think this list is as useful as is claimed. --Karnesky 12:59, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

No, Lists have a different purpose than Categories. Categories only work for clients with an existing article. That's why it is common to have red links in lists.--Hhielscher 13:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

But there are other ways to request articles. Also, red links have systematically been removed from this particular article. The removal isn't something I really agree with (particularly for otherwise notable clients (such as Mahogany)), but your argument is moot for the way this list has been maintained. --Karnesky 14:28, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

This is User:Sleepyhead81 who seems to be removing red links from lots of articles. --Hhielscher 14:57, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Sleepyhead81 works for a firm whose article was deleted, and the redlink expunged from a load of other articles to which he'd added it. But as it happens I agree with this action, per WP:NOT (a directory). I also strongly support the removal of weblinks from these articles, we're not here to boost pageranks either. Just zis Guy you know? 16:14, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

First, there have been all red links removed, not one. Second, even WP:NOT agrees that Lists are part of wikipedia. Personally I am also removing weblinks (or am moving them to the appropriate article if the page has not previously been linked) if there is an article. But I think it is ok to leave a weblink next to a red link to give a starting point for further research. Furthermore I do not think that Wikipedia should care about pageranks at all—Wikipedia is not a search engine.--Hhielscher 17:32, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• Strongly support as it is a good way of making list articles more encyclopaedic. Of what encyclopaedic value is a bare list of email clients? A comparison table with platforms and other information is so much more useful! Just zis Guy you know? 13:23, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

• Strong Support per karnesky and karmasutra --Quiddity 23:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

• Strongly Suport: The list and the comparision should defintally be together becase one is a subset of the other. If any thing is in the list that is not in the comparion it should be added.Lotu 23:13, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

• Object:It really is fine and easy the way it is, and I do not think it would be any better. ~Linuxerist L / T 22:59, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

• Strongly support: When all clients are in this article, users are more likely to add more bits to the table. --EdSchouten 12:12, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

• Strongly support: Most importantly, I opened BOTH of these pages in different tabs anyway and read them both. I was looking for a way to find a list of e-mail clients that fit my certain list of salient characteristics, and in so doing, I was successful. I think most people will find both of these listings and read them both anyway. My point: why not? 66.233.125.65 03:15, 6 April 2006 (UTC)Nathan

• Object: I find the Comparison of E-Mail Page confusing - and the information is presented in a format that I personally find very un-useful. The List of E-Mail Clients is far more useful because it is simpler and allows faster comparision of simmilar clients (i.e. you can view one list of simmilar clients at a time). MatthewKarlsen 06:39, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

see my comment above under 'list of features', regarding making columns or rows invisible at the users fancy --User:Obiter 19 jan 2007

• Strongly Object: Sometimes you want a full table with a comparison of features, sometimes all you want is a list so you can go to the individual entries for each of the clients you're interested in. In the latter case then an unwieldly table gets in the way. Think of it as an index to relevant articles. If by any chance it does get merged then I hope that someone will go through every client mentioned on the list and make sure they're fully marked up so that the category page can be used as the list is used now? Not sure where that would leave clients without articles though... sheridan 02:23, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Open Sourciness?

On the Comparison of web browsers page, the consensus was that open source can't be counted as an advantage. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 02:42, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

But, per most other comparisons & per talk on the template pages, green doesn't denote an advantage--it merely denotes "yes." --Karnesky 00:22, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Webmail clients

I'm not sure whether webmail clients/frontends should be listed in the presence of these applications, but perhaps a page forked from here showing webmail clients such as SquirrelMail, RoundCube, and perhaps more commercial examples as GMail, Hotmail, YahooMail, and Exchange OWA... though those also include storage whereas the first can act simply as a client via imap/smtp. (comment by ..unknown..)

Yeah, I agree completely. This page is clearly for "client side applications" (ala client side programs in the client-server software paradigm). "gmail" is not listed in this page, so neither should any "webmail service/interface". And on that note, I'm removing @Mail entirely. It does not have a client side application. It should be on whatever "webmail services/interfaces" page comes out of what you are thinking of. (I'm trying to find a new client, and I've wasted 5 minutes carefully reading all about @Mail just to find it does NOT have a client side application. Hence all the question marks in the one table..)

