5 ms·

What's left now, for Windows users? I think the only solution is Thunderbird

KronisLV 3y ago
> I think the only solution is Thunderbird Some while ago, there was a bit of backlash over their re-design, but after actually using the more recent versions, I have to say that they did a good job - you can toggle the display density of the UI elements and it's still a good mail client with reasonable performance and usability. I can even sign e-mails with OpenPGP and did you know that it also has a built in RSS feed reader (a bit clunky, but having news sites/blogs be a folder that's right next to my e-mail accounts works brilliantly well)? In addition, I have it both on my Windows and Linux machines, surprisingly consistent across the board. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. Maybe also Roundcube hosted on VPSes for my own development mail servers when I don't feel like adding bunches of accounts to Thunderbird, but it's really nice that there's software like this out there in the first place!
- soco 3y ago
  My favorite RSS reader is Feedbro in Firefox, maybe on the minimal side but exactly what I need.
greyface- 3y ago
PuTTY + Mutt? :)
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  I’ve done myself over the years. :) Windows now directly offers OpenSSH and a decent modern terminal app, so while PuTTY still works it’s no longer necessary for accessing mutt over SSH from Windows. Also with WSL you can also run mutt locally on Windows within a userland Linux distro like Ubuntu or Debian.
  - alt227 3y ago
    This is honeslty my favourite thing about windows in recent years. Now that you can just fire up native windows terminal and type 'ssh user@host.com' it has saved me so much time, and probably downloads for putty have dropped considerably as well.
- layer8 3y ago
  That’s actually precisely what I use. :)
einr 3y ago
If, like many of us, you work in an org that refuses to authorize Thunderbird or anything else for IMAP+Oauth2 to Exchange Online then there are no other solutions. Outlook is e-mail, e-mail is Outlook.
- layer8 3y ago
  You don’t have to use that for your private email though.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- AnonC 3y ago
  This is what is so annoying with companies these days. Microsoft has them by the #%!!$ and they’ll continue taking all the productivity loss and other risks just so someone can check a box and say “We trust in Microsoft to manage this, and we’re off the hook.” There are solutions like the Owl extension for Thunderbird, but that’s for the adventurous ones who want to take risks.
- jwells89 3y ago
  The online school I’m attending is like this with its email. My options are to run the Outlook for Mac desktop app (which oddly seems to be a different beast than “new” Outlook on Windows) or keep Outlook webmail open in a tab. Not even Apple Mail via its Exchange support is permitted. I ultimately landed on keeping the desktop app open to reduce browser clutter and for the icon notification badge so I don’t miss any important emails.
squarefoot 3y ago
Claws Mail: powerful and lightning fast and 100% multi platform native code. (MacOS too but has to be built or downloaded elsewhere) https://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php https://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php There's a small command line tool around (can't recall the name, sorry) to convert message bases and contacts from Outlook format so that they can be imported into Claws Mail. I once did that at a workplace where they were having all sort of problems with Outlook and a fairly big mail archive and saw people dropping their jaws when looking at the difference in search speed. Give it a try.
- vasdae 3y ago
  Claws is GTK+, so it's not native.
  - phendrenad2 3y ago
    Actually, on Windows GTK uses native widgets.
    - vasdae 3y ago
      No, using DrawFrameControl et al does not make a widget native.
      - lifty 3y ago
        What is native these days? They seem to have a new UI toolkit every 2 years.
        cesarb 3y ago
        The only native controls on Windows are the classic Win16/Win32 controls, accept no substitutes (not even that new-fangled comctl32 thing).
  - tux3 3y ago
    Native code, not native UI (whatever that means, these days)
tuetuopay 3y ago
I switched to Mailspring a year or two ago and am very happy about it. It's based on electron so here be dragons, but does the job quite well. It's simple and basic and no fuss while not being an eyesore. Basically, a clone of the Mail app on macOS.
- thedanbob 3y ago
  I've tried to use Mailspring a couple of times on Linux but apparently server syncing is still broken after 5+ years[0]. Until it works reliably I'm stuck with Thunderbird. [0] https://community.getmailspring.com/t/disappearing-emails-desync/428 https://community.getmailspring.com/t/disappearing-emails-de...
ynik 3y ago
Stop using Windows. It is foolish to assume that any data on a Windows machine can stay out of the Microsoft cloud. E.g. Microsoft Edge on first launch can import bookmarks+stored passwords from Firefox (AFAIK without any user interaction, unless I clicked without thinking), and it also defaults to uploading this data to the Microsoft cloud (unless you're using a local account?).
- hospitalJail 3y ago
  Yep, I finally made the cut after they by default hijack your filesystem to onedrive. They can literally delete offline files. I was utterly shocked to find Linux Desktop has more uptime than Windows. Windows forced updates caused so many issues dealing with autosaves, I was spending like 5-10 minutes per day reopening all my programs for work. Those random linux annoyances you need the terminal for? I had like 1 or 2 of them during month 1, solved faster than a single Forced Windows Reboot. Fedora been flawless 5 months later. The only terminal work I do is opening ports for my kid's games. It really is the year of the Linux Desktop. Its utterly shocking to me I'm saying it, I was a hater for so long.
  - trelane 3y ago
    > Those random linux annoyances you need the terminal for? Generally, if you want hardware that you don't have to fight, the only option is to buy computers with Linux preinstalled, with support. Modern computers are sufficiently complicated that they really only can support one OS. And, for consumer hardware, they even half-ass that.
    - hospitalJail 3y ago
      It was that Fedora didn't have some video codec that reddit used. I googled it, it was like copypasting 2 or 3 commands, then I could watch reddit videos. I can't remember the other bug, it might have been an ID10T error. Can't even blame Linux for that, I have to install way more stuff to make Windows work out of the box. Fedora weirdly has lots of stuff already installed.
    - 3y ago
layer8 3y ago
There is also The Bat!: https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/
l_nk 3y ago
I use eM Client and I recommend it. It works super good, no issues with GMail calendar, Exchange server or any other weird quirks like Thunderberd (used to) have. The disadvantages are that its paid (one time payment) and Windows only (no linux version).
hulitu 3y ago
> What's left now, for Windows users? I think the only solution is Thunderbird Microsoft OS is reading your keyboard. If they did it once, they will do it again.

