Re: Devin's effort

Tanstaafl:

> So... I'm very curious what you (and the other list participants here)
> consider some of the most appealing features of Mulberry over other IMAP
> clients you/they have used.
>
> I plan on giving it a test run, but my time is limited, so I'd like to
> compile a list of features to look at and compare to TB...

For me it's:

1. *Proper* support for multiple accounts. While Thunderbird supports multiple 
accounts, the last time I looked you could not log into them separately. 
Either all accounts made a login attempt, or you logged out of all accounts.

2. *Intelligent* support for massive (Gigabyte plus) mail archives with a 
large number of folders. I recall Thunderbird being pretty crap at this, like 
most IMAP clients apart from Mulberry. Maybe not as crap as Apple Mail and 
other clients that attempt to index the *entire* hierarchy, but still pretty 
bad even though (a) I no longer recall what the specific problem is or (b) 
whether this has improved in the meantime.

3. I also loathe the 3-pane interface made standard by Outlook, so I'm glad 
that Mulberry still supports its original classic multi-window interface, even 
though it too fell into line with the 3-pane interface. I recall Thunderbird 
kinda-sorta supported something other than the 3-pane interface, but it was a 
bit clunky compared to Mulberry's "each folder and message can appear in a 
separate window if you want it" approach.

4. I have no idea if Thunderbird supports multiple identities / personalities. 
Mulberry does a decent job of these, though I'm finding that because I use an 
outrageously large number of identities (because I can with my own vanity 
domain, and so I have separate identities for each mailing list, shop, site 
etc. that I deal with) that Mulberry's identities don't scale really well.

So that's a quick list off the top of my head. I suspect there's more if I put 
my mind to it.

But that said, I also feel Mulberry is showing it's age a little bit. It's not 
very pretty by contemporary standards, though I obviously value functionality 
over aesthetics in this case. I also doubt that it's very comprehensible (by 
contemporary UI standards) for non-power users. It is an IMAP client for those 
that are serious about IMAP. And that's probably no longer the general 
population now that all manner of social media and instant messaging apps are 
on the scene.

But I had tried Thunderbird on and off more than once over the years, and 
whilst obviously capable in both the basics and with some degree of more 
sophisticated use, every time I tried it, it fell far short of what is needed 
for really my heavy-duty email requirements. And it showed no sign of 
improving in that area because, after all, that's not the area where large 
numbers of users needed to be satisfied and so the limited resources of an 
open-source projects never really allowed addressing those rarer needs. And my 
time became more valuable to me than to bother keeping on re-trying 
Thunderbird in the hope that it had improved. So I've stuck with Mulberry. But 
I think it does require a more major effort to modernise it than can really be 
justified by usage and demand.

Hope that helps satisfy your curiosity.

Cheers,

    Bernie