You are not logged in.

#1 2008-07-03 23:02:25

pogeymanz
Member
Registered: 2008-03-11
Posts: 1,020

Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

I really like Claws-mail, but it doesn't fully work with gmail. It has a lot of quirks, like that I can't really delete emails and it doesn't alert me when I get an incoming email. I am using IMAP, so it's not that.

So, I'll use this as an excuse to try something new. Here is a list, in order of importance of what I'm looking for:

1: Can manage multiple accounts
2: Works well with Gmail
3: Straight-forward to configure
4: Can automatically retrieve mail and alert me on arrival
5: Lightweight

I'd be a little scared to try Mutt, but if someone told me that it's easy I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Offline

#2 2008-07-03 23:20:05

atomkarinca
Member
From: Somewhere but Not Here
Registered: 2008-07-03
Posts: 95
Website

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

I used to use Sylpheed and it handles Gmail OK. It handles multiple accounts, too. Oh and it's pretty lightweight.

Offline

#3 2008-07-03 23:29:05

fwojciec
Member
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,411

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

There are some options, and I've tried most of them, but IMO nothing beats gmail's original web interface.  You can use something like checkgmail to get notifications about new mail and such, if you need them.

Offline

#4 2008-07-03 23:42:46

smurnjiff
Member
Registered: 2007-06-25
Posts: 211

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Mutt isn't that bad, it's just the initial configuration that is a pain.  If you really want to use gmail with a gui mail client, use thunderbird.

Here's a quickstart guide:

http://www.andrews-corner.org/mutt.html

Offline

#5 2008-07-03 23:54:53

moljac024
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-01-29
Posts: 2,676

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Evolution is also nice but it is a bit heavy.

Claws-mail is also a very good, feature rich and feather light email client. It can handle gmail just fine. It's lightning fast compared to Evolution and Thunderbird. You should give it a shot. Although I should warn you that it was crashing on me so I've removed it from my system but maybe that won't happen to you. As I understand it's pretty stable, don't know what bug could have bitten me wink

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-07-03 23:56:07)


The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

Offline

#6 2008-07-04 00:27:06

pogeymanz
Member
Registered: 2008-03-11
Posts: 1,020

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Actually, my problem is that I can't delete Gmail messages in either claws or sylpheed! I recieve the "All Mail" folder from gmail and I delete a message in it, but it doesn't go away.

I really like claws if it isn't for that. What's my problem? I guess I'll just start a new thread.

Offline

#7 2008-07-04 00:32:08

Damnshock
Member
From: Barcelona
Registered: 2006-09-13
Posts: 414

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Kmail works pretty well here, as mutt does as well.


My blog: blog.marcdeop.com
Jabber ID: damnshock@jabber.org

Offline

#8 2008-07-04 05:14:28

z0phi3l
Member
From: Waterbury CT
Registered: 2007-11-26
Posts: 278

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

I'm not sure you can delete mail other than through the gmail interface

Offline

#9 2008-07-04 05:15:38

Stythys
Member
From: SF Bay Area
Registered: 2008-05-18
Posts: 878
Website

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

I second claws. Nice, lightweight, configurable, and also very nice for mailing lists, since it indents replies. I'm not sure how many other clients do this, but I know thunderbird didn't, which is what I used to use.


[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
-- Bregol

Offline

#10 2008-07-04 06:32:33

bangkok_manouel
Member
From: indicates a starting point
Registered: 2005-02-07
Posts: 1,556

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Offline

#11 2008-07-04 08:27:51

Stalafin
Member
From: Berlin, Germany
Registered: 2007-10-26
Posts: 617

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

I was told to use 'offline-imap' for syncronizing with Gmail, and then whatever mail client (say claws mail) to point to the offline-imap folder.

I have to set that up... was too lazy. big_smile

Offline

#12 2008-07-04 13:56:10

Berticus
Member
Registered: 2008-06-11
Posts: 731

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Odd you're having issues with claws...  I used to use claws and liked it a lot. I never had a problem with claws showing me new incoming messages or the notifications going staying after reading new messages. Right now I'm looking into picking up mutt since I've heard so much about it and a lot of email headers indicate the messages I get are from mutt email clients.

The only reason I would refrain from suggesting Thunderbird is I've had issues with mbox. Using claws with MH gave me no problems whatsoever. But I suppose how I handle mail (rarely deleting anything) is also quesitonable. But I guess it wouldn't really matter for you since you're using imap.