> I think the only solution is Thunderbird Some while ago, there was a bit of backlash over their re-design, but after actually using the more recent versions, I have to say that they did a good job - you can toggle the display density of the UI elements and it's still a good mail client with reasonable performance and usability. I can even sign e-mails with OpenPGP and did you know that it also has a built in RSS feed reader (a bit clunky, but having news sites/blogs be a folder that's right next to my e-mail accounts works brilliantly well)? In addition, I have it both on my Windows and Linux machines, surprisingly consistent across the board. Honestly, I couldn't be happier. Maybe also Roundcube hosted on VPSes for my own development mail servers when I don't feel like adding bunches of accounts to Thunderbird, but it's really nice that there's software like this out there in the first place!

soco 3y ago
My favorite RSS reader is Feedbro in Firefox, maybe on the minimal side but exactly what I need.

greyface- 3y ago

PuTTY + Mutt? :)

jkaplowitz 3y ago
I’ve done myself over the years. :) Windows now directly offers OpenSSH and a decent modern terminal app, so while PuTTY still works it’s no longer necessary for accessing mutt over SSH from Windows. Also with WSL you can also run mutt locally on Windows within a userland Linux distro like Ubuntu or Debian.
- alt227 3y ago
  This is honeslty my favourite thing about windows in recent years. Now that you can just fire up native windows terminal and type 'ssh user@host.com' it has saved me so much time, and probably downloads for putty have dropped considerably as well.
layer8 3y ago
That’s actually precisely what I use. :)

einr 3y ago

If, like many of us, you work in an org that refuses to authorize Thunderbird or anything else for IMAP+Oauth2 to Exchange Online then there are no other solutions. Outlook is e-mail, e-mail is Outlook.

