Hello, A friend of mine is a die-hard user of the Windows MUA The Bat! (yes, the client name includes the exclamation mark). He does, however, wish to move to Linux at some point and is looking for a mail client which has comparable features to The Bat! He's already tried Thunderbird and it doesn't meet his requirements, also GPG support (either directly or through plugins) is essential. Plus his hardware is so old that he can't just run Windows in a VM to continue using The Bat! and Wine may or may not work, but is beig considered. The ideal solution, of course, is a native client which supports the same features as The Bat! While hardware constraints have him considering Lubuntu as the primary candidate for a distribution. Those of you unfamiliar with The Bat! can refer to these pages for a list of features (of which my friend uses most): http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat! Does anyone have suggestions for email clients for him to try? Regards, Ben P.S. My GPG key has been updated since I last posted to the list, there's a link to my key transition statement in my .sig file. -- Ben McGinnes http://www.adversary.org/ Twitter: benmcginnes Systems Administrator, Writer, Trainer, ICT Consultant Encrypted email preferred - primary OpenPGP/GPG key: 0x73590E5D http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x321E4E2373590E5D OpenPGP/GPG key transition: http://www.adversary.org/keyswitch.txt.asc
Ben McGinnes <ben@adversary.org> wrote:
A friend of mine is a die-hard user of the Windows MUA The Bat! (yes, the client name includes the exclamation mark). He does, however, wish to move to Linux at some point and is looking for a mail client which has comparable features to The Bat!
He's already tried Thunderbird and it doesn't meet his requirements, also GPG support (either directly or through plugins) is essential.
I've never heard of it, but having read the wikipedia page, I would suggest claws-mail if it must be a graphical X11 client. Otherwise, Mutt or one of the Emacs mailers should be fine. My Debian package list shows the following - most requirements should be satisfied by the plugin list: p claws-mail - Fast, lightweight and user-friendly GTK2 b p claws-mail-acpi-notifier - Laptop's Mail LED control for Claws Mail p claws-mail-address-keeper - Address keeper plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-archiver-plugin - Archiver plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-attach-remover - Mail attachment remover for Claws Mail p claws-mail-attach-warner - Missing attachment warnings for Claws Mail p claws-mail-bogofilter - Bogofilter plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-bsfilter-plugin - Spam filtering using bsfilter for Claws Ma p claws-mail-cache-saver - Internal cache saver for Claws Mail p claws-mail-clamd-plugin - ClamAV socket-based plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-dbg - Debug symbols for Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-doc - User documentation for Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-extra-plugins - Extra plugins collection for Claws Mail p claws-mail-extra-plugins-dbg - Debug symbols for Claws Mail Extra Plugins p claws-mail-fancy-plugin - HTML mail viewer using GTK+ WebKit p claws-mail-feeds-reader - Feeds (RSS/Atom) reader plugin for Claws M p claws-mail-fetchinfo-plugin - Add X-FETCH headers plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-gdata-plugin - Access to GData (Google services) for Claw p claws-mail-geolocation-plugin - Geolocation of senders for Claws Mail p claws-mail-html2-viewer - HTML mail or attachment viewer for Claws M p claws-mail-i18n - Locale data for Claws Mail (i18n support) p claws-mail-mailmbox-plugin - mbox format mailboxes handler for Claws Ma p claws-mail-multi-notifier - Various new mail notifiers for Claws Mail p claws-mail-newmail-plugin - New mail logger plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-perl-filter - Message filtering plugin using perl for Cl v claws-mail-pgpcore - p claws-mail-pgpinline - PGP/inline plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-pgpmime - PGP/MIME plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-plugins - Installs plugins for the Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-python-plugin - Python plugin and console for Claws Mail p claws-mail-smime-plugin - S/MIME signature/encryption handling for C p claws-mail-spam-report - Spam reporting plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-spamassassin - SpamAssassin plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-synce-plugin - Addressbook synchronization with Windows C p claws-mail-themes - Pixmap icon themes for the Claws Mail mail p claws-mail-tnef-parser - TNEF attachment handler for Claws Mail p claws-mail-tools - Helper and utility scripts for Claws Mail p claws-mail-trayicon - Notification area plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-vcalendar-plugin - vCalendar message handling plugin for Claw