Hmmm, but then what do we do for people who want to compare the features between *any* e-mail service? In any case, the current listing for @Mail is nothing but lines of question marks! CraigWyllie (talk) 22:13, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm, it'd be real nice if there was a way to make all the tables dynamically collapse and only show subsets of clients that match given criteria. A few of the clients are no longer under active development and/or are unsupported, and some are text based only. Some kind of selection box at the top that affects all that displays below. 67.70.62.36 (talk) 22:29, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm planing to do a smaller cleanup with the template:rh and template:rh2 to mark the clients as disconntiuned. similar to ofter comparisons like the comparison of web browsers. So everybody can see really quickly which client is under development... mabdul 0=* 23:42, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

SMIME and PGP should only track native support

The entries for S/MIME and PGP support are very questionable. There is a big difference between a mail client that offers native support for security and one where it is provided through a plug-in. Plug-ins are a bitch to maintain and effectively preclude most enterprise deployments. Most individual users never know they exist.

This is important because if I send an S/MIME signed message there is a very high probability that the recipient will have an email client that is capable of reading it and verifying the signature. The same is not true for PGP. Practically any client with an extension interface can be made to do either. We could easily lose the OCSP/CRL entries which I suspect are wrong in any case (Outlook and Outlook express will both use OCSP if the base Windows O/S is configured for OCSP checking. --66.31.39.76 00:53, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Some plugins, such as enigmail for Mozilla's products, are VERY tightly integrated & still warrant a mention. I think we should keep the convention of separating those with built-in support (green yes) from those with support through extensions (yellow yes with a note about the extension(s)).--Karnesky 01:55, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Karnesky. Probably a better example is Mulberry: it has plugins for GPG and PGP, but the plugins are developed by the application author and distributed with the application. The main reason for having them as plugins is historic: The US used to have rules saying that encryption products could not be exported. At that time the plugins were a seperated download, and you had to agree you would not break US export laws. Other email clients probably have similar setups, where the current archetecture is based on old legal requirements. DStaal 14:50, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I think Mulberry is a special case. It ships with the ability to use the gpg executable. However, it isn't distributed with gpg. This is due to license: gpg is under GPL, and so the code can only be reused in GPL-licensed products. Since Mulberry isn't GPLed, it wouldn't be able to make integration any tighter. --Karnesky 15:08, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

mbox

I added a column for "Message file format": mbox, maildir or proprietary; which I think is a core matter. The tables have a lot of features that don't mean much to me, but I would like information about abilities to import/export varioius msg file formats, or what tools can convert between what formats. * * * I don't understand the column "Fragmented attachments". If this is what I would call "stores attachments as individual files" it needs to be renamed or footnoted, and should be bumped over near the "Message file format" column. I'm going to copy over some discussion source material, below. 69.87.193.176 16:39, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Of the most popular and commonly used MUA's out there, here's a breakdown of the mail formats they use:

• Outlook: proprietary database
• Outlook Express (all variants): proprietary database
• Thunderbird: mbox
• Eudora: mbox (though the RFC-2822 messages inside are not MIME compliant)
• AOL: proprietary database
• Mozilla/Netscape: mbox
• Lotus Notes: proprietary database
• Mulberry: mbox
• Pine: mbox
• Pegasus: proprietary mailboxes
• Elm: mbox
• QuickMail Pro: proprietary message files
• Mac OS X Mail: was mbox until latest release, now proprietary message files
• Opera: mbox

While there are MUA's that do use maildir, maildir and maildir++ have mostly been deployed on the server side for IMAP mail servers. {end of quoted copy from Talk:Mbox by anon}

Thanks--That's an informative column. We should, perhaps, list what variant of mbox the clients use & also might mention other mailbox formats that clients can use (pine can use mbox, c-client MBX, or mtx. It can access maildir with a patch. Alpine has added support for the new mix format. --~~ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Karnesky (talk • contribs) 21:45, 21 January 2007 (UTC).

Fragmented attachments = Fragmented messages RFC2046 - 5.2.2.1. Message Fragmentation and Reassembly —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.1.225.180 (talk) 22:21, 1 February 2007 (UTC).--85.1.225.180 22:22, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

data table usability

This is a great page of data, but to my mind its far to much to be useful for my purpose, which is deciding which client i should get ... I just wonder if there was somebody competent at this sort of thing, who was able to edit it so that one could systematically hide aspects (I mean, rows or columns) of it as a reader decided they were irrelevant and cluttering up his simple picture of the world? i.e. if a feature is uninteresting (e.g. "server capabilities") or of great interest (e.g. "free"), it could be excluded, and if a particular client or operating system had already been rejected, it could be removed from the screen. It occurs to me that this might seem to fall outside the mandate of the wiki, but perhaps it shouldn't: I'm thinking information analysis (data mining?) is what I used the wiki for all the time.

