Alternatives to Mail.app

I can no longer send mail using Mail.app. No idea why. I’ve tried everything I (or MJ) can think of including removing all my SMTP servers, removing all my Mail accounts and creating from scratch. It doesn’t even send via the .Mac SMTP server (I have 3 different SMTP servers in different configurations and none … Continue reading “Alternatives to Mail.app”

I can no longer send mail using Mail.app. No idea why. I’ve tried everything I (or MJ) can think of including removing all my SMTP servers, removing all my Mail accounts and creating from scratch. It doesn’t even send via the .Mac SMTP server (I have 3 different SMTP servers in different configurations and none of them work). This just happened yesterday.

So, I decided to file a bug with Apple. Got to the Apple Australia website, and clicked on Support -> Mac OS X -> Mail. Got the following error:

[an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive] [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Great.

So now I’m looking for alternatives to Mail.app.

Thunderbird: Probably the most likely candidate as a replacement – open source, well supported, full-featured. It’s biggest downside is that it feels like a Linux app. There’s no real integration with Mac OS X.

Mailsmith: Not even advertised on the company’s home page, Mailsmith won an award in 2003 and hasn’t been updated since. Hardly inspiring me to shell out cash for it.

Eudora: Mac OS X client is one rev behind the Windows version. Pretty basic also.

Entourage: Poor man’s port of Outlook to the Mac platform. Feels like a 10.1 app. No, scratch that, it doesn’t really feel like a Mac app (nor a Windows one). It’s an odd hybrid. At least MS Word for Mac feels like a prettier version of MS Word for Windows.

Everything else has some major flaws (e.g. poor port from another OS, bugs, lack of GUI, etc.). I don’t have anything against mutt or mh (two console based mail apps), but I use a Mac because I like the prettiness of it all.

Maybe when infurious is a little more established …

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