Sorry - some lines in the package list were truncated. Here's a corrected version. p claws-mail - Fast, lightweight and user-friendly GTK2 based email client p claws-mail-acpi-notifier - Laptop's Mail LED control for Claws Mail p claws-mail-address-keeper - Address keeper plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-archiver-plugin - Archiver plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-attach-remover - Mail attachment remover for Claws Mail p claws-mail-attach-warner - Missing attachment warnings for Claws Mail p claws-mail-bogofilter - Bogofilter plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-bsfilter-plugin - Spam filtering using bsfilter for Claws Mail p claws-mail-cache-saver - Internal cache saver for Claws Mail p claws-mail-clamd-plugin - ClamAV socket-based plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-dbg - Debug symbols for Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-doc - User documentation for Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-extra-plugins - Extra plugins collection for Claws Mail p claws-mail-extra-plugins-dbg - Debug symbols for Claws Mail Extra Plugins packages p claws-mail-fancy-plugin - HTML mail viewer using GTK+ WebKit p claws-mail-feeds-reader - Feeds (RSS/Atom) reader plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-fetchinfo-plugin - Add X-FETCH headers plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-gdata-plugin - Access to GData (Google services) for Claws Mail p claws-mail-geolocation-plugin - Geolocation of senders for Claws Mail p claws-mail-html2-viewer - HTML mail or attachment viewer for Claws Mail p claws-mail-i18n - Locale data for Claws Mail (i18n support) p claws-mail-mailmbox-plugin - mbox format mailboxes handler for Claws Mail p claws-mail-multi-notifier - Various new mail notifiers for Claws Mail p claws-mail-newmail-plugin - New mail logger plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-perl-filter - Message filtering plugin using perl for Claws Mail v claws-mail-pgpcore - p claws-mail-pgpinline - PGP/inline plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-pgpmime - PGP/MIME plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-plugins - Installs plugins for the Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-python-plugin - Python plugin and console for Claws Mail p claws-mail-smime-plugin - S/MIME signature/encryption handling for Claws Mail p claws-mail-spam-report - Spam reporting plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-spamassassin - SpamAssassin plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-synce-plugin - Addressbook synchronization with Windows CE devices p claws-mail-themes - Pixmap icon themes for the Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-tnef-parser - TNEF attachment handler for Claws Mail p claws-mail-tools - Helper and utility scripts for Claws Mail mailer p claws-mail-trayicon - Notification area plugin for Claws Mail p claws-mail-vcalendar-plugin - vCalendar message handling plugin for Claws Mail
On 31/07/12 1:19 PM, Jason White wrote:
Ben McGinnes <ben@adversary.org> wrote:
A friend of mine is a die-hard user of the Windows MUA The Bat! (yes, the client name includes the exclamation mark). He does, however, wish to move to Linux at some point and is looking for a mail client which has comparable features to The Bat!
He's already tried Thunderbird and it doesn't meet his requirements, also GPG support (either directly or through plugins) is essential.
I've never heard of it, but having read the wikipedia page, I would suggest claws-mail if it must be a graphical X11 client. Otherwise, Mutt or one of the Emacs mailers should be fine.
Thanks, I suspect he wants the GUI options, but I'll pass them all along. Regards, Ben -- Ben McGinnes http://www.adversary.org/ Twitter: benmcginnes Systems Administrator, Writer, Trainer, ICT Consultant Encrypted email preferred - primary OpenPGP/GPG key: 0x73590E5D http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x321E4E2373590E5D OpenPGP/GPG key transition: http://www.adversary.org/keyswitch.txt.asc
Quoting Ben McGinnes (ben@adversary.org):
Thanks, I suspect he wants the GUI options, but I'll pass them all along.
Not a guide, but rather a list that I try to keep comprehensive: 'MUAs' on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Mail
Ben McGinnes <ben@adversary.org> wrote:
Thanks, I suspect he wants the GUI options, but I'll pass them all along.