I agree. If a column is "Yes" for all the programs than it is redundant and should be deleted. The same for all-"No" column. E.g. if nobody supports CRAM-RIPEMD than we should delete this column, and so on. --Maxim Masiutin 13:31, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Of course this would apply to all the "Comparison of..." articles, but it's a good idea. If you're going to select a program to use, it'll be by process of elimination - deciding what features you absolutely must have. As it is, I've been copying the whole tables into a spreadsheet mega table so I can sort and eliminate. It's a hassle. I'm certainly not suggesting that we completely do away with the current way of viewing things - there is some usefulness to the way it's currently organized. - Blueguy 72.150.208.71 (talk) 20:34, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Editing this page

May I request when people are editing this page that they always state what program their changes refer to in the 'Edit summary'. With most of the data contained in tables it is a nightmare knowing what every change refers to when all you see is ((yes)) Dsergeant 18:09, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Might I suggest a section in talk for this? When you're making changes to entries in tables, the normal edit summary space is a bit confining, since you're talking about "changed '?' to "Yes"/"No" for n sections.Johncwelch (talk) 04:03, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

server side spam filter in a client?

I think that column is misleading and confusing. That implies that the "client" is what runs the spam filtering on the "server". That confusing. There is a number of clients that read the X-Headers from spam filtering software and use them in their own filtering if they have any. Some clients allow you to adjust the spam filtering controls on specific servers (Outlook/Outlook web access + Exchange or GroupWise Client + GroupWise for example). However when a client is using the basic well known protocols (like IMAP & POP3) they have no influence over what the server does. If no body objects, I come back in a few days and drop that column. ZacBowling^talk 03:50, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I had assumed they meant whether the client supported marking mail as spam based on whether a server-side filter had marked it as such. I can see rewording the column, or even adding a note at the end of that table, but I think it is useful information. We should probably clarify, not delete. DStaal 15:55, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Eudora First release date

I have been trying without success to verify the release date of Eudora. The oldest archival record of the company home page is dated June 09 1997. At this time Eudora Lite 3.1 had been released but this was not the oldest public release. QUALLCOM support documments trouble shooting steps applying to both 3.x and 2.x versions here. An English version 2.0.x updater for windows stored at their ftp site reports a modification date of October 27, 1994. A file claimed to be Eudora 1.0 for windows stored here reports a modification date of Feb. 02, 1993. While I will not change the date based on these facts alone the evidence seems to suggest an older public release date than 1996.Phatom87 01:27, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

The riddle of Eudora's birth has been solved. 1988 or 1989 original release went commercial in 1991. I don't know where 1996 came from.Phatom87 20:38, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

mutt & HTML

It's not true that mutt's handling of HTML email is read-only, or if it is, then one can say the same about plain text emails. It will send anything you create with your external editor in the mime type you specify. I changed the cell contents to “external” to reflect that, and also the fact that the display of HTML messages is also handled by an external program. --89.176.54.194 21:57, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Google

I think google mail should be added to the comaparison but I don't know enough about it to add it to this list myself. I was wondering if someone could add it. --Jhfireboy Talk 18:24, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

What he said. I kept scrolling through the list thinking Where the @#$% is Gmail? 64.212.128.3 (talk) 21:20, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Google is not an e-mail client. Gmail offers web-based email services but it's not a client in the sense that you can use it to access an email server (i.e. a POP3 or IMAP server). --Nneuman (talk) 10:10, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

map.org's list of products supporting IMAP

This link http://www.imap.org/products/ does not (longer?) exists. --213.243.130.27 14:01, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

CommuniGate Pro

CommuniGate Pro CommuniGate Systems Free {5 user license} GPL

I think that CommuniGate Pro is not GPL as table claims. --213.243.130.27 14:28, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Folders in folders

Eudora allows folders in folders. OR, just mail in a folder (mailbox). But, Eudora does NOT allow both mail AND folders to be mixed, in a given directory tree node. Very frustrating. The article does not seem to mention this aspect. I assume almost all other email clients do not have this limitation?-69.87.202.94 11:44, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Where is SCALIX email?

Why isn't Scalix included anywhere in this document? http://www.scalix.com/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.46.212.62 (talk) 19:34, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Where is Pocomail / Barca?

