Alternative Email Software

[Ziba]

I've been looking for an alternative email program for yonks. So far I haven't found one that suits me in every area.OE probably comes closest, but I want to get away from it because of its security issues and because I want to get away from MS too. I used OE for a long time. Eudora is good, but has a rather clunky look and feel to it (well, to me it does).I've also tried The Bat, Pocomail, Pegasus, Foxmail, Incredimail (Heaven forbid), and several others, but rejected them all for one reason or another.At the moment I'm using Calypso, and I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it here. This program still isn't quite what I'm looking for, but it does come close, and I'm enjoying it. Calypso is available as freeware from Rose City Software, who say...

Originally developed by Micro Computer Systems, Inc., Calypso Email has gained a worldwide following due to its clean interface and rich feature set, wrapped in an efficiently small package. MCS ceased development of the program in 2001, and now Rose City Software has reached an agreement with MCS to continue the development and marketing of this superb email client."

Even as is, Calypso is worth trying. If the proposed improvements come about it might be even better. Here's what the website says about Calypso...

Current Calypso features include:

• Support for multiple email accounts Configurable, intuitive interface Support for POP and IMAP mailboxes Automatic mailbox backup Mailing list support Superb mail filtering capabilities. Blind Send capabilities Address auto-completion when composing mail Ability to turn HTML mail viewing on or off New toggle button to view HTML email as HTML even while in text mode Multi-language spelling support Auto-response capability Mail templates Mail archiving Optional password protection for mailboxes

and much, much more!

[coop9653]

this post greatly interests me, as I have been desperately seeking an alternate to outlook forever.I know lots of people like outlook and outlook express. but my experience as a systems admin shows that the they are bloated resources hogs. Like everything Microsoft produces.The problem is Outlook incorporates a schedule and notes etc. NOTHING else does. I do not understand why! plus outlook puts all your data into one file, .pst!! This is vital, i use my pst on several different computers.I would love to find a full featured program that does the same as outlook but better!It should have calendars, notes, LINKS, mail, and should be compact and transportable.IF anyone can find or write something like thatthey would be my hero!

[jgeoghan]

Hi, nice forumMy 2 cents worth about two very worthwhile email clients:Calypso: I have long been a Calypso user and love it. It has every feature I need (including redirect). I bought this 4-5 years ago from MCS which long ago discontinued support and updates due to lack of sales. They didn't market it well. It's STILL better than anything else. And is currently available as freeware. Even better news is that support and new releases (at a cost) will soon be provided by Rose City Software who has purchased the rights to the software. The new product will be released as Courier Mail 3.5. The freeware Calypso 3.3 is available at http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/Calypso/. Information about the forthcoming product (which is overdue) is at http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/Courier/.Popcorn: This is a freeware niche product that I have used extensively in travels when using other people's computers or net cafes. It is a fully functional email product that fits on a diskette and allows you to get your mail from your pop email provider. It works just fine. You can send with it as well, but my US ISP won't let me send when I am logged on from another domain - this is a good thing actually but I wish sometimes I was exempt from it. It works as a client/server application, reading mail "directly" from POP3 servers. It is ideally suited for "on the road" mail access, for scanning, reading and sending mail over slow connections. It supports multiple user profiles, enabling you to read and send mail from any number of accounts. It requires no installation, no data is saved locally other than a portable .INI file containing account information. It is ideal for cleaning up POP3 accounts, removing spam, unwanted mail, large attachments etc... It has a mail editor allowing you to compose and send new mail, reply to, forward and re-direct received mail. It fits easily on a floppy or other portable (even read only) media, making it easy carry around at all times. This product is available at http://www.ultrafunk.com/products/popcorn/.Hope these products help someone. Calypso is my regular email program and I love it. Popcorn has come in handy over the years. As an aside, I am also using Firetrust Benign as an extra email virus/explot protection product in addition to Norton AV. More at http://www.firetrust.com/products/benign/

[jgeoghan]

this post greatly interests me, as I have been desperately seeking an alternate to outlook forever.I know lots of people like outlook and outlook express. but my experience as a systems admin shows that the they are bloated resources hogs. Like everything Microsoft produces.The problem is Outlook incorporates a schedule and notes etc.  NOTHING else does. I do not understand why!  plus outlook puts all your data into one file, .pst!! This is vital, i use my pst on several different computers.I would love to find a full featured program that does the same as outlook but better!It should have calendars, notes, LINKS, mail, and should be compact and transportable.IF anyone can find or write something like thatthey would be my hero!

