this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
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I just can’t find a decent email client that looks like it’s from the last 20 years. Geary and Evolution both appear to be pretty modern but something about using Gmail with a Yubikey just doesn’t work and neither of them will connect to my account. Both on Fedora and OpenSUSE. Thunderbird works but it’s so old fashioned and Betterbird doesn’t look much better. What’s everyone else using?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Proton web and Android app

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Thunderbird on Fedora Kinoite and GrapheneOS ;) even though the Android version is still named K-9, based on Android Mail and waaaay smaller.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

i fear your best bet really is just using thunderbird or a fork of it and messing with themes.

I did have the same reaction on my first instal of thunderbird but after customizing it a bit i’ve come to like it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Thunderbird. I even use it as my RSS feed reader. The only problem it has is it does not have any tray icon to indicate new unread mails (I wrote my own program for this). They are working on a tray menu, if I'm not mistaken. I have 5 mail accounts from different providers. Backing up is easy, and on a new OS installation I just need to copy over the entire directory and its like I never left my system (same for Firefox).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I cannot believe I used xbiff in the 80s to know when I had a new email, and in 2024 the most well known and old thunderbird does not...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

xbiff was usually watching a file - your mailbox - on the mainframe, which would have been updated by the mail server daemon. Heck, it could be set to watch any file to see when it updated.

Basically, you could still use xbiff if you emulate that setup using your own local mail server as a proxy. (And you're using a GUI that supports it. No idea if Wayland does.)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Thunderbird and K-9 (which will soon be Thunderbird mobile). I'm not a Thunderbird Stan or anything, but I was running into issues with Claws, Seamonkey, and Fairmail

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Evolution, Thunderbird and KMail, depending on the system. Though I've had only trouble with Thunderbird and gpg signing with a yubikey. The others just work.

On Android I'm using FairMail.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Betterbird (Thunderbird fork) for pc, K-9 for phone.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Trying to get the hang of meli on my laptop & K-9 on (unGoogled) Android

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Protonmail web client and Android app tbh

For work it's obviously outlook

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Don't know if this has been said but you are not supposed to use the yubikey on your mail client. Google recommends you use an application password for email clients. As someone who has 5 yubikeys for different services I know this sounds unsafe but is the only way I've been able to use some of the mail programs with Google. The other option would be to enable another 2fa (maybe auth codes with Yubico Authenticator) and use that on the mail programs.

For Google I ended up using web client and fido2 (and another yubikey as backup and another as auth code generator) and my work requires Outlook but they also ask me to change passwords each month and input them on different platforms that don't support f2 and that breaks a few things for me so I opted for Yubico Auth and use my yubikey instead of Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

mu4e+mbsync+msmtp

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I'm lazy - just gmail pinned in a tab on my browser on my Linux desktop, the browser is always open anyway. Default mail client on iOS/iPadOS.

I've used Thunderbird in the past. The redesign was nice but it's still a bit cludgy to use somehow, compared to gmail web.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If anyone knows a client that can snooze mail on Proton and Gmail, I’d love to know about it. Until then I’m stuck using the web interfaces and their official phone apps.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

aerc with mbsync and msmtp and neovim for composing

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (9 children)

I was using Thunderbird, but I have had a number of issues with it. Crashing seems to happen whether I use the Flatpak or install from AUR.

I have switched back to using web clients for my mail for the time being.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I have never had thunderbird crash. Not questioning what you say but perhaps its sonsthing else? Did u try deleting thubderbird data and starting fresh ?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I am using debias as os , and never had a problem with thunderbird, did you used recently? I am not against web, but i manage 5 emails so no way the web is a option for me. Also i start to use the rss from thunder and is cool.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Mailspring, best client I've used in a while.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Agreed on Mailspring, especially if OP wants a modern interface (although I think the new Thunderbird looks fine).

The only thing missing from Mailspring for me is seeing what folders my emails are in when I run a search. Otherwise, it's the only non-CLI client I've found that let's me use the keyboard to select multiple emails and move them to a folder, something I do in Gmail. If anyone knows of others, let me know! I've tried Claws, Evolution, Geary, KMail, and Thunderbird in addition to Mutt and aerc in hopes of finding something to replace Gmail...

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I guess the question is, why do you need a client? I find most web interfaces to be sufficient, you can enable browser notifications, create an "app" so that it's in a stand-alone window, etc.

As another comment said, I just use the Proton web interface.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I guess the question is, why do you need a client? I find most web interfaces to be sufficient

Clients like Thunderbird download the mails for a local copy. That means, you can a) read and search your mails offline, b) backup all mails. That's not all. Such a client also: c) allows a unified interface to all different mail accounts from different providers in one view, d) better integration into your system, such as tray icons for notifications.

Everyone does their thing, so not saying you are doing it wrong, just giving you reasons to use an offline mail client; as you asked why.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Those are all totally fair considerations, just not requirements in my workflow. I'm coming at it from a personal use case, where I don't need offline access to my personal email, and I only have one email account to check (my Gmail is forwarded to my Proton mail).

My question was more to lead OP down the requirements gathering path, to evaluate their actual needs and if a client is actually required or if it's more of a "nice to have".

Thanks for laying out some of those advantages to a client though. Every user has their own needs and if offline access, multiple accounts, consistent UI, etc. are desired, then a client is certainly a great option.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I use super boring Claws Mail for my personal email. I handle my contacts with Khard and calendars with Khal.

I don't use a Yubikey though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm using Thunderbird.

On my work computers, I don't want the email to be stored locally since they back up the entire system to the cloud for retention and compliance purposes, so I'm using Roundcube (webmail app) hosted on the email server itself. I self-host my email server.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

I’m using Evolution on Arch and Debian and works just fine for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

The webmail interface and the app of my email provider (Tuta).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thunderbird is very nice and lightweight compared with outlook. Picks up email settings more quicker and is much simpler to use than outlook. Recommended to all my clients.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Icedove (Thunderbird) works well enough for me. Maybe the reason it's "old fashioned" is because it works well enough that it doesn't need to be changed that often.

In the proprietary software world we're used to UI's being redesigned on a regular basis for no user benefit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

A combination of thunderbird and mutt.

And bluemail on android...

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