List of Email Clients Available in Ubuntu Linux
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Evolution
Evolution or Novell Evolution (formerly Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official personal information manager and workgroup information management tool for GNOME. It combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions.
Currently this is the default email client for Ubuntu Linux
Thunderbird
Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source, cross-platform e-mail and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.
Install Thunderbird in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install mozilla-thunderbird
Pine
Pine® -- a Program for Internet News & Email -- is a tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages. Pine was developed by UW Technology at the University of Washington. Though originally designed for inexperienced email users, Pine has evolved to support many advanced features, and an ever-growing number of configuration and personal-preference options. Pine is available for Unix as well as for personal computers running a Microsoft operating system (PC-Pine).
Install pine in Ubuntu
First you need to download the .deb package from here
Install .deb package using the following command
sudo dpkg -i packagename
sudo aptitude install thunderbird
Alpine
Alpine is an upgrade of the well-known PINE email client. Alpine is currently in alpha. Its name derives from the use of the Apache License and its ties to PINE. It features a full suite of support for mail protocols like IMAP and SMTP and security protocols like TLS. It uses curses for its interface.
Install alpine in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install alpine
Balsa
Balsa is a highly configurable and robust mail client for the GNOME desktop. It supports both POP3 and IMAP servers as well as the mbox, maildir and mh local mailbox formats. Balsa also supports SMTP and/or the use of a local MTA such as Sendmail.
Some of Balsa's other features include:
* Allowing nested mailboxes
* Printing
* Spell Checking
* Multi-threaded mail retrieval
* MIME support (view images inline, save parts)
* GPE Palmtop, LDAP, LDIF and vCard address book support
* Multiple character sets for composing and reading messages
* File attachments on outgoing messages
* GPG/OpenPGP mail signing and encryption
Support for Kerberos and SSL has been enabled in this package.
Install balsa in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install balsa
Mutt
Mutt is a sophisticated text-based Mail User Agent. Some highlights:
* MIME support (including RFC1522 encoding/decoding of 8-bit message
headers and UTF-8 support).
* PGP/MIME support (RFC 2015).
* Advanced IMAP client supporting SSL encryption and SASL authentication.
* POP3 support.
* ESMTP support.
* Message threading (both strict and non-strict).
* Keybindings are configurable, default keybindings are much like ELM;
Mush and PINE-like ones are provided as examples.
* Handles MMDF, MH and Maildir in addition to regular mbox format.
* Messages may be (indefinitely) postponed.
* Colour support.
* Highly configurable through easy but powerful rc file.
Install mutt in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install mutt
Kmail
KMail is a fully-featured email client that fits nicely into the KDE desktop. It has features such as support
for IMAP, POP3, multiple accounts, mail filtering and sorting, PGP/GnuPG privacy, and inline attachments.
You need to install kdepim-kio-plugins if you want to use IMAP or mbox files, and/or kdebase-kio-plugins if you want to use POP3.
This package is part of KDE, and a component of the KDE PIM module. See the ‘kde' and ‘kdepim' packages for more information.
Install kmail in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install kmail
Claws-mail
Fast, lightweight and user-friendly GTK2 based email clientClaws Mail is a powerful and full-featured mail
client formerly called Sylpheed-Claws. It is also extensible using loadable plugins, which can provide support for additional features, like other storage formats, feed reader, calendar management, mail filtering, etc.
Install claws-mail in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install claws-mail
Pilot
Simple file browser from Alpine, a text-based email client"pilot" is a simple file browser from Alpine. It is
used in Alpine to let the user select attachments. As with (Al)pine, commands are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and context-sensitive help is provided.
As a stand-alone program, it is useful as a basic file browser, filling the same utility as programs like the
midnight commander.
Install pilot in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install pilot
Cone
COnsole Newsreader and EmailerCone is a text-based mail client. Cone seamlessly handles multiple POP3, IMAP accounts, and local mail folders. Cone is also a simple newsreader. Cone's interface is foolproof enough to be used by inexperienced users, but it also offers advanced features for power users.
