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Please recommend a light-weight GUI email client

B

bollweevil

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
410
1
I mostly use Gmail via the web. I occasionally use Thunderbird when I need certain capabilities, or when I want to access my other accounts/addresses. However, Thunderbird takes a while to start up and hogs resources.

Please recommend a very light-weight client that will start up fast and use minimal resources. I will be using it to access my non-Gmail alternate account/address.

Thanks.
 
GGJstudios said:
Mail.app I use it for all my Gmail accounts and it works great.
Click to expand...
By "Mail.app" do you mean "Apple Mail"? I dislike Apple Mail on principle because:

1. Apple Mail used to implement "format=flowed" incorrectly, thus ensuring that long hyperlinks got broken, and messages looked wrong. This problem may still persist, I don't know.

2. My friend's name has an ó in it. Apple Mail used to put the ó in the "From:" header, but then it suddenly stopped when she upgraded, and I spent like 2 hours trying to make it work again, to no avail.

3. It is non-customizable, it makes all these decisions and then you are forced to live with them.

Should I get over my objections and look into it again? I will also look at Sparrow.

Any more suggestions? What are "all the kids" using these days?
 
Depending on your needs...

Notify is incredibly lightweight.

Postbox isn't, but is great for multiple accounts.

Sparrow looks excellent, but it Gmail only for now. As soon as it supports IMAP, I'll be trying it out.

I've falled out with Mail.app. It's incredibly fragile for me for some reason - it keeps swallowing outgoing email!
 
Hmm, I am beginning to think that Thunderbird may truly be the way to go. None of these alternatives is sufficient. The only problem with Thunderbird is how resource-intensive it is.

I am still looking for simple, well-built email clients.
 
MisterMe said:
You are asking for things that are mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...
I don't see what you mean. I am asking for the following:

1. IMAP email client.
2. Light weight.
3. Not Apple Mail.

I don't see which of these criteria are mutually exclusive.
 
bollweevil said:
Hmm, I am beginning to think that Thunderbird may truly be the way to go. None of these alternatives is sufficient. The only problem with Thunderbird is how resource-intensive it is.

I am still looking for simple, well-built email clients.
Click to expand...

Go with Postbox Express it's free and is lightweight. It's built off of Thunderbird.
 
bollweevil said:
I don't see what you mean. I am asking for the following:

1. IMAP email client.
2. Light weight.
3. Not Apple Mail.

I don't see which of these criteria are mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...
You want a small reliable customizable email client. Well, small and customizable just don't go together. Quite a few people have already told you that your best bet is Mail. It is a small, light, and reliable IMAP email client. You claim to want "certain capabilities" without ever saying what those "certain capabilities" are. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Mail has those "certain capabilities. However, you reject it out of hand. You made a bad decision--whether from lack of knowledge or personal pique. However, you may change your mind at any time.
 
Apple Mail I think has the most simple GUI. Anything else is bloated with 'pro' tools.
 
bollweevil said:
Hmm, I am beginning to think that Thunderbird may truly be the way to go. None of these alternatives is sufficient. The only problem with Thunderbird is how resource-intensive it is.

I am still looking for simple, well-built email clients.
Click to expand...

Postbox is well built, not resource intensive even though it's based on thunderbird. Try the free version, you might wanna buy it. It's my default mail client.

EDIT: You might wanna try Gyazmail - http://gyazsquare.com/gyazmail/
 
bollweevil said:
What are "all the kids" using these days?
Click to expand...

The cloud ... i.e. webmail. They're all mobile. iPhone etc.

What exactly are you doing with your mail that requires a full client? Modern webmail is pretty good.

Then again you asked for imap4 so i suppose you're storing the mail on the server? So why not just go to webmail?
 
Last edited:
Other than the alphabet character being off in Mail, what's wrong with it? It's fast, responsive, and with the update coming in Lion, will work even better soon.
 
vincenz said:
Other than the alphabet character being off in Mail, what's wrong with it? It's fast, responsive, and with the update coming in Lion, will work even better soon.
Click to expand...

I don't find anything wrong in Mail. I often open it up instead of my default (Postbox) and use it normally because when I do that I get lazy to quit and open Postbox since Mail already works so well.

I like Postbox's features like easy access to favourite contacts, unread messages and twitter+facebook integration.

But I just can't point anything 'bad' about Mail.
 
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