I guess the question is, why do you need a client? I find most web interfaces to be sufficient, you can enable browser notifications, create an “app” so that it’s in a stand-alone window, etc.
As another comment said, I just use the Proton web interface.
I think this is a fair question. I haven’t seen anyone mention the benefits of using a non-web mail client (OP mentioned Yubikey but 2FA isn’t uncommon with web mail). I would actually consider using one if it gave me clean up options (e.g. haven’t opened an email in 3 days and the sender is not in my address book move to Junk/Spam). Main reason I rarely look at email is that it’s 90% stuff I have no desire to read and marking things as spam is a never ending cycle.
I guess the question is, why do you need a client? I find most web interfaces to be sufficient
Clients like Thunderbird download the mails for a local copy. That means, you can a) read and search your mails offline, b) backup all mails. That’s not all. Such a client also: c) allows a unified interface to all different mail accounts from different providers in one view, d) better integration into your system, such as tray icons for notifications.
Everyone does their thing, so not saying you are doing it wrong, just giving you reasons to use an offline mail client; as you asked why.
Those are all totally fair considerations, just not requirements in my workflow. I’m coming at it from a personal use case, where I don’t need offline access to my personal email, and I only have one email account to check (my Gmail is forwarded to my Proton mail).
My question was more to lead OP down the requirements gathering path, to evaluate their actual needs and if a client is actually required or if it’s more of a “nice to have”.
Thanks for laying out some of those advantages to a client though. Every user has their own needs and if offline access, multiple accounts, consistent UI, etc. are desired, then a client is certainly a great option.
It lets you have all of your emails offline as well. If you have to reference an older email, it’s faster than loading the webpage again.
Some desktop email clients lets you manage your emails, contacts, tasks, and calendars all in one program, which loads immediately instead of loading multiple web pages. This is why I love Evolution and Thunderbird.
If you have multiple email accounts, it’s easier to use an email client, rather than having to log into multiple websites.
The search function in some web interfaces suck.
Some people just don’t like their email provider’s web interface.
I don’t know why Thunderbird can’t get a reliable, functional search ability. It’s such garbage. I constantly have to delete my entire search index and start from scratch, it is immensely frustrating.
The problems connecting to gmail are also so frustrating. Yes, they are Google’s fault but if you make an e-mail client you maybe need to add a workaround for the world’s most popular e-mail provider. It’s totally fixable because you can apply those fixes manually.
I don’t know why Thunderbird can’t get a reliable, functional search ability. It’s such garbage. I constantly have to delete my entire search index and start from scratch, it is immensely frustrating.
Maybe see if Betterbird’s search works better for you
Wow very interesting thank you! I like that it can be run side-by-side from the same profile to test it out. If search was fixed I would have never migrated so much of my e-mail to gmail.
During installation of Arch when it asked if I wanted to chroot into my distro I did. However if you enter commandline by hitting CTR+ALT+<F1 or F2 or F3> to change to a virtual console. If you are doing this from a chroot environment you don’t need sudo.
edit the mkinitcpio.conf
sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
In the MODULES=() section I added “nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm” without quotes. So it looked like this:
Once neomutt is set up, it just works. I’ve switched away from it because it doesn’t support (some especially shitty) html mails well enough, which had me open them in a proper browser. Thunderbird doesn’t have this issue and also works well with keyboard shortcuts.
After Thunderbird’s UI overhaul I jumped around a bit and landed on Claws Mail. It’s fairly old fashioned, but I personally prefer that and find it clear and logical. It’s a good client.
Last time I tried it, it had major issues with folders (for example, folders didn’t refresh often enough, and notifications weren’t shown for emails that are sorted into folders). I tried to fix it myself, but gave up after I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t syncing folders properly: github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring/pull/2308
Notifications on folders a have been added (I sort all my mail into a plethora of folders, keeping my inbox empty, so for me this is non-negotiable), and they all sync with a single f5 now.
Can you choose which folders use real-time push vs which folders use polling?
I’m afraid not. I’m pretty sure the entire account uses polling. I’ll usually open the app and hit F5 to quickly poll for results, otherwise I’m waiting for the next sync.
Having said that, the unread counter works fine for sub-folders:
Edit: I was wrong, Mailspring uses the IMAP IDLE extension to wait for new mail delivery. Still doesn’t stop me from spamming F5 when I’m waiting for new mail to arrive.
I was wrong, Mailspring uses the IMAP IDLE extension to wait for new mail delivery
The reason I was asking about the folders is that IMAP IDLE only works for one folder at a time. If you want real-time push for 10 folders (for example), it has to open 10 separate IMAP connections. Because of this, clients usually either only enable push for the inbox, or let you choose which folders to enable it for.
There is no such setting that I’m immediately aware of - but I am automatically getting messages for my folders. So I’m assuming it’s doing something in the background: most likely a periodic sync for the entire account.
Definitely doesn’t sound like the behavior you wanted, my bad. But, at least there are notifications on the folders once mail is received. 😅
Mailspring uses a fairly basic syncing algorithm, which runs on two threads with two open connections to the mail server. Within each thread, work is performed synchronously.
Background Worker: Periodically iterates over folders and (depending on the supported IMAP features) uses CONDSTORE / XYZRESYNC to check for mail or performs either a “local” or “deep” sync of part of the folder’s UID space.
Foreground Worker: Idles on the primary folder and wakes to syncs changes. Also wakes to perform other tasks, like fetching message bodies the user clicks.
So the foreground worker only idles on the primary folder, but it does slowly iterate over all folders in the background.
No settings have been added for this functionality (that I’m aware of).
Edit 2: Went back and read your original comment; hadn’t noticed the PR was yours. If that’s the case then you’re probably aware of how the sync works anyway. My bad if I’ve posted stuff you’re already aware of.
Agreed on Mailspring, especially if OP wants a modern interface (although I think the new Thunderbird looks fine).
The only thing missing from Mailspring for me is seeing what folders my emails are in when I run a search. Otherwise, it’s the only non-CLI client I’ve found that let’s me use the keyboard to select multiple emails and move them to a folder, something I do in Gmail. If anyone knows of others, let me know! I’ve tried Claws, Evolution, Geary, KMail, and Thunderbird in addition to Mutt and aerc in hopes of finding something to replace Gmail…
Sort of. They are going to keep maintaining K-9 mail with the current branding but there will also be a version of K-9 that is called is called Thunderbird for Android that will be themed like Thunderbird desktop.
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