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bmdavis
September 19th, 2007, 01:21 PM
Hi all,

So there's one last step for me to change from the ubuntu/xp ratio of 50/50 to 95/5 - my email client. Currently I set-up Kontact (Kmail) in Gnome and am enjoying it, although there are a few frustrations (won't list). I don't need a bunch of extras, just looking for dependability, long term satisfaction, and lots of easy shortcuts. Reverse compatibility with windows would be nice, but not necessary.

So, any opinions? More importantly, is there a working link that compares each of the newest versions? Checked other threads and many of the links were broken.

Love Feisty, love compiz fusion, love bein' a newbie linux user!

Thanks...

mindtrick
September 19th, 2007, 01:31 PM
I'd try Thunderbird. It also has lots of themes, extensions etc

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird

curuxz
September 19th, 2007, 01:42 PM
no offence to the previous poster but i would not touch thunderbird with a barge poll, yes lots of really cool extentions but its about as reliable as chocolate tea pot.

Kontact is simply the best outlook replacement you could hope for and so much more, though my one recommendation to you is, install KDE.

Kontact is designed to intergrate the kde and it will allow you to do lots of cool stuff, like have your todo lists on your desktop or quickly move information around. Its really usefull. Plus there are a few extra parts of kontact like the ablity to sync with mobile phones (cells phones) and a time tracking module. If your intrested in those give me a nod :)

dashnak
September 19th, 2007, 01:51 PM
I'll vouch for thunderbird as well.....
I tried out evolution for a few weeks but ended up hating it, heh...

curuxz
September 19th, 2007, 02:06 PM
Even firefox them selfs are ditching thunderbird because they say its 'not up to standard'

Its not a good idea to use it if your after long term stablity is all im saying IMHO.

mips
September 19th, 2007, 02:09 PM
Kontact

merlyn
September 19th, 2007, 02:09 PM
Even firefox them selfs are ditching thunderbird because they say its 'not up to standard'

What an odd assertion, particularly as there are install 'packages' of Thunderbird 3.0a1 available here (ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/nightly/latest-trunk), dated 19 Sep 07.

Could you provide a link to an article, or some such to support this statement?

I myself have been using Thunderbird for quite some time now and am very happy with it

Cheers.

Nano Geek
September 19th, 2007, 02:10 PM
I vote for Evolution.
It has a nice calendar and contacts and more features than Thunderbird.

AlanRogers
September 19th, 2007, 02:16 PM
If you connect to your mail accounts using IMAP instead of POP3, it doesn't matter what client or even OS you use. I use IMAP as follows:

Outlook XP on Windows XP on my laptop
Outook 07 on Windows VB on my test box
Evolution on Ubuntu 6.10 on my test box
Thunderbird on Debian 4.0 on my test box
Outlook Express on Windows 2K at Contractors siteI can see all my emails, in every client, send without problem and (re)organise as often as I like, and those changes are automatically replicated to all machines.

Interestingly, of all the set-ups, Outlook is generally the worst at managing an IMAP connection!

misfitpierce
September 19th, 2007, 02:16 PM
I stay with evolution for life :)

zeDuffMan
September 19th, 2007, 02:18 PM
Even firefox them selfs are ditching thunderbird because they say its 'not up to standard'

Erm, no. Mozilla is just splitting it off into its own development home, much like they did to Firefox a couple of years back.

curuxz
September 19th, 2007, 02:21 PM
Could you provide a link to an article, or some such to support this statement?

I myself have been using Thunderbird for quite some time now and am very happy with it

Cheers.


Cant find the original place I read the 'up to standard' comment, I think it was on a blog of one of the devs tho to be honest I have not got time to look.

http://scott-macgregor.org/blog/?p=4
http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=22235
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2007/07/email_futures.html


These confirm that it IS being dropped from mozilla because they just dont have the time and energy to make it to the same level they do with Firefox. They only want to focus the resources on firefox and as a result they seem to think thunderbird is holding them down, needless to say this is not exactly going to lead to an improvement with how tbird works!

Lots of places have said it remains buggy and its extentions even more so. It was a nice idea but intergrating the email client with the browser was the wrong way to go IMHO, it needs to take the kontact route of being intergrated with the desktop to make a far better, more productive email system.

wersdaluv
September 19th, 2007, 02:23 PM
It depends on what is fit for you. For PIM, I think that Kontact is best including components like Basket Notepads (my most favorite app :guitar:).

Since you are using GNOME (I guess) it would be nice if you use Evolution for calendar, contacts and tasks although I still think that Kontact is best.

If you are really going to stick with GNOME and you are primarily going to use one for the three for Emailing, I would suggest Thunderbird.

luvdemheels
September 19th, 2007, 02:40 PM
I will just be happy when their is a client for linux that will play nice with exchange. Evolution isn't there yet. Surely someone can come up with an rock solid outlook type client for linux.

dscherry
September 19th, 2007, 02:59 PM
Hi,
Unless you're limited on disk space (or time), I'd suggest you try them all (one of the benefits of Linux). They should all coexist, and you can experiment with imports/exports, address book formats, calendars, pims and so on. Then settle in on the one that best fits your needs.

What did you mean by 'Reverse compatibility with Windows'? Thunderbird is the only one I'm aware of with Linux/Windows versions, but all of them are 'mailbox' compatible (via IMAP, as alanrogers said).

Lastly, I'd recommend the Kontact components (Kmail, KOrganizer, Knotes and Kaddressbook), but I'm not fond of the 'bundle' approach of Kontact. This is based on KDE's approach to sharing data between multiple computers and multiple users - which may not be one of your requirements. To each their own...

Dan

bmdavis
September 19th, 2007, 03:33 PM
Thanks for the good replies.

Interesting about Thunderbird - first I had heard, and it's good to know as I plan for down the road.

Read and have heard that both thunderbird and evolution are buggy, still have yet to read many bad things about kontact. If I keep GNOME is Kontact still worth it? May have to consider switching to KDE now, although that's a whole other issue....

Still leaning towards Kontact after these messages.

curuxz
September 19th, 2007, 03:36 PM
I will just be happy when their is a client for linux that will play nice with exchange. Evolution isn't there yet. Surely someone can come up with an rock solid outlook type client for linux.


Kontact is better than outlook and kolab replaces exchange for free. problem solved.

With the next version of kontact in QT4, soon we will see kontact in windows and mac and then it will be an outlook killer....next year should be intresting for kde apps

luvdemheels
September 19th, 2007, 03:43 PM
Replacing exchange would be nice but at this time our office is not at a point where we can do that so I would love to find a client that is compatible with exchange yet stable.