Do you use Thunderbird , Evolution or others?

[Kdar]

I was thinking to start using one of them, some e-mail clients, possibly with ability to connect to google mail and calendar.

Which one do you use? Which one you think is better?

[lisati]

There are probably as many possible answers as people who can provide answers - each of us has our own preferences.

For most of my emails I use Evolution, and for some low volume stuff I use Thunderbird.

There's Seamonkey, which is based on Firefox and Thunderbird. I don't know if Penelope is available for Linux yet - it's basically Thunderbird made to look like Eudora.

[LowSky]

I used to use Thunderbird, but I find Evolution has better support for google calendar. So now I'm riding the Evo train.

There are both pretty much the same these days. Perosnally the only thing I wish either did was had an option for Outlook styled reply and fowarding mail.

[lovinglinux]

I use Simple Mail (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5593/) extension for Firefox and I love it. Evolution, Thunderbird, Kmail are all too feature rich for taste.

[phillychease]

good ol' gmail

[oldsoundguy]

I use Thunderbird with the Lightning add on for calender. HOWEVER, I do not used web based mail such as G-Spot or Yeahoo or MSAnything.

[Bachstelze]

KMail on KDE, Thunderbird otherwise. Plus Horde running on my Web/Mail server for when I'm away from home and without my laptop.

[XubuRoxMySox]

I use Seamonkey for two reasons:

1. - It works like good ol' Thunderbird 2.x and allows me to use Gmail as POP3, where Thunderbird 3 insists that Gmail has to be IMAP.

2. - The Composer allows me to insert my cutesy little animated gifs and pictures and stuff in my outgoing messages. Thunderbird always did too - but the IMAP thing has me on Seamonkey instead. If not for that, I'd pro'lly still be using TBird. And the Lightning calendar extension works great too.

Actually Seamonkey is growing on me quite a bit. It's kinda sorta like a fully integrated TBird and Firefox. Very nice. And all my Firefox extensions work in Seamonkey too (AdBlock Plus, Scribefire, and Forecastfox for the radar thingy).

I looked at Clawsmail and Sylpheed but they don't offer a composer that lets me do my all the formatting and embedded pictures and animated gifs I like to include. Never tried Evolution because I prefer Xfce and I try not to load alot of Gnome cruft on top of it.

Still writing silly, colorful, HTML-filled letters to e-mail penpals,

Robin

[witeshark17]

After the issues with T-bird 3 in Ubuntuzilla, I switched to Evo... So far I'm happy enough just to keep using that... :popcorn:

[Khakilang]

I use whatever that come with Lucid Lynx that is Evolution not that I use it at all.

[bigboy_pdb]

I used to use Evolution. I didn't have any problems with it and I liked it. However, I purposely switched away from it since it is a project which is intended for the GNOME desktop. I'm aware of the Windows port, but that's not part of the main project.

Basically, I switched because I wanted to use a product that was intended to be portable. Thunderbird is developed specifically for multiple OSes, meaning that data is expected to be able to be ported between them. Also, I expect that it will have the greatest following out of free e-mail clients (if it doesn't already and provided that nothing better comes along).

It's best to make a decision early on, otherwise, transferring data (such as that from your address book) might prove to be an annoyance (which was my experience).

EDIT: I just wanted to elaborate on why a more popular e-mail client matters. It matters because there's more likely to be better support, quicker development, and a greater number of add ons.

[MrNatewood]

I recently switched to Thunderbird from Evolution.
I think it is much better.
I like the way it automagicaillay detects all the server settings, and warns of unsecrue server options.
The reason I switched in the first place was that Evolution doesn't automatically remember addresses you send to, which it really annoying.
Once I send an email to an address i want it suggested the next time I start typing it.

[V for Vincent]

Thunderbird man here.

[ubunterooster]

Nobody said Sylpheed yet? Well I said it ;)

[Hman242]

Do you mind if I ask a question about these since I plan on using one of theses apps? I can' decide which one I'm wanting to use because I don't know anything about them. Does one of these applications notify you instantly when you receive an email?

[ubunterooster]

Thunderbird can play a sound as soon as it finds a new email

[_h_]

I don't use any clients. I just leave a tab open in firefox on gmail. :P

[ubunterooster]

I don't use any clients. I just leave a tab open in firefox on gmail. :P

_h_, try this
v
v
v
Gmail Watcher (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60148/) by sonthakit (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/user/5127739/)

Add to Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/latest/60148/addon-60148-latest.xpi?src=search)


Rated 4 out of 5 stars 31 reviews (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60148/#reviews)
2,822 weekly downloads
Updated July 3, 2010

[bigboy_pdb]

Hman242,

Thunderbird does notify you that you have new mail with a message that appears for about 5 seconds. There are add ons (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/) that let you see an icon in the notification area for as long as the mail is unopened, however, I have Thunderbird 3.1.1 (a newer version than the repository version) and there currently don't seem to be any add ons that have this functionality. Evolution, on the other hand, should have this functionality built in.

There's some other things that should be mentioned regarding Thunderbird. The calendar is not installed by default. In order to get it, you'll need to install the lightning add on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313/).

A couple of other useful add ons are the ImportExportTools add on (http://nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html), which recognizes additional e-mail file formats, and the MinimizeToTray Plus add on (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2831/) puts an icon of Thunderbird in your system tray and allows you to minimize it to the tray.

There may be add ons to launch Thunderbird on start up (or the functionality may be built in), but I launch it using "Startup Applications" (System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications).

[oldsoundguy]

add some things to bigboy's post.
You can add and audio alert to T-Bird as well in the system sounds. (I use assmail.wave .. which I picked up on the web)
And you can create a quick launch.

I have several programs set as such .. not on the desktop, but in the top panel. All you have to do is drag and drop any menu item to the bar and that's it! You may want to organize them and lock them to the panel .. I actually put a separator (from the add to panel menu) between my items to keep stuff organized. VERY handy!

[Linye]

I have tried to use one of those clients and never understood how to use them so I always end up back a gmail.

[donkyhotay]

I tried evolution but it seemed a little bloated for my needs. I tried thunderbird next and have been using it ever since.

[Cardale]

Normally operating systems come with the basics so users can decide what they would like to use. Ubuntu on the other hand has recently tried to "improve" its interface by using social networking plugins because ....well they are nice to have, but honestly Evolution has some major issues. I honestly tried using Evolution with my email accounts some of which are old and have many archived files on a Gmail server mind you and it failed to download the file without even reporting an error. I have two Gmail accounts and each of these account have identical setup settings, but yet the older one with many filters, files, and messages stalls on download. Another thing I consider a down side of Evolution is the fact that in order to "setup" mail downloads it takes awhile. You have to enter several different types of information for one account while in Thunderbird for example I entered 3 things. My name I want to use on the account, the email which includes username@domain.com, and the password. It then automatically detects the protocol for incoming and outgoing mail and sets up my account. It is very responsive and sharp.

As far as the first comment goes I am not sure if that person has every had multiple emails and tried sharing notes and dates with others, but Thunderbird makes this very easy.

I am not sure what group ware is exactly so I can't speak on this point, but I do believe the main objective of Evolution is to be a mail client and it is being up staged by Thunderbird obviously in this area.

[MisterGaribaldi]

Nah, I just use GMail's web interface. It's quick, easy, and as cross-platform as it gets.

For literally 1-2 emails a year, I'll need or want to do something more graphical, and so I'll use Outlook or Apple Mail or Thunderbird (whatever is at hand).

But when it comes to being "cross platform" I really can't think of anything moreso than GMail.

AND it's one less thing to ever have to worry about backing up, since there's nothing local.