Beyond others cone has support for PGP, GPG, UTF-8, IMAP, POP3, incoming HTML mails, external viewers, NNTP, SOCKS 5, SSL/TLS, SASL, LDAP and IMAP based address books, remote storable configuration, multiple accounts,tagging mails with several different flags, and SMAP (Simple Mail Access Protocol, a new IMAP and POP3 replacement developed by the Courier guys and supported by the Courier development versions).
Install cone in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install cone
Gnumail.app
fully featured mail applicationGNUMail is a clone of NeXT/Apple's excellent Mail.app application. It uses the GNUstep development framework (or Apple Cocoa, which is based on the OpenStep specification provided by NeXT, Inc.).
Install gnumail.app in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install gnumail.app
Xfmail
Mail reader using a nice XForms GUIXFMail is partially compatible with mh style mailboxes but does not require any mh tools to be installed on the system. You can browse your mh folders and messages using XFMail. It has a user-friendly interface and online help to make it easy to use. It implements most of the mail functionality in one program and it does not require any additional tools.
Install xfmail in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install xfmail
Elmo
text-based mail-reader supporting SMTP and POP3Elmo is a feature-rich console mail client for UN*X power users. It integrates functionality commonly realized by separate pieces of software in other mailers.
Install elmo in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install elmo
Gnus
A versatile news and mail reader for EmacsenGnus is a flexible message reader running under Emacs. It supports reading and composing both news and mail. In addition, it is able to use a number of web-based sources as inputs for its groups. The main Gnus goal is to provide the user with an efficient and extensible interface towards dealing with large numbers of messages, no matter the form they may have or wherever they may come from. Gnus is a fully MIME-compliant and supports reading and composing messages using any charset that Emacs supports.
Gnus biggest strength is the fact that it is extremely customisable. It is somewhat intimidating at first
glance, but most of the complexity can be ignored until you're ready to take advantage of it. If you receive a reasonable volume of e-mail (i.e. you're on various mailing lists), or you would like to read high-volume
mailing lists but cannot keep up with them, or read high volume newsgroups or are just bored, then Gnus may be what you want.
Install gnus in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install gnus
Nmh
A set of electronic mail handling programsThis is the nmh mail user agent (reader/sender), a command-line based mail reader that is powerful and extensible. nmh is an excellent choice for people who receive and process a lot of mail.
Unlike most mail user agents, nmh is not a single program, rather it is a set of programs that are run from the shell. This allows the user to utilize the full power of the Unix shell in coordination with nmh. Various
front-ends are available, such as mh-e (an emacs mode), xmh, and exmh (X11 clients).
nmh was originally based on MH version 6.8.3, and is intended to be a (mostly) compatible drop-in replacement for MH.
Install nmh in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install nmh
MH-E
Emacs interface to the MH mail systemMH-E offers all the functionality of MH, the visual orientation and
simplicity of use of a GUI, and full integration with Emacs and XEmacs, including thorough configuration and online help.
MH-E allows one to read and process mail very quickly: many commands are single characters; completion and smart defaults are used for folder names and aliases. With MH-E you compose outgoing messages in Emacs. This is a big plus for Emacs users, but even non-Emacs users have been known to use MH-E after only learning the most basic cursor motion commands.
Additional features include:
-- attractive text rendering with font lock
-- composition and display of MIME body parts
-- display of images and HTML within the Emacs frame
-- folder browsing with speedbar
-- threading
-- ticking messages
-- lightning-fast full-text indexed searches of all of your email
-- virtual folders to view ticked and unseen messages, search results
-- multiple personalities
-- signing and encrypting
-- spam filter interaction
-- XFace, Face, X-Image-URL and picon header field support
MH is Rand's Mail Handler, whose functionality is available in MH, nmh and GNU mailutils.
The package also includes contributed files that are not distributed with GNU Emacs:
mh-frame.el -- Open MH-E in a separate frame.
mh-comp-frame.el -- Message composition in a separate frame.
Install mh-e in Ubuntu
sudo aptitude install mh-e
Can you tell about MS-exchange support?
I think you forgot one – Mailody (http://www.mailody.net/)..