Well, not EXACTLY what you want, but I use and like Calypso for email (soon to become Courier) - see http://www.rosecitysoftware.com/Calypso/.And it integrates perfectly with a product called Time and Chaos which does the other functions. Rose City (the new Calypso/Courier vendor) has promised continued support for the integration in the future. T&C is avilailable from http://www.isbister.com/.

[chrisclu]

I have tried a few of the email clients suggested in here but haven't found one that will import all the mails (in their respective folders) from OE. As a lot of this is work related client correspondense, I need it as is. I would like to find an email client that would take it all as is. It would than be goodbye to OE. I think Poco and foxmail (of course Eudora also) would import the messages but it would take me years to create folders and sort them all while still working.Thanks,Chris

[Guest LilBambi]

I have tried a few of the email clients suggested in here but haven't found one that will import all the mails (in their respective folders) from OE. As a lot of this is work related client correspondense, I need it as is.  I would like to find an email client that would take it all as is. It would than be goodbye to OE. I think Poco and foxmail (of course Eudora also) would import the messages but it would take me years to create folders and sort them all while still working.Thanks,Chris

Same here Chris!So far haven't found the right replacement either

[Guest ThunderRiver]

Yeah so far I only find Outlook as a simple replacement for Outlook Express, but honestly, not even Outlook can do a better job than Outlook Express.As a beta tester for Outlook 2003, I am a bit unhappy with some missing features that were fully implemented in Outlook Express. I have tried the mail client from Mozilla. So far so good, and I would love to see how things go in the future.

[miz_bean]

Hi,You might want to take a look at many of the reviews for Foxmail at CNET Downloads: http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.htmland do a search for Foxmail. Very mixed, but the negative ones are quite scary.miz_bean

[Gus K]

If you are looking for something a wee bit wacky (my girlfriend says fun), give this a shot.http://www.incredimail.com/english/splash.html

[jgeoghan]

Anyone thinking about Foxmail should certainly read the review posted on 01-Apr-2003 11:50:08 PM on C|net download.com. (http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.html). I won't copy it here since I can't verify its reliability, but it is certainly scary.

[benhenry]

So far haven't found the right replacement either 

Over the last few days my daughter and I have tried downloading and installing almost every one of the suggestions mentioned in this thread... trying to replace Outlook Express isn't easy!We tried everything from PopCorn to Incredimail. Every client that I liked for speed and "clean" was rejected by my daughter because of the lack of... you guessed it; HTML support. Her favorite... Incredimail. Jeez.I went ahead and let her have it... because, well, I'm afraid of her. (But I installed it on a separate partition with 2 backup snapshots of the registry just in case...) Anyway, I'll be looking forward to the release of Minotaur... from what I've seen, it might be a client that the whole family will like. Until then the next one we test will be iScribe . I don't think anyone mentioned it yet... It looks very similar to Popcorn, but with better html viewing... no html sending, I think.And if that doesn't work out... it's going to be stamps, or carrier pigeons, or maybe even Eudora.

[cybernut]

I use an email program no one has mentioned so far: Mulberry. I've used it for more than a year, and I love it! It's feature rich, and great for power users. It also runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and perhaps some others. One more thing--it's got the most knowledgeable and responsive tech support I've ever seen.One warning, though: people who want lots of HTML features should look elsewhere. By design, Mulberry offers adequate but minimal HTML support. That's fine with me--fewer security risks that way. You can find out more at http://www.cyrusoft.com/mulberry/Cybernut

[smildu]

I see several people using Eudora mail client. So do I. I also considered using the Eudora mail server. But it seems somewhat out of date - not having adapted to installing under Win2k, so I wonder if Eudora as such is faltering.

