Why use Gnus, Mutt, and the like instead of Thunderbird, Evolution, and the like?

[krapp]

Having enjoyed my first month with Emacs, I'm interested in giving Gnus a shot but I want to see if it's worth the plunge for my purposes and circumstances (i.e. the investment of time to configure and learn the basics). Anybody with strong feelings about clients like Wanderlust, Gnus, and Mutt? How do you rate them facing clients like Thunderbird, Outlook, and Evolution?

[andrew.46]

I have not used gnus as I am a fairly rabid slrn user so I cannot answer for gnus and emacs. But I am also a mad keen mutt user and I think the thing that draws me to mutt over such clients as Thunderbird, Outlook, and Evolution is the rewards you gain from reading the manual, experimenting with the configuration files and just plain old mucking around with a beautifully written and almost infinitely extensible piece of software. You just cannot get this with the gui mail clients...

[Nkosi]

Anybody with strong feelings about clients like Wanderlust, Gnus, and Mutt? How do you rate them facing clients like Thunderbird, Outlook, and Evolution?

I've used Thunderbird, Outlook and Evolution, but have switched to mutt. Thunderbird is superb and the others aren't bad, but it's truly a *nix thing to learn how to put together 3 or 4 mini programs that rock when put together to get your mail -- and faster too ;)

[KingYaba]

I don't see a reason to stop using Thunderbird.

[Tibuda]

What is "Gnus"? It is an app? I tried to search google but all I found was about the animals and "GNU is Not Unix".

[andrew.46]

What is "Gnus"? It is an app?

It is the usenet reader for emacs.

[urukrama]

I use alpine on some computers, because it is simple and (especially) light. Try running Thunderbird or Evolution on 64MB RAM!

[Bandit]

I use alpine on some computers, because it is simple and (especially) light. Try running Thunderbird or Evolution on 64MB RAM!

This lol or when all you got is the CLI.

I used to use Pine a lot. Would have servers send information to my account and open the messages with Pine.

[Tibuda]

thanks

[sujoy]

the whole point behind using mutt (earlier) and gnus (at present) is that it lets me use the editor of my choice. not just another gtk/qt text box widget. and since i write a lot that really does matters a lot to me.

also, what cli mail clients does is that it keep out of the way, you are already in emacs coding or something, just switch to the gnus buffer, write the mail and get back to work :)

[wizard10000]

I use claws-mail for mail and text newsgroups and have yet to find anything better. Light, fast and doesn't have the bloat of Thunderbird or Evolution.

[timZZ]

I have been typically using Thunderbird and Evolution but I will give Mutt a try.

For me ... I find it hard to leave command line applications, as once you know the short cuts ... it just slows you down to use anything else.

The only reason I stay with GUI driven mail clients is the way the client shows you in-coming mail.

Thunderbird creates a pop-up within the GUI layer that stands out while you are working.