You seem to have forgotten the Zimbra desktop, an email client from one of Canonical’s partners.
Ampers (Journalist)
i just want to say that opera has a built in pop3 and imap client.
You have a compiled a very nice, comprehensive, well-researched list. However, I will ask you a question that I posted on Ubuntu Brainstorm a while back while venting frustration about not being able to remove Evolution from my default Ubuntu install: Why is anyone still using desktop email clients? I’m asking a serious, sincere, question, without an ounce of sarcasm or irony: what are the advantages of desktop email clients, over say, Gmail? I can’t think of any. In fact, there are numerous disadvantages with trying to sync your email across multiple accounts, machines, etc., even with IMAP. Unless you are forced to use Exchange for your work, which I’m not sure is fully functional from within Evolution or Thunderbird anyway, why are you still using desktop clients? Even if you do need Exchange support, you can very easily get push email on your iPhone or Blackberry, or better yet, use the web based outlook client that nearly all large companies offer. Even better still, you can leave your work email at WORK. Seriously, can someone please answer this question for me?
A reason I use an e-mail client is to not leave confidential information on an on-line mail client’s storage, after opening.
Another reason is habit: I have been using e-mail since the amount of on-line storage used to be about enough for 10 text based messages or one message with attachment. If you didn’t get your mail, you had no place to get new messages!
@Imi
You can use thunderbird,Evolution
ou, but i dont’t use any clients because I like gMail (in the web…on there site:))
I’ve tried most of those…and they all fill their little niche…to answer Rusik: I have 2 personal accounts with web based mail, and my everyday email that I have on my server. For those that have their own server, or have various accounts spread throughout the net (I’m sure I’m not the only one..) having a client makes life simple.
using mail software over gmail has several advantages:
more convinient, and interface fits into desktop
can access mails when offline.
has much more functionality (built in encryption, compression)
syncronisation is no big deal, with imap
well, the international google conspiracy cannot index my mails to send the NSA after me for writing down the world bomb.
kmail rocks. simply is more intelligent than any other mail client in th elist. i have tried balsa and claws. they are buggy. pine is useable over slow lines. mutt is pain, UI in not convinient for me.
mbox and MH mail storage are erro prone btw, and kmailuses maildir backend for locally stored mail.
generelly: mail cleints and local client software are more convinient, usually (as browsers are just raped to provide this functionality, but were not designed for this originally, and that can be felt), and is much more secure.
oh and about work email: well, you need mail software to do work email. a company telling its employees to use webmail, well…
and one annother world: as many people don’t have ipod or blackberry, as many countries are not completely plagued by the idea of the mindless oversomsumption. Some people are very appy if they get their first used computer. And i’m sure this is true for the vast majority of humanity.
Here are some of the reasons I use an e-mail client:
1. Not tied to Internet connectivity. Since I can have my e-mail setup to sync to local storage, I can work with e-mail offline if I choose. With many web mail services, this isn’t an option. I can leave my work e-mail at work as you stated or I can sync it to my e-mail client. If I had to use POP instead of IMAP, that would be different, because that is where you run into the sync problems, but with IMAP, I just sit down at any of my 4 laptops or 3 desktop machines and have access to all of my mail on any of them.
2. I sometimes receive personal information in e-mail and I don’t trust it being online at Google or Yahoo or any other online e-mail provider. (I run my own mail server.)
3. In my opinion, webmail interfaces universally suck. None of the webmail interfaces I have used, whether it is Gmail, Yahoo mail, Squirrelmail, the web interface to Exchange, or Oracle’s Collabsuite compare to my preferred e-mail client, Evolution. I know this is totally subjective, but that is my opinion. And the Exchange connector for Evolution works great. I used it extensively at my former company and it worked better for me than Outlook.
4. I have yet to find a decent web based e-mail interface that isn’t horribly slow when compared to my regular e-mail client. On top of that, my browser hogs enough system resources without having to keep it open all day to read e-mail.
5. I have multiple e-mail accounts, used for different purposes and my e-mail client of choice allows me to read them all in a common interface.
