4 ms·

Out of interest, what email client(s) do you use? I want to love email (I do love the platform) but I've just struggled to find a UI that I don't battle with.

Out of interest, what email client(s) do you use? I want to love email (I do love the platform) but I've just struggled to find a UI that I don't battle with. Especially one/some that work similarly across different devices.

ddingus 6y ago
I use outlook and the gmail web interface mostly. Having used so damn many UX'es, I do not generally struggle. They work how they work. Basics are not hard. I rarely use more than basics anyway. I quit trying for that perfect fit years ago. Thing is it will get changed. So why bother? Much easier to adapt and become quick to grok whatever paradigm, flow is there and get back to whatever else I am thinking about. I have used Thunderbird and would again in a pinch. Like that one.
- lucideer 6y ago
  I haven't used Outlook, and it was my next port of call. I've used Thunderbird but I've been frustrated by it's "core" handling of mail threading (there's an extension but it doesn't integrate well with any of Thunderbird's other features, largely because it's trying to do things not envisaged by Thunderbird's addons APIs). > They work how they work. Basics are not hard. I rarely use more than basics anyway. I would normally agree but I'm using macOS Mail currently and it brings new definition to the word "basics". It's missing some pretty obvious things. > the gmail web interface I'm in web interfaces pretty often and I really like Fastmail's: strongly considering switching to use it's web UI everywhere and forgo local clients completely. I've found Gmail's usable but sluggish, which gets painful if you receive a lot of mail.
  - ddingus 6y ago
    I agree with gmail now sluggish. At one time, 800ms! Today? Seconds. I use it for personal and to search my body of pro emails forwarded to an account for that purpose. Too bad about macOS mail. I need to look at FastMail. Outlook, like the rest of the Microsoft Office programs, is craptastic! It will do what you want. You will enjoy doing it less than you want, and it will generally remain worth it to do what you want. Web only email is killer. I did that for many years. The big thing with Outlook and exchange is business calendar integration. MS has a good solution. Forward to gmail and I get Android calendar copies for essentially free and low hassle. I do enough sales related work to justify Outlook. I do not like Microsoft mobile apps much at all. On Android at least. Edit: I fought with / against Outlook for years. When I finally said, "fuck it" and used it for business, I found when I do not invest much, I do not risk much and have been happy ever since. I just don't want to think about it all that much. The contents of those emails are what I want to think about and so that's where my focus is.
rainingmonkey 6y ago
I run KDE and KMail integrates nicely. A while back it had problems with Gmail, but despite Google's best efforts to break compatibility it works pretty well today. Unified inbox, fast search, highly configurable. It has a couple of rough edges around the UI (it's probably not for grandma), but it's still by far the best desktop mail client I've used. Oh, and K9 mail for android!

ddingus 6y ago

I use outlook and the gmail web interface mostly. Having used so damn many UX'es, I do not generally struggle. They work how they work. Basics are not hard. I rarely use more than basics anyway. I quit trying for that perfect fit years ago. Thing is it will get changed. So why bother? Much easier to adapt and become quick to grok whatever paradigm, flow is there and get back to whatever else I am thinking about. I have used Thunderbird and would again in a pinch. Like that one.

lucideer 6y ago
I haven't used Outlook, and it was my next port of call. I've used Thunderbird but I've been frustrated by it's "core" handling of mail threading (there's an extension but it doesn't integrate well with any of Thunderbird's other features, largely because it's trying to do things not envisaged by Thunderbird's addons APIs). > They work how they work. Basics are not hard. I rarely use more than basics anyway. I would normally agree but I'm using macOS Mail currently and it brings new definition to the word "basics". It's missing some pretty obvious things. > the gmail web interface I'm in web interfaces pretty often and I really like Fastmail's: strongly considering switching to use it's web UI everywhere and forgo local clients completely. I've found Gmail's usable but sluggish, which gets painful if you receive a lot of mail.
- ddingus 6y ago
  I agree with gmail now sluggish. At one time, 800ms! Today? Seconds. I use it for personal and to search my body of pro emails forwarded to an account for that purpose. Too bad about macOS mail. I need to look at FastMail. Outlook, like the rest of the Microsoft Office programs, is craptastic! It will do what you want. You will enjoy doing it less than you want, and it will generally remain worth it to do what you want. Web only email is killer. I did that for many years. The big thing with Outlook and exchange is business calendar integration. MS has a good solution. Forward to gmail and I get Android calendar copies for essentially free and low hassle. I do enough sales related work to justify Outlook. I do not like Microsoft mobile apps much at all. On Android at least. Edit: I fought with / against Outlook for years. When I finally said, "fuck it" and used it for business, I found when I do not invest much, I do not risk much and have been happy ever since. I just don't want to think about it all that much. The contents of those emails are what I want to think about and so that's where my focus is.

rainingmonkey 6y ago

I run KDE and KMail integrates nicely. A while back it had problems with Gmail, but despite Google's best efforts to break compatibility it works pretty well today. Unified inbox, fast search, highly configurable. It has a couple of rough edges around the UI (it's probably not for grandma), but it's still by far the best desktop mail client I've used. Oh, and K9 mail for android!