layer8 3y ago
You don’t have to use that for your private email though.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
AnonC 3y ago
This is what is so annoying with companies these days. Microsoft has them by the #%!!$ and they’ll continue taking all the productivity loss and other risks just so someone can check a box and say “We trust in Microsoft to manage this, and we’re off the hook.” There are solutions like the Owl extension for Thunderbird, but that’s for the adventurous ones who want to take risks.
jwells89 3y ago
The online school I’m attending is like this with its email. My options are to run the Outlook for Mac desktop app (which oddly seems to be a different beast than “new” Outlook on Windows) or keep Outlook webmail open in a tab. Not even Apple Mail via its Exchange support is permitted. I ultimately landed on keeping the desktop app open to reduce browser clutter and for the icon notification badge so I don’t miss any important emails.

squarefoot 3y ago

Claws Mail: powerful and lightning fast and 100% multi platform native code. (MacOS too but has to be built or downloaded elsewhere) https://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php https://www.claws-mail.org/downloads.php There's a small command line tool around (can't recall the name, sorry) to convert message bases and contacts from Outlook format so that they can be imported into Claws Mail. I once did that at a workplace where they were having all sort of problems with Outlook and a fairly big mail archive and saw people dropping their jaws when looking at the difference in search speed. Give it a try.

vasdae 3y ago
Claws is GTK+, so it's not native.
- phendrenad2 3y ago
  Actually, on Windows GTK uses native widgets.
  - vasdae 3y ago
    No, using DrawFrameControl et al does not make a widget native.
    - lifty 3y ago
      What is native these days? They seem to have a new UI toolkit every 2 years.
      - cesarb 3y ago
        The only native controls on Windows are the classic Win16/Win32 controls, accept no substitutes (not even that new-fangled comctl32 thing).
- tux3 3y ago
  Native code, not native UI (whatever that means, these days)

tuetuopay 3y ago

I switched to Mailspring a year or two ago and am very happy about it. It's based on electron so here be dragons, but does the job quite well. It's simple and basic and no fuss while not being an eyesore. Basically, a clone of the Mail app on macOS.

thedanbob 3y ago
I've tried to use Mailspring a couple of times on Linux but apparently server syncing is still broken after 5+ years[0]. Until it works reliably I'm stuck with Thunderbird. [0] https://community.getmailspring.com/t/disappearing-emails-desync/428 https://community.getmailspring.com/t/disappearing-emails-de...

ynik 3y ago

Stop using Windows. It is foolish to assume that any data on a Windows machine can stay out of the Microsoft cloud. E.g. Microsoft Edge on first launch can import bookmarks+stored passwords from Firefox (AFAIK without any user interaction, unless I clicked without thinking), and it also defaults to uploading this data to the Microsoft cloud (unless you're using a local account?).

hospitalJail 3y ago
Yep, I finally made the cut after they by default hijack your filesystem to onedrive. They can literally delete offline files. I was utterly shocked to find Linux Desktop has more uptime than Windows. Windows forced updates caused so many issues dealing with autosaves, I was spending like 5-10 minutes per day reopening all my programs for work. Those random linux annoyances you need the terminal for? I had like 1 or 2 of them during month 1, solved faster than a single Forced Windows Reboot. Fedora been flawless 5 months later. The only terminal work I do is opening ports for my kid's games. It really is the year of the Linux Desktop. Its utterly shocking to me I'm saying it, I was a hater for so long.
- trelane 3y ago
  > Those random linux annoyances you need the terminal for? Generally, if you want hardware that you don't have to fight, the only option is to buy computers with Linux preinstalled, with support. Modern computers are sufficiently complicated that they really only can support one OS. And, for consumer hardware, they even half-ass that.
  - hospitalJail 3y ago
    It was that Fedora didn't have some video codec that reddit used. I googled it, it was like copypasting 2 or 3 commands, then I could watch reddit videos. I can't remember the other bug, it might have been an ID10T error. Can't even blame Linux for that, I have to install way more stuff to make Windows work out of the box. Fedora weirdly has lots of stuff already installed.
  - 3y ago

layer8 3y ago

There is also The Bat!: https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ https://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/

l_nk 3y ago

I use eM Client and I recommend it. It works super good, no issues with GMail calendar, Exchange server or any other weird quirks like Thunderberd (used to) have. The disadvantages are that its paid (one time payment) and Windows only (no linux version).

hulitu 3y ago

> What's left now, for Windows users? I think the only solution is Thunderbird Microsoft OS is reading your keyboard. If they did it once, they will do it again.