What I don’t understand is how people can trust their e-mail to online providers like Gmail. And I certainly don’t want my personal e-mail or instant messenger conversations archived on servers that I don’t control. I know from experience how nosy system administrators can be. Plus, I have seen too many online mail services fall by the wayside or suddenly convert from free services to paid services.
If you like Gmail or Yahoo mail or some other online mail service, then fine. To each his own, but I prefer my e-mail client and would only resort to using webmail as a last resort.
Re: TechDog point #4 – You mean you can close a Browser? Who knew!
I use an email client for my preference with the interface. I use multiple accounts, and I like viewing them all at once. Even using gmail, and having a blackberry, I like being able to check everything from thunderbird (including personal accounts other than gmail and a university account with a local server) when I’m at my desktop. The html handling is superior on thunderbird to blackberry, as well. And I use Sunbird for my calendar, and I like the integration with Sunbird and Thunderbird.
After reviewing ALL of them I stay with my Windows The Bat Email Client – really LIGHYEARS ahead in terms of usability. Also there is still so much primitivism out there in the linux world, it is unbelievable. Show me please ONE distro with CLEAN FONTS on a default install. Ridicolous, but this is the truth!
What about the venerable elm?
comand-line email from the good ol’ days!
Hello. Great job. This is a great story. Thanks!
Put simply if you have a lot of data a good e-mail client can’t be beat. Even a bad one is better than webmail. The ability to sort and organize contacts, e-mail, and calendar is crucial to many users. For my home e-mail webmail clients work fine but my work e-mail has so many contacts and e-mails that without being able to organize it to my liking it is almost useless. So far I have found nothing for Ubuntu that will do what I want. Evolution comes the closest but still falls short.
I think the first and foremost reason I use a desktop based email is so that I don’t have to wonder if the email is being blocked/nuked/sent to spam due to being from hotmail/yahoo/gmail – home of the spammers.
Some of us have never seen an iPhone or Blackberry, and will never in a million years be able to afford one. Ever.
Also, our computers are too old and too slow to access web email due to the scripting problems and flashing ads.
Mozilla Thunderbird works great for me under these circumstances.
Yes, I’m posting to an old thread – but, perhaps it will help someone in the future who is searching for desktop email clients.
Hi. Thanks. i read your post on email clients. which is the best one among these?
i have tried thunderbird before. i will try few others
To the person who wrote that they can’t afford an iphone etc.
IT is a very difficult for people to admit this in the real world as most people are all about image.
so for you i offer you a few suggestions. 1 download Lynx from the debian or ubunt website, it is a text based www browser and it works well without the huge amount of data and crap that comes with web pages these days.
2. go and seek out what ever you can to improve your machine from where ever you can, off the street, rubbish etc.
3. contact a person who might be a bit computer savy and start improving without spending any $$$
4. Be cool, hard times hit us all and one day it will get easier.
With the Ubuntu community there can be a lot of elitist snobs with huge horsepower in their PC’s that can be real geeky pricks, stay away from them, instead talk to people that are
genuine and can help
I have tried so many email clients but none came close to my expectation in terms of functionality and ease. This list includes Evolution, KMail, Thunderbird and Zimbra. Apart of these Zimbra came on the top of the list in terms of features and ease of use but it has non-native linux feel as it runs on JVM.
Just few days back tried Opera Mail ( comes bundled with opera browser ) for ubuntu. It comes as native deb package and installation and setup was quite quick. I was delighted by the whole experiences. So if anyone is not happy with email clients then give a try to opera.
http://www.opera.com/mail/
I think for me the main reason would be privacy. If i run my own mail server at home with a mail client that only i have access to then there’s no possibility of anyone have access to my mail at the back-end, such as is the case with Gmail and so forth. To some people privacy is of the utmost importance and the current global trends of cloud is not necessarily supporting privacy. Of course they say they guarantee privacy but the fact of the matter is someone else DOES have access to you mail. There are enough free mail clients do download and further customize and build on where you can include IM and video that is equally as good as offering from companies such as Google, for me it’s about ultimate privacy and protecting that.
Some email providers add ads to the mails send with the browser.