# Mail vs Thunderbird vs Others



## chevy (Mar 26, 2005)

We do this poll from time to time. Now that Thunderbird is stable, I would like to ask again which one is your prefered mail client.

Please comment on your experience.


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## enforce1 (Mar 26, 2005)

Mail is simple, yet powerful, and does everything i need it to do. I'm not saying i'm not sitting on pins and needles for Mail 2.0, but Mail does great things.


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## bobw (Mar 26, 2005)

Been using Eudora for years. Have never had a problem with it, and does what I need. Simple to use, good spam filter, and with the addition of SpamSieveve, nothing gets by it.


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## chevy (Mar 26, 2005)

I use Mail on MacOS X, Thunderbird on XP.

But Mail could be improved, with a thiner interface, better visibility of the message information (read/replied/junk/size/flag/...), and better management of the type size.


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## Zammy-Sam (Mar 27, 2005)

Mail here as well. Simple, fast and reliable. What else is there to expect from a mail client?


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## fryke (Mar 27, 2005)

Type size? TYPE SIZE?! You mean you actually use the evil HTML and RTF formatting for E-Mail, which under any circumstances must be text-only?!


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## Cheryl (Mar 27, 2005)

I use Mail and Eudora. I am really not sure which I like the best. But I will not pay for the next Eudora upgrade. 

I tired to use Thunderbird, and it won't import my address book from Eudora.It just doesn't recognize it.


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## chevy (Mar 27, 2005)

fryke said:
			
		

> Type size? TYPE SIZE?! You mean you actually use the evil HTML and RTF formatting for E-Mail, which under any circumstances must be text-only?!



I don't _use_ anything, I just receive mails, and some are barely readable because the writing is so small.


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## HomunQlus (Mar 27, 2005)

I use Thunderbird. For some reason I didn't like the drawer with the folders in Apple's Mail. Thunderbird has a nicer interface for me in the moment. You have your folders on the left, and your mail on the right. Like I am used to. However, it seems as if Apple's new Mail that ships with tiger has a better and nicer interface, so I think I gonna switch back to Mail when Tiger ships to my Macs.


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## Viro (Mar 27, 2005)

On OS X I use Mail. It's a nice and simple  mail client. Like many here have pointed out, what more can you ask for?


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## fryke (Mar 27, 2005)

If you receive mail with unreadably small type, just hit Apple-+ a couple of times until you can read it... Helps with any RTF/HTML-mails from Windows users who expect their messages to appear at the recipient's end the same way they send them.


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## serpicolugnut (Mar 27, 2005)

I use Thunderbird under Windows and Linux,but Mail on OS X. Even though I have some issues with Mail, I have been using it since 2000 when the Public Beta was released and I have nearly 5 years of email in it that has been migrated from 6 different computers I have owned since then.

I'm really looking forward to Mail 2.0, but there are still some missing things I'd like to see addressed. Despite what Fryke says,  I *want* to be able to compose HTML mail. I would  also like to see the Exchange Server support beefed up. Other niceties, like Retrun Receipt and Confirmed Delivery would be nice to have as well. But in the end, the Smart Folders that will be part of Mail 2.0 will probably keep me using it until the next version.


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## rbuenger (Mar 27, 2005)

BareBone MailSmith and nothing else  Apple Mail is simple but it's also not secure enough and simply lacks 20+ features I need. And Thunderbird has problems with my 10+ accounts (ssl) and also lacks important features.

So MailSmith & included SpamSieve is just perfect. No problems with many ssl accounts, converting mails to ASCII ( I hate HTML in mails and it's also the main reason why we have 80% spam out there), pipe every mail through the shell (I've using a phishing-detect script there)...

And a tip: Deaktivate the 'Show images in mail' option as these images are used as a way to determine if you've opened/read the mail. That's the reason why a spammer know that your mail is active.

But the average Mac user would probably live best with Apple Mail.


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## AdmiralAK (Mar 27, 2005)

I am an entourage user 
I get it for free from work, so I decided to use it


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## adambyte (Mar 27, 2005)

HomunQlus said:
			
		

> I use Thunderbird. For some reason I didn't like the drawer with the folders in Apple's Mail. Thunderbird has a nicer interface for me in the moment. You have your folders on the left, and your mail on the right. Like I am used to. However, it seems as if Apple's new Mail that ships with tiger has a better and nicer interface, so I think I gonna switch back to Mail when Tiger ships to my Macs.



You can change the side on which the Apple mail drawer appears. For instance, if the drawer is on the right, and you want it on the left (like you're used to), move the window so you have space on the left side. Then click the "Mailboxes" button (in your button bar) to hide it, then click it again to show it again... it should now appear on the left side.

Sorry. Don't mean to be a bug... but your wording indicates that you Mail folders are on the right side.


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## nmm88 (Mar 29, 2005)

After using Thunderbird I really liked it. There were just a few small things that still bugged me enough to keep using mail. 

I really like the 3 pane display like entourage, but the setup of the 2nd pane where the message info is is too cramped. You cant show all of the important fields (subject, sender, date, and read) and still see all of them. Entourage handles this better by using 2 lines. I think it works much better and would like to see this implemented into Thunderbird.

Second, it HAS to use the system address book. I dont want to worry about keeping 2 addresses books updated and importing and exporting. Just use the system addressbook!


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## HomunQlus (Mar 29, 2005)

adambyte said:
			
		

> You can change the side on which the Apple mail drawer appears. For instance, if the drawer is on the right, and you want it on the left (like you're used to), move the window so you have space on the left side. Then click the "Mailboxes" button (in your button bar) to hide it, then click it again to show it again... it should now appear on the left side.
> 
> Sorry. Don't mean to be a bug... but your wording indicates that you Mail folders are on the right side.



I know what you mean!    It's just that I don't like the drawer itself. I'd rather like to have the folders and all in one window. It's a kinda hard to explain, but for some strange reason I don't like my mail folder in some sort of floating "beside" the actual window. I've seen that's changed in Tiger's mail, so when it comes, I switch back then. But it has to be able to create HTML mail though. I'm pretty sure it will be able to do so. Well, we'll see when Tiger comes.


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## fryke (Mar 29, 2005)

Mail.app 2.0 will solve all main issues people still have with it in Panther. And Tiger's coming soon.


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## texanpenguin (Mar 29, 2005)

I've always found it weird that Apple, as such proponents of widescreen displays consistently produce software that doesn't take advantage of that fact.

NetNewsWire's vertical three-pane display is PERFECT for widescreen. Mail.app should really incorporate the same thing, as is possible in Outlook on PCs and Entourage on Macs. I use Mail, but that's a real thing that bugs me, and it doesn't look like it's going to be solved in the next release either.

Xcode is the other one that should have this behaviour, just like Visual Studio does in Windows.

At least make it an OPTION!


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## pds (Mar 30, 2005)

Eudora does it all. Personalities, Spam Seive, networked folders, and 5 years of current mail, not to mention the ability to access and search my archived mail (if I should ever need to).


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## Glass (Mar 31, 2005)

HomunQlus said:
			
		

> I use Thunderbird. For some reason I didn't like the drawer with the folders in Apple's Mail. Thunderbird has a nicer interface for me in the moment. You have your folders on the left, and your mail on the right. Like I am used to. However, it seems as if Apple's new Mail that ships with tiger has a better and nicer interface, so I think I gonna switch back to Mail when Tiger ships to my Macs.




If you move Mail to the right of the screen and click the mailboxes button twice the folders appear on the left for you!


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## kanecorp (Mar 31, 2005)

i use Entourage.  Mail seems to simple for me.


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