[ender]

Can't do without pop checker:Magic Mail Monitorhttp://www.geeba.org/magic/Minimalistic yet pretty in its own way:Fits on a floppy, does all you need. Alex Kaufman's Mail Warrior Fits on a floppy, does all you need. http://pages.infinit.net/kaufman/Index.htm

[zox]

Anyone thinking about Foxmail should certainly read the review posted on 01-Apr-2003 11:50:08 PM on C|net download.com. (http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.html). I won't copy it here since I can't verify its reliability, but it is certainly scary.

Out of 76 reviews I found on that place, literally 4 are bad ones.All the other reviews are great, including phrases such as: "Absolutely the best!", "THE BEST", "Best of the TOP-3 and also FREE )", "I'm Impressed", "Fast, efficient and user friendly.", "The best for *email*", "Better than the best!", ...etcToo many to list.Also most of these people are comparing all the others they tried so far, including most of the e-mail clients that are listed on this forum and they all say none of it is match for Foxmail.That guy that posted "scary" review on April 1st is probably April fools prank and I can tell you that is not true.If this guy has "Technical Software Analysis Team" I am an airplane.Would you think that if he is for real that he would present you with link to his company website atleast, or signed message, or give us some proof.Here I am, after couple of months using Foxmail and I can tell you so far that it did not install any spyware on my computer, not it did try to contact any hacker sites because I am fully in control of my PC and the only connection Foxmail has had established so far was with my smtp server for sending mails and my POP server for receiving mails.One of the couple "bad" reviews is that author of the review is afraid because every time Foxmail starts it connects to IP in China.This is true and I was concerned with this too as soon as I started my Foxmail first time.Now that is resolved because it only tries to check for updates which can be disabled and it really connects to IP in China for simple reason that e-mail client is made by couple of Chinese guys and they as well as their server is located in China.Another "bad" review is that it doesn't display HTML by default.Hello, HTML e-mail is probably the most unsecure one of all.HTML e-mail can have web-bugs, it can contain malicious scripts, etc..Switching from txt to HTML view is matter of clicking one button, back and forth, very easy, probably the easiest of all clients.This is what I call feature, not bug.And so on, I can't list everything but just go to Cnet page and it will be all clear.Foxmail probably has bugs like any other piece of software, but so far I have to run into show-stopper with it.I've been using it for couple of months now and I really like it.

[Guest ComputerBob]

Hi,You might want to take a look at many of the reviews for Foxmail  at CNET Downloads: http://download.com.com/2001-20-0.htmland do a search for Foxmail.  Very mixed, but the negative ones are quite scary.miz_bean

Here's a link to just the negative user reviews of Foxmail at download.com. I don't know if any of them are true or not, but some are pretty scary:http://download.com.com/3302-2367-9692109.....html?pn=1&fb=2

[Crayak]

I've used Outook xp, Eudora, and other email clients, but I think I'm going to stick with Incrdimail for awhile.If u don't need the calendar, and filters, that other email clients offer you'll love Incedimail. Its more of a flashy email client, it comes packed with a wide variety of animated email backgrounds, and it has really cool new mail notifiers, like u can have a fly, buz around you screen, and bump into the glass when new mail arrives, or a butler notify u of new mail, and many more. I recommend it if u have the resoures.Incredimail

[GolfProRM]

I decided to give Pocomail a try... I've been using Eudora for awhile, but just not completely happy with it (having to double-click on a folder to open it is quite annoying), and Spamnix, while fairly effective, gave my computer fits (and used 14-18k of memory).... I do like the ability to minimize to tray (don't know why every program doesn't do this)My only issues with Pocomail are the mail notification and the junk filtering...Mail Notification - You can choose a sound and/or a dialog box.... the dialog box doesn't make itself known very well, and I don't have my sound on very often (esp. at work)... Is there a way for it to display a mail notification in the systray like every other mail program known to man? Junk Filtering - When I first started it up, it filtered all my yahoogroups messages as junk... Even after a bunch of editing settings, I still can't seem to get the program to filter out pornographic messages... Is there any way to have pocomail show what it's junkmail limit is, and how many points the message gets?Other than this, I'm very happy with Pocomail... it even did a great job of importing my old Eudora stuff....