And I have to wonder why there are so many programs listed that I've never heard of, despite a thorough search for a new e-mail client. I guess that's the downside of this type of website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.231.124.188 (talk) 02:49, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Where is Becky! Mail

Why are Becky! Mail not listed here? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becky%21 http://www.rimarts.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.72.215.200 (talk) 12:53, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Because no one's spent the time to develop a comparison. Inclusion on a comparison-list is unrelated to notability or importance, only to the interest by a program's partisans Tedickey 13:05, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Where is Clyton

I'd like to see Gammadyne Corporation's email client, Clyton, added to the article. The home page is here: [1] --Grozo (talk) 07:49, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

write an article and then we can add this client. and next time please don't post requests in the middle of the talk-page! post them at the bottom! --mabdul 0=* 09:11, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Cost

Any? wtf, should be free? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.167.107.251 (talk) 17:29, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

protocol table sorting

if you try to sort the protocol table, than the table gets mashed up.. Looks like javascript sorting script problem.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.158.147.229 (talk) 12:01, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

What are you talkjing about? javascript? Mabdul (talk) 17:43, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Alpine & Pine

There seems to be a disagreement whether Alpine is a web-based email client or not. I don't know Alpine very well but the Wikipedia article on it as well as its homepage only indicate a non web-based version. Mabdul (talk) however seems to insist that it belongs in the section of web-based e-mail clients. Maybe somebody can shed some light on that? --Nneuman (talk) 18:33, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Same issue with Pine actually. There does seem to be a web-based version of it but it's only "available to individuals associated with the University of Washington (students, faculty, etc.)" (see Pine (e-mail client)). Furthermore Pine "is no longer under development, and has been replaced by the new Alpine client." Therefore I don't think it belongs listed here in the section of web-based clients. --Nneuman (talk) 19:18, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

ok, maybe you're right (i didn't really read the article until now), but why did you delete the alpin of the list instead of adjusting it to another section? Mabdul (talk) 20:49, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Because it already is listed in the section of text-based clients ... --Nneuman (talk) 09:51, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Lots of different things here. The old programs:

• Unix Pine (source available under pine license)
• PC-Pine (windows; closed source)
• Web Pine (web-based; closed source, only available to UW)

And the new ones:

• Unix Alpine (apache license)
• PC-Alpine (windows; apache license; basically a tweaked version of Alpine to make it easier for windows users to compile and/or to differentiate the binaries)
• Web Alpine (web-based; apache license; ships with the Alpine source code)

People have used "Pine" and "Alpine" to refer to:

• Only Unix (Al)Pine
• Only the desktop mail clients
• Both desktop clients and the web-based client

Alpine is distributed as source code that can be used to compile Unix Alpine, PC-Alpine, and Web Alpine.

--Karnesky (talk) 00:43, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the detailed information. I'll adjust the corresponding articles. --Nneuman (talk) 09:51, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

features

security

The chart should indicate whether users have the ability to disable (or ignore) JavaScript in inbound e-mail messages. For incoming e-mail, a client may:

• ignore JavaScript completely;
• have the ability to support JavaScript, but disable this functionality by default;
• warn the user if an inbound message contains JavaScript, and ask whether it should be executed or not;
• support JavaScript, enable this functionality by default, but allow the user to disable it;
• or support JavaScript and not allow the user to disable it.

The first three options are best.

[In software designed for a multi-user environment (especially medium-to-large business), the client may also allow the administrative or "root" user to set the default or to "lock it down."]

69.140.152.55 (talk) 00:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

return receipts

The chart should indicate whether or not the software supports delivery receipts (i.e., the ability to request successful delivery status notifications).

69.140.152.55 (talk) 00:14, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Multiple Accounts

I have spent the afternoon researching email clients that support multiple accounts. There are several levels of support:

• Full independent support for emails going to and from multiple servers. Microsoft's Live Mail apparently does this, but I haven't been able to supply all of the details needed to satisfy Network Solutions yet.
• One main and several subordinates with all outgoing mail routed through the main account. Older programs such as Thunderbird and Pegasus take this approach, or at least I can't persuade them to do otherwise. This approach is not supported at Network Solutions, and is flaky at Earthlink.
• Multiple personalities for a given email account. Advertised as "multiple accounts." Caveat emptor!

