Comment by Jason Knight on "I'm dreaming of a mail client that is only a simple tool"

CommentI'm dreaming of a mail client that is only a simple tool

Jason Knight

The less code you use, the less there is to break

Oct 30, 2018

I've been on the hunt for a decent mail client ever since Opera told its faithful to kiss off when they moved to Blink. The standalone version no longer works with modern SSL since the chinese company that bought them out no longer maintains it, and I find Thunderbird... lacking.

IMHO the world could always use another fresh set of eyes on making a mail client -- and you used the magic word. Simple.

Too many of the terminal clients end up with false simplicity, they look simpler but mak the task harder. Too many GUI clients just keep tacking on features people don't want or need whilst failing to provide some basic things like in-built spam filtering.

The only reason I'm using Thunderbird right now is it actually works with all the different mail systems I log into... I'd LOVE to find something better but half of them won't even talk to my server.

Guillaume

Front-end JS - A/R/V

Nov 1, 2018

Could you be more precise about your servers and what are the different mail systems you are using ?

Guillaume Well most of my my own servers are just stock installs of Debian. I used to screw around hand configuring but these days I just follow the howToForge guides for the "Perfect Server" Debian + ISPConfig so I have a standard baseline other people are familiar with... so it's pretty much just stock installs of postfix and dovecot.

But due to changes in how TLS works as security vulnerabilities (such as ROBOT, DROWN, etc) if you're patched up to date and set it up for TLS only connection, a LOT of mail clients won't connect. Mailspring for example will not connect to my hosting, nor will Opera mail... Yet Thunderbird goes right in. Even if you type in the exact same connection credentials and settings most mail clients I've tried just won't talk to a proper modern up to date patched TLS mail connection.

... and I also like mail clients that can talk to hotmail/live/whatever M$ is calling it this month, y! mial, and gmail directly, since I like a one-stop-shop for mail and have accounts on a slew of different web services either out of legacy (my hotmail addy is some twenty years old now) or simply for testing when things like MX or PTR records go pear-shaped.

Honestly I'd still be using Opera mail or even Eudora if they were updated / patched for the TLS security vulnerabilities. They were more useful, less bloated, and faster than any of the current crowd.

See how Thunderbird basically takes my workstation off to never-never land for 10 to twenty seconds on startup.

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