MYM ISO Attractive Email App
November 7, 2007
I’m not a certified geek, or even pretend to know much about computers, but I do have severe design constraints on my everyday applications. Recently I’ve been obsessed with finding the best email app for my work style. I’m not into things being full-featured and all-encompassing (a la Adobe and Microsoft) as much as I want them to be lean and efficient. For some reason that’s unusual.
Specifically I am looking for an email app that:
1. is captured on my computer ( I move around to much to keep it all online)
2. works on OSX natively
3. stable without archiving (not all in one file)
4. is really fast to search (not search as you type)
5. has good email filtering for tags and folders
6. integrates with OSX address book
7. is tasteful in design and lets me do some basic text formatting.
Here are results from my search so far:
1. I am a steadfast Eudora user, but they have discontinued development (”transitioned“) for now.
2. Apple mail was slow and unstable (all emails in one file) and frequently required me to rebuild the database as per this great tip from Hawk Wings.
3. Entourage was gigantic and unstable like Apple mail. It was also pretty ugly despite Alexis Kayhills’ recommendation.
4. I love gmail but can’t take it offline with me. I need a desktop solution.
5. Powermail seemed slow and unstable too.
6. Jury is out on Mailsmith still.
7. Thunderbird is quite decent but seems to be Mozilla’s step child of Firefox. It has the filtering and quick search functionality. I also like all the open source plugins already available like Quicktext. Who knows if it will get the same development attention it needs though.
8. The new Eudora 8 beta feels like a skin on top of Thunderbird and was too buggy for now.
9. GNUmail doesn’t support HTML.
10. GyazMail supposedly does not support HTML text formatting either, but it looks nice and simple and is written in native OSX Cocoa Framework.
Other thoughts? Please leave a comment if you have an opinion.
Stumble it!
Tags: , design tools, email, software
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November 9th, 2007 at 10:33 am
I use Apple mail with gmail. I know Apple mail has that big database file that could be lost but gmail keeps all my mail backed up and online. You can configure gmail to get mail from other accounts using pop3. This allows you to send and receive using your current non-gmail address.
Drawbacks with this approach: Sent mail form your Apple mail program does not end up archived on gmail (unless you always remember to bcc your gmail address). Also, gmail seems to check pop accounts about once an hour. That means you won’t get mail right away. (I’m not sure about that once an hour thing. Sometimes it seems like it gets mail more often, sometimes I notice a delay.) You can retreive mail form both your original server and gmail using pop or imap but then you sometimes get 2 copies of things.
Dumb idea?
November 10th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Thanks for the comment. I haven’t tried downloading gmail ut can see why it would be handy. It also makes sure you have backups which is cool.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Actually, recently Gmail added IMAP support- which means that it will sync with your Apple mail or any other email program. This solution is the best I have found so far- I get GMail’s portability and excellent SPAM filtering but I can access it from any computer or mobile device I have.
June 18th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
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