On 12/22/25 7:38 PM, Dale wrote:
Some people on this mailing list see more email software than I do. It's mostly me, myself and I here. All three of us use Seamonkey right now. LOL I haven't seen Kmail or Thunderbird in a while. I did try Thunderbird a couple years ago and I couldn't get it to work right. No idea on Kmail. So, my question is this. What is going to be the closest email client I can switch to that is like, or close to, how Seamonkey works? Is Thunderbird my best option? Should I try Kmail again? Is there some new email client that I'm not aware of that is even better than those? Also, I'd like something that is going to be around long term. I'd like to avoid software that will be in the same spot Seamonkey is in right now anytime soon.
I have Opinions™ about email clients as I have wrestled with this specific software choice a lot over the past few years.
I live and die by my CalDAV calendar, CardDAV contacts, and CalDAV task list, and I want them in the same interface as email because of how closely they're tied together. This leaves me with three options: Thunderbird, Evolution, and KDE's PIM suite (I really don't know what to call it. Akonadi?)
Kmail/Akonadi is very obtuse and awkward to me. As much as I like how it integrates with KDE, I feel like every single option has a 'wrong' default that I have to change once I figure out that my expectations weren't fulfilled. Same goes for Korganizer and the task list interface. I keep trying it, I keep getting frustrated, and I keep putting it back down again.
Thunderbird, since its recent overhaul, has been really impressive. The account setup is dead simple and intuitive, the archiving function (which has always been great) works precisely the way I expect, and the extensions can add on some good functionality. But there's rough edges. I get crashes sometimes. Something in my profile will just 'break' and extensions can't be installed anymore so I have to export/delete/import to fix it. The interface is a little screwy to me, with the brower-like tabs.
Evolution is a battle tank. Feature-rich, works great in corporate environments, great multiple account support features (the ability to configure "only allow account X to respond to domain Y" has saved me many times from a faux pas at work), and it is actively developed with a great support community mailing list. But alas, it is GTK focused, which means a lot of unwanted dependencies, looking ugly on KDE, yet-another-webkit-package to install, that type of thing.
tl;dr: if you want tight KDE integration, Akonadi may be for you. Thunderbird is the easiest to set up, has an easier build process, and is shockingly fast, but has rough edges. Evolution is bullet-proof reliable and well supported, but GTK makes me grumpy.
I'm sticking with T-bird for now, but I'm keeping Evolution configured and ready to go for the next time the former has a breakdown.