Interestingly, the gap between GUI and non-GUI options isn't as sharp as one might suppose, since the latter can invoke image viewers or Web browsers to display HTML. However, the non-GUI alternatives typically have more features and options, as is true in general, except in certain domains such as graphics editing, Web browsing, image viewing, and audio editing. In any activity in which manipulating text is the primary focus, the textual tools are superior, which I expect is one reason why the UNIX tradition in this respect isn't dying despite decades of GUI development.
Ben McGinnes wrote:
Hello, A friend of mine is a die-hard user of the Windows MUA The Bat! (yes, the client name includes the exclamation mark). He does, however, wish to move to Linux at some point and is looking for a mail client which has comparable features to The Bat!
He's already tried Thunderbird and it doesn't meet his requirements, also GPG support (either directly or through plugins) is essential.
"GPG support" is the only functional requirement you've given so far. Nearly all actively maintained MUAs support that.
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat!
We could look at The Bat! documentation to try to guess what his other functional requirements are, but it would be more accurate and less effort for him to simply tell us what they are. (Admittedly, failure to articulate meaningful requirements is an endemic problem. That's when you pay a consultant to trick them out of you, instead of asking a volunteer-staffed mailing list.)
On 31/07/12 2:04 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
"GPG support" is the only functional requirement you've given so far. Nearly all actively maintained MUAs support that.
Not all of it is up to scratch, though. There are some absolutely awful attempts floating around in Linux land.
We could look at The Bat! documentation to try to guess what his other functional requirements are, but it would be more accurate and less effort for him to simply tell us what they are.
IIRC he uses most, if not all, of the features. So extensive use of whatever method(s) of filtering it implements, response templates based on those filters, GPG support (the bonus here is he favours in-line over PGP/MIME, so all the MUAs that haven't worked out how to do that are back in the running; was it Evolution or KMail that screwed that up ... oh well, doesn't matter). Not sure what else because I haven't dived into The Bat! for more than a decade.
(Admittedly, failure to articulate meaningful requirements is an endemic problem. That's when you pay a consultant to trick them out of you, instead of asking a volunteer-staffed mailing list.)
To be honest, I didn't expect much of anything in the way of responses. It's a pretty obscure MUA that's only survived because it has a small, die-hard user base. I do remember that I considered it briefly, but switched to Linux and Mutt instead. That was a while ago, though. Regards, Ben -- Ben McGinnes http://www.adversary.org/ Twitter: benmcginnes Systems Administrator, Writer, Trainer, ICT Consultant Encrypted email preferred - primary OpenPGP/GPG key: 0x73590E5D http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x321E4E2373590E5D OpenPGP/GPG key transition: http://www.adversary.org/keyswitch.txt.asc
On 31 July 2012 12:31, Ben McGinnes <ben@adversary.org> wrote:
Hello, A friend of mine is a die-hard user of the Windows MUA The Bat! (yes, the client name includes the exclamation mark). He does, however, wish to move to Linux at some point and is looking for a mail client which has comparable features to The Bat!
He's already tried Thunderbird and it doesn't meet his requirements, also GPG support (either directly or through plugins) is essential. Plus his hardware is so old that he can't just run Windows in a VM to continue using The Bat! and Wine may or may not work, but is beig considered. The ideal solution, of course, is a native client which supports the same features as The Bat! While hardware constraints have him considering Lubuntu as the primary candidate for a distribution.
Those of you unfamiliar with The Bat! can refer to these pages for a list of features (of which my friend uses most):
http://www.ritlabs.com/en/products/thebat/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat!
Does anyone have suggestions for email clients for him to try?
According to the WineHQ , version 5.x of The Bat! has platinum support under wine v1.3.21. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=68 -- Colin Fee tfeccles@gmail.com
On 31/07/12 2:06 PM, Colin Fee wrote:
According to the WineHQ , version 5.x of The Bat! has platinum support under wine v1.3.21. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=68
Cool, thanks. Regards, Ben
participants (5)
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Ben McGinnes -
Colin Fee -
Jason White -
Rick Moen -
Trent W. Buck