Curious if people have email client recommendations. Just moved to a new 64bit machine from our old XP box, trying to set something up for my wife.
Would need to go to a IMAP mail server, and be able to handle Japanese well. I set up the Windows Live Mail that came with windows 7, but she isn’t liking it too well.
Just thought I’d ask on here, hope for the usual high level of discussion.
I wholeheartedly support Gmail with Google apps. It comes with a Labs option that has support for languages, even Japanese.
Installed email clients are becoming a thing of the past, and not a moment too soon if you ask me. Why add unnecessary resource drains to your computer?
Let me know if you have specific questions about Gmail or Google apps.
Thunderbird is what I use for my home computer and I have choices… It it free and full-featured. It works pretty similar to MS Outlook. Japanese support as I understand it just takes installing the right fonts which it can do as well. It also offers native SPAM filtering which starts to work right away but works even better as you identify the SPAM you see coming in. It can obviously handle separate e-mail accounts in one window and you can make your own folders. For a desktop client, it isn’t missing anything as far as I know.
Dedicated e-mail clients, like installed applications aren’t becoming a thing of the past. They are better for some people. It is good that online options exist but they still aren’t the best fit for everyone.
Some people like dedicated e-mail clients. They are more customizable by design and mailbox size is virtually unlimited. You can also make full backups and restores easier with a desktop e-mail client and you don’t have to worry about not being connected to the internet all the time which can be important for many types of people but especially people that carry laptops with them all the time.
Do you need Exchange support?: Outlook.
Do you want something that can just handle fwd fwd fwd fwd fwd spam?: Outlook.
Do you want something free?: Postbox Express.
Outlook 2010 is great. It’s one of the products that keeps Microsoft in the game. It’s conversation threading is pretty effective and since Win7 indexes it, searching is lightning fast. Every feature you can get in an email client. Postbox Express has many of the same features as Outlook, but it’s free. No Exchange, of course.
I used to believe this as well, but I must say that I haven’t seen an email application that provides as much as Gmail. It is extremely customizable, and its integration with calendaring, docs, mobile apps, and its suite of plugins and labs, which don’t require a download or installation by the way, make setting up an efficient work environment a breeze. Its language support, for example, is built in. You want it, just turn it on.
You can make full backups with Gmail as well, which restore much quicker than any local backup utility. If you have to have offline access, you can sync your Gmail account with Outlook, Thunderbird, or any other current generation client.
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll look into those options.
Some of us are just luddites,stuck in our old ways. I still use pine for email, and mostly surf the dope with lynx.
Real luddites use Elm.
I’m not sure about Pine, which is no longer developed, but its successor, Alpine, can handle Japanese.
Personally, I use KMail, which is part of the Kontact personal information management suite (e-mail, calendar, news). It’s very powerful, but also simple to use. I believe it’s available for Microsoft Windows, though I haven’t tried it on that environment.