Page Notes (talk) 22:03, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Eudora and related issues

Eudora is, as far as I know, no longer for sale and is definitely not being updated. Penelope is not "the next release." Penelope is an apparently abandoned skin for Thunderbird. Odysseus is not mentioned - perhaps intentionally since it is still in beta, but it is far closer to release than Penelope. Odysseus is a new cross-platform "Eudora clone." PowerMail, a moderately popular proprietary solution which is still supported, appears to be missing. So is GyazMail but the latter is more understandable. Good to see Mulberry on the list. Does anyone want me to add Odysseus and PowerMail, and what should be done with the current listing of Eudora? 71.172.41.61 (talk) 23:28, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Your comments about Penelope are not entirely accurate. Penelope is the open source, Mozilla Thunderbird based, "official replacement" for Eudora (see Penelope Project) and is being developed by some of the original Qualcomm Eudora developers. It is also mentioned directly on the Eudora main page. It is very much alive and well as a project, not abandoned. If fact you'll see that they have released the fourth beta of Penelope. Seeing that Odysseus is also in beta I would say that they are at the same stage, might even say that Penelope is ahead since it has the strong backing of Qualcomm, Mozilla and several Eudora developers so it definitely will result in a production release soon. Penelope also has a very significant advantage in that it is based on very good Mozilla Thunderbird technology and is open source and free of licensing costs!

As far as updating the table I think you should add Odysseus and Penelope and keep Eudora reflecting its last release 7.1 2 years ago. I still use Eudora today and I'm sure many others do also. Lbecque (talk) 19:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

feel free to edit the cpompairon! WP:bold! mabdul 0=* 20:01, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Missing Important Feature Comparison: Filter Actions and Rules

The features charts are missing the most important feature that I was looking to compare; what MS Outlook calls 'rules' and Eudora calls actions on 'filters'. Actually, Eudora's use of the word filters is different from most email clients where the filters simply affect what email you are viewing. In Eudora filters (and Outlook rules) you use filters to select messages and perform some sort of action like filing in a folder, deleting, etc. which help you to automate your handling of mail and reduction of SPAM. I especially like the ability in Eudora to work with a POP3 server and based on a filter action only delete certain messages from the server while leaving the rest both on the server and the local inbox. I haven't found any other mail client that can do that. Lbecque (talk) 20:49, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Missing Important Feature Comparison: Import/Export (supported formats)

The features chart should contain the supported formats for the import/export of emails. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.84.1.11 (talk) 08:36, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Evolution (software)

With the growing popularity of Gnome as a part of Ubuntu Linux, Evolution is also growing more popular. I think it should be included (and am too busy to add it myself). Cheers, BNutzer (talk) 08:35, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

"Cheers" is the bar down the street. You seem to have checked into the wrong place. —Quicksilver^{T @} 22:55, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you are also to busy to see that it is included (under 'Novell Evolution')? --Karnesky (talk) 22:31, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Apparently. Thanks! BNutzer (talk) 09:53, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Removal of non-notable entries

In common with other similar lists, I'll shortly begin removing non-notable entries that don't have an associated article. Greenman (talk) 16:20, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

I have helped out here. Miami33139 (talk) 20:01, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

You might have participated. Whether it was helpful is disputable. Will you now go through other articles and remove any non-notable items, such as Madonna's parents? Oh, well...at least you deletionists help keep anyone from taking Wikipedia too seriously.71.203.125.108 (talk) 23:11, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Conspicuous absence

Conspicuous by its absence is America On Line, or AOL. I've never used it, but millions have, and I personally know many people who continue to do so. How could this have been overlooked, or, was it removed by someone out of spite? —Quicksilver^{T @} 22:55, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

offline mail reading

It would be nice to add a column to features if the e-mail client supports offline email reading. This is especially a question for IMAP: if the mail client supports downloaded copies of emails for offline reading and answer. --194.82.50.2 (talk) 21:01, 7 September 2010 (UTC)

why is thunderbird listed 2 times?

93.130.173.230 (talk) 18:44, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

fixed TEDickey (talk) 20:18, 31 July 2011 (UTC)

Add Roundcube

Roundcube appears in the first comparison chart, but none of the subsequent charts. I notice that there is a discussion below about including RoundCube at all, but it remains included in the first chart. If you want to include it (and I think that it should) more information needs to be added regarding it to the additional charts.

Thanks. -Smaug 22:59, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Backup / Reinstall / Restore - Configurations and Email Accounts

It is a very important to know if the email client is able to backup and restore my personal settings like email accounts, and configurations.

I am migrating out of MS Outlook because every time I format my windows (every six months) I have to create again each of my 16 email accounts, and rules, and configure my usage preferences again.

Lotus Notes has this feature, but all the rest is awful.

So, we need a column showing which email client is able to make a backup of configuration settings and email accounts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Brunoschroeder (talk • contribs) 16:12, 24 December 2011 (UTC)