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Cross Platform Email Client?
AndrewRF asks: "I was wondering whether there was a good cross-platform email client that shares a common format for local mail, preferences, address book, filters, etc. files. I split time between a Win32 environment and Linux and collect mail from 3 different POP servers. I frequently find myself needing to boot out of Linux to retrieve a message downloaded by my Windows mail client that is stored in some non-accessible format. I've tried leaving the messages on the mail servers, but it's not as seamless as I would like. What I would really like would be have both platforms share a single, common set of local files. I've looked around, but haven't found anything that does the trick. I suspect that I could do this with Pine, though I'm ideally looking for something more GUIish. "
To my knowledge, there is no such animal, although I wonder if there is a way to do this using external tools and scripts on both ends. Your thoughts?
As you say, the opening display is not so good, kinda scrunched up to the top of the screen, but there has to be SOME way to fix it !
When I try to export messages from OE5, it is complaining that MAPI isn't installed. I don't really feel like downloading Outlook or MS Mail, any other solutions?
Joe converted from Eudora to KMail simply by copying the Eudora mail files to his unix partition and pointing KMail at them. I would imaging sharing the mail database would work quite well.
Hope this helps.- -------------
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This is an email client I discovered awhile back when looking for a decent GUI email program.
I have not yet tried Mahogany myself, but it appears to be exactly what you're looking for from the freshmeat description. It has the consistent GUI across platforms, although I would still recommend using IMAP if you can for a more seamless experience.
I bothered to look it up: http://freshmeat.net/appind ex/1998/08/18/903433003.html
Hope this helps.
Does anyone know of a script that converts Outlook Express mail folders/messages to formats readable by PINE, etc. I saw one once but it didn't work with the latest version of OE.
I had a similar problem, since imho netscapes mail client bites I chose to go w/ a browser based approach.. Its similar to hotmail, but you can run it on your own box, and it can poll pop3 accounts.
Crude, but effective.
darrem
(darren)
noop == mnemonic assembler comand for no operation. When it recieves a noop command, the CPU just sits idle for one clock then goes on to the next instruction. Why the IMAP protocol bothers to implement a noop instruction is beyond me, though...
0 1 - just my two bits
I have run into this annoying problem myself a lot. IMHO it is seriously broken that email programs, calendar apps, address books and so on take the user's info and encode it into some form that is not useable outside (exceptions for standard unix email format) the proprietary program that first touched and "managed" the information. What I plan to hack on some day RSN is representing this info in a non-proprietary format as XML with code to go from/to various proprietary formats. Eventually GUI minded folk can write these tools that take the XML as their native format.
I support Netscape daily, and it's mostly identical across all platforms. You can likely point your paths in your Linux installation to a mounted vfat drive. It's something I should have tried (but I avoid using doze). One drawback is Netscape 4.6x didn't support multiple pop boxes within one configuration. I'm worthless, I haven't used 4.7 yet. Does it?
I've found the best way to convert messages from OE (or any other client in fact) is to set up an IMAP server on another box, drag the messages into an IMAP folder and, hey presto, there you have it, nice mbox formatted mail on the linux box, with no pain whatsoever.
If you file a message by dragging the header, it markes the old message to be deleted, but will not delete them upon a purge. Outlook Exp. 4 used semicolons to separate recipients. Bad voodoo in that gatesware. Keep away. Use MUTT.
I believe there was a slashdotted article a couple of months back about a HP product called Openlook as an outlook replacement, they were doing free trials to get feedback until they released it comercialy. IIRC it was to run under Linux and HP-UX.
This is my sig, exciting huh!
I'm working on producing a nice cross-platform email client. Unfortunately at the moment it only supports Win32 and BeOS. However a linux port is in the works and might be available early next year. Keep an eye on my homepage for that: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~fret/scribe.html
While on this subject, does anyone know of an exchange client for linux (with access to public folders and forms etc.) it's the one thing thats stopping me changing this computer to linux at work :(.
Yes, I have done that in the past. I searched high and low to convert Microsoft Outlook's proprietary .pst to standard RFC822 format. This is the same format used by Netscape, Eudora, Pine and elm. Download Netscape 4.6 or 4.61, Install is, then use the menus -> Communicator / Tools / Import Utility and it should do the rest for you. The results have a bit of wierd formatting, but all in all you acheive what you want. Good luck. [Sorry for posting anyonymous. Signed up for account but never got the e-mail. It is kbahey ab2 [dot] com ]
I don't know if this will help you, but what about using IMAP on the server end to store your messages. If you really need the address book and everything you could try TWIG (web-based email). If you go over to freshmeat.net and do a search for twig, they will give you the web page.