I suppose another minor difference is I don't use gmail. But that really shouldn't affect what email client you use.

Offline

#13 2008-07-04 15:22:29

Square
Member
Registered: 2008-06-11
Posts: 435

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

Personally, I use IMAP with Gmail as well. I was using Alpine to check my Gmail, but when I tried Opera the other day... It hooked me with it's built in e-mail support. The setup was effortless to use IMAP with Gmail, as well as set up my other email clients. Alpine though is about as lightweight as you can get however, because it's CLI; the only quirk is it supports only IMAP.

Last edited by Square (2008-07-04 15:24:42)


 

Offline

#14 2008-07-08 10:35:42

edge-t
Member
Registered: 2008-07-05
Posts: 7

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

pogeymanz wrote:

Actually, my problem is that I can't delete Gmail messages in either claws or sylpheed! I recieve the "All Mail" folder from gmail and I delete a message in it, but it doesn't go away.

I really like claws if it isn't for that. What's my problem? I guess I'll just start a new thread.

I thought that Mutt was tough to set up too, but found some guide on google. basically here's my rc files.

.muttrc:

set imap_user = "<username>@gmail.com"
set imap_pass = "<password>"

set sendmail="/usr/bin/msmtp"            # Your path to msmtp
set from = "<username>@gmail.com"
set realname = "John Doe"

set folder = "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993"
set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set record = "+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
set postponed= "+[Gmail]/Drafts"

set header_cache = "~/.mutt/cache/headers"       #Create your folders in $HOME accordingly
set message_cachedir = "~/.mutt/cache/bodies"
set certificate_file = "~/.mutt/certificates"

set move = no
set sort = 'threads'
set sort_aux = 'last-date-received'

ignore "Authentication-Results:"
ignore "DomainKey-Signature:"
ignore "DKIM-Signature:"
hdr_order Date From To Cc
set editor="vim"                # Your choice of poison 
set edit_headers=yes

#======================================================#
# Odds and ends

set markers          # mark wrapped lines of text in the pager with a +
set smart_wrap       # Don't wrap mid-word
set pager_context=5  # Retain 5 lines of previous page when scrolling.
set status_on_top    # Status bar on top.
push <show-version>  # Shows mutt version at startup
set timeout=15
set mail_check=60    # Mail checking

# pressing 'd' key will send your mail to Gmail's Trash folder now.
macro index,pager d "<save-message>=[Gmail]/Trash<enter><enter>" "Trash"

Here's the one for .msmtprc:

account default              
host smtp.gmail.com          
port 587                     
from <username>@gmail.com      
tls on                       
tls_starttls on              
tls_trust_file /home/<user>/.certs/ThawtePremiumServerCA.crt # got this from www.andrews-corner.org/mutt.html
auth on                     
user <username>         
password <password>          
logfile ~/.msmtp.log

All I had to do was install msmtp, mutt with Pacman... I think openssl
too. Then it's just dumping .muttrc and .msmtprc into $HOME. Oh and your
have to chmod 600 both .muttrc and .msmtp--they contain your passwords.

For GUI mail clients, I use thunderbird, but I tend to use mutt nowadays. Here's how I setup my thunderbird with IMAP Gmail: http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to- … 314574.php After that:

tbird_gmail.jpg

All you have to do is just select the mails you want to delete and drag them into the [Gmail]/Trash folder. supports multiple account. As for Mutt--I'm sure you can set up multiple accounts too.

Last edited by edge-t (2008-07-08 10:36:58)

Offline

#15 2008-11-19 21:24:38

brisbin33
Member
From: boston, ma
Registered: 2008-07-24
Posts: 1,796
Website

Re: Good lightweight mail client that works with Gmail?

old thread, but +1 for offlineimap+mutt anyway.

take a look at my muttrc and the supporting configs there as well.  i can connect mutt directly to gmail's imap or to an [offlineimap synced] local Maildir depending on which line i comment out.  my offlineimaprc and msmtprc are there as well.  using mutt to access the local Maildir is what i'm happiest with.  using my configs your drafts/sent/spam/trash folders will work completely as expected.  gmail won't let you mess with All Mail at all though; you have to do that through the web interface. 

remove/adjust the nametrans entry in offlineimaprc if you don't want your folders renamed when offlineimap syncs em. (this will affect the muttrc's keybindings)

Last edited by brisbin33 (2008-11-19 21:25:18)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB