Re: Devin's effort

On 4/20/2015 7:54 AM, Bernie Maier <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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.

> 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.

Well... I have 8 separate IMAP accounts in my personal TB (I use
Portable versions, so I can have both my Personal and Work TB's running
simultaneously), and 13 separate IMAP accounts in my work TB, all with
independent 'check account' settings (some disabled so I have to check
manually, others set to different intervals checking automatically).

Also, I don't recall a time when you couldn't do this with TB...

> 2. *Intelligent* support for massive (Gigabyte plus) mail archives
> with a large number of folders.

Ditto here. Most of my accounts have 5GB+ of mail, some with many dozens
(maybe even approaching 100) folders, and performance is fine. Of
course, nothing is perfect, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that very
occasionally, TB can get 'confused', and go into la-la-land, and has to
be restarted (sometimes leaving a rogue process running that has to be
manually killed off).

I will say that there was one release - version 3.something - that
automatically enabled GLODA (global search and indexer) and full offline
mode for all accounts and folders, I was extremely pissed, because I
had/have a very careful selection of certain folders for full offline
mode, and others not. This was by far the worst experience I've ever had
with TB.

That said, if you have everything set to full offline mode, once all
folders are fully synced and GLODA is fully up to date, searching is
pretty powerful.

> 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,

TB has 3 Views - Classic (this is the default, and is 3 pane which is
about the same as Mulberry's from what I can see of the screenshots
online), Wide (also 3 pane, but the Preview Pane is extended underneath
the Accounts Pane), and Vertical, which is the default Outlook view (and
which I also dislike).

> 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.

Messages can definitely be set to open in separate windows (the default
is tabs, but I really dislike tabs in my mail client).

Folders can be opened in new windows by right-clicking on  them and
doing it manually, but there is no option to do this automatically, and
it opens an entire second Thunderbird window, which is probably not what
you are wanting.

So, I guess that would be a 'no' on that one.

> 4. I have no idea if Thunderbird supports multiple identities /
> personalities.

TB has excellent support for multiple Identities.

> 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.

TB's do... and with a few excellent Addons, the Identities can be easily
associated with specific folders.

In fact, Addons (ie, customizability) is one of the main reasons I have
stuck with TB for so long.

> 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.


I'll wager that it will do pretty much everything you want and more,
with possibly a few exceptions (ie, opening folders in separate
windows), but you would likely need to customize it quite a bit, as I
have. The UI in mine is heavily customized. Anyone who uses the default
UI would almost not even recognize mine as thunderbird...

I currently use a grand total of 46 Addons (in TB - only 41 in
Firefox)... ;)

> And my time became more valuable to me than to bother keeping on
> re-trying Thunderbird in the hope that it had improved.

Well, not to push, but if you ever do decide to give it another look,
I'd be happy to answer any question and help you decide if it really is
capable of doing what you need/want.

> 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.

Definitely, if it is only one or so people doing the work. Thankfully,
there are a lot more than that working on Thunderbird, and as I said,
there is movement on some really old bugs that have been some of the
more major annoyances. I'm seriously looking forward to the Composer and
Address Book rewrites.

> Hope that helps satisfy your curiosity.

Yes, thanks very much for the detailed response.

Charles