I dont know if that helps you. It might be a little off-topic (since you asked for a client), but using IMAP is the solution I use. I also use procmail to sort my mail into folders on the server.
I use Windows NT at work and for personal mail, I am using Outlook Express and have the following settings turned "on":
Leave a copy of message on server
Remove from server when deleting from "Deleted Items"
This way I can keep up with messages during the day. If there's a message I want to read later on at home, I can either mark it as "unread" or *not* delete it from my "Deleted Items" folder. When I go home and check mail, it shows up as a new message.
I don't know if this helps, but it's an idea. As for your mail clients, Netscape's mail client has similar settings (I think). I have Netscape's browser-only here at work.
On a side note, though somewhat related, I accidently left Outlook Express open at work. It was checking for mail every 15 minutes or so. When I was at home getting mail, NONE of them were showing up as "N" in Mutt!! I checked and double-checked my settings in .muttrc many times trying to figure that out! Since they'd already be retrieved, but not removed from my mail server, they were not considered "New".
I'm posting to ask if anyone has any pointer to any "authoritative" elm sites ? Elm development seems to be badly fragmented, and things like MIME support and PGP support are kind of hit-or-miss.
Pegasus can read mbox format mail folders.
The problem is getting the file to the windows side.....:-)
I have the software and information on this my website with the serial numbers.
Injured software engineer wins against Mattel
Use IMAP. The best support for IMAP is provided by Outlook Express on Windows (Not outlook; it cannot store sent messages on the server), and, of course, twig, and IMP.
I tried netscape on Unix, but it crashes when I use it with IMAP. Also, IMAP is way better than POP, even when POP supports leaving the mail on the server.
I heard that vm on emacs support IMAP, and so does mutt. I haven't tried them though.
Communicator mail format is a standard unixspool file; you can transparently use the files from both Windows and Linux - caveat, I don't think the indexes are, though.
:)
I used to keep my mail shared and do this before I finally kicked the Windows habit alltogether.
-te
I've been using Netscape in both Windoze and Linux for about 6 months now and it works great. I was using Netscape in Windoze when I finally got a large enough hard drive to give some space to Linux (I'd get rid of windoze if it weren't for the wife). You just have to make sure you set up Netscape under Linux to read from the correct directory. I also have it set up so I can check my e-mail whether I'm logged in as root or my standard username. The only real problem with Netscape is that it only allows a connection to one POP server. To use multiple servers you must use IMAP.
"Anyone who can't laugh at himself is not taking life seriously enough." - Larry Wall
I had the same problem and I think I have it solved. I have a little Linux box at home that runs IPChains and so forth. I set it up to use fetchmail to collect mail from different accounts, then I use an IMAP client on my workstation to read the messages. On Linux I use Netscape, on Windows NT I use Outlook 2000. Seems to work pretty well and I don't have to worry about losing mail messages if I decide to re-install NT!
I think that I do remember Pine being multi-platform. Check it out: http://www.washington.edu/pine, *NIX and DOS/Windows ports
Outlook is probably the WORST email client I've ever seen.
It frequently "hangs" the TCP connection when sending attachments (even after the message gets sent.) It also does the same thing when retreiving large amounts of mail from a POP server.
Not to mention the 'wonderful' error messages it returns when it can't talk to the server (it creates it's own message, from "System Administrator" and puts it in the inbox, which just says "no transport provider was available"!!!!) Doesn't matter WHY the message wasn't sent (what error code the MTA returns,) it just says "No transport provider." It's ludicrous. (Somehow MS can't figure out that DETAILED error messages are a good thing.)
*sigh*
I use Wine to emulate Forte Agent which is installed in Windows. It does email too. :) Since I'm using the same install on both OSes, I don't have that problem.
J Street Mailer is a 100% Pure Java application. It's now available for free.
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Why would you prefer a GUI mail client? After trying out various GUI client I wound up going back to PINE myself. One big advantage of the non-GUI is the ease of scrolling through text. Hitting the spacebar is a lot easier than keeping that pointer in the scrollbar area and dragging/clicking/wheeling up and down.
Plus I like the ease of archiving mail in Pine using Mbox format boxes and just BZipping them and moving them off-line as I see fit.