[roynewling]

For a bit of fun, I sometimes use Incredimail.

[Ziba]

Er, is there anyone else who doesn't like Incredimail? I think it's the most annoying thing in email other than spam. Email received from Incredimail users is a real pain... especially if they use sound, and Incredimail's format makes it incredibly hard (well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it does make it hard) to edit replies or forwards. I refuse to use it, and I dislike it when I receive emails generated by IM.

[eksimba]

Er, is there anyone else who doesn't like Incredimail? I think it's the most annoying thing in email other than spam. Email received from Incredimail users is a real pain... especially if they use sound, and Incredimail's format makes it incredibly hard (well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it does make it hard) to edit replies or forwards. I refuse to use it, and I dislike it when I receive emails generated by IM. 

I'm with you.

[badcat]

You might want to give Pegasus a try, it's free, updated on a regular basis and has decent support as well. I've been using it for a few years and really like it. I will say that I still haven't found one e-mail client that does everything I want. Most of them do 90% or so. But since I'm not paying, I'm not griping (too much ).ChrisJust wanted to add that Pegasus minimizes to the tray.

[sunrat]

CalypsoGet v3.3 while it's still available as freeware. ;)I must have tried about 20 and this was the most reliable and usable.Calypso WebpageI also use MailWasher. It surprised me by even detecting a virus email last week!

[Guest ComputerBob]

sunrat,Thanks for the link to Calypso! Does Calypso allow you to view the message headers, preview messages (in text only mode) and delete unwanted messages off the email server without downloading them?

[jaydee222]

[url=http://allanc.dk/foxmail/ good foxmail info

[Guest ComputerBob]

[url=http://allanc.dk/foxmail/      good foxmail info

The requested URL /foxmail/ good foxmail info was not found on this server.

[zox]

Try adding index.html:http://allanc.dk/foxmail/index.htmlI found another link off of this site:http://www.uchzeichen.de/fpo/fox.htm

[Atari]

Right now I'm using eudora, because it seems to have good IMAP support compared to a few of the alternatives I played around with. I'm switching my main email account over to a fastmail account, so good IMAP support is important. I can check it at home with an email program, or I can use the web interface from anywhere else. All the emails remain in the same place.I like Pocomail, although even when I have it setup for IMAP, it will POP the account and download the messages unless I tell it to leave mail on the server(which you can only specify for a number of days, not indefinitely). I also can't figure out how to synchronize my folders with pocomail to the folders I have with the web interface of fastmail. I have had no trouble in that respect with eudora. I've read that The Bat! is also limited in its ability to deal with IMAP, so I haven't tried it out. I'll probably test out Becky! as well to finish out this roundup of email products.

[Guest ComputerBob]

Try adding index.html:http://allanc.dk/foxmail/index.htmlI found another link off of this site:http://www.uchzeichen.de/fpo/fox.htm

Oh, I see the problem. I thought the whole line provided by jaydee222 was the URL. I wondered why there were words with spaces between them in the URL. I must be really tired. :rolleyes:This is another case where I'd rather err on the side of caution. The link that I provided at the top of this page has some pretty serious and scary user comments about Foxmail. I tend to believe negative comments like those more than I believe sites that try to promote software.

[theHammer]

Long thread to fully assimilate but surprised I see no mention of interest in small LAN access. My question is …. are any of you using your recommended program on two or more machines at home?I would suspect that many of you have more than one computer at home and if so are networked. How do you handle e-mail. OE will not permit use of a common file. I have have been using Pegasus for several months because it will - but I liked OE much better and time with Pegasus has not made me found. Steve suggests using Windows Remote Desktop. Neither of my computers is running Windows XP Pro yet but I have tried Tight VNC, which performs the same function. However with one display running at 800 x 600 and another at 1152 x 864, a connection from the 800x 600 display requires scrolling both horizontally and vertically to view the screen on the other - which was set up at comfortable size for the higher resolution. Ed