Vishal Nakra wrote: > Poco's interface is beautiful. Outright winner in the usability > shootouts in my opinion. Its more powerful features are often a match > for TB's, and are more easily used.
I downloaded PocoMail this evening and have been playing around with it. I agree wholeheartedly on your comments above. The usability improvements that Poco offers are significant. There are some things that I found right away to "just make more sense." I had always thought that the visual aspects of a mail client were unimportant. And back when I last looked at other clients, many reviews said Eudora had the nicest interface - and I hated it. But Poco does look nice. And it's skinnable - which seems silly to me, but I have thought that about skins before. And with some of the skinnable apps I have, I end up finding a few skins that are simple, clean and "toned down" and I find it's a nice touch. > The HTML sanitizing features are > another part that is impressive from a security standpoint. TB's HTML > capability is better left unspoken about, since the many threads on > this list will have shown you how far it has to go yet. Poco's is > polished, though I didn't use it much either. I'm a big advocate of NOT using HTML, so for me, this really isn't a negative for TB. I just want an e-mail client that allows me to turn it all off, and for the rare occasions that I need to view an HTML message - and easy method for doing so (both Poco and TB have this). > I played with Poco a few months ago, but resisted changing because I > hadn't fully experimented with TB's very powerful macros and templates. I don't know if there is ever a good time to go through the painful process of switching. I want to give Poco a fair shot and spend some time with it, but learning a new program is time-consuming. My initial impression, though, is that there are some features that I consider important that Poco has - and are easy to use/set-up. > I didn't want to give up on TB without doing that. TB's templates are > better, but then Poco has its own scripting language that could do > wonders for you if you know how to use it well. I didn't even want to consider another e-mail client that did not allow at least some basic address book templates. I didn't think Poco had them, but they're there. I have not delved into the scripting capabilities of Poco yet. > TB has other advantages. > Speed, for one. You'll quickly notice that Poco is pretty slow at > downloading lots of mail. This won't be a problem if you don't receive a > lot, but if you plan on subscribing to heavy-traffic mailing lists, be > prepared to wait a lot. I used version 3, though, and the mailing lists > had posts after that on how the speed was improved significantly in the > later betas. My speed comment may be out of date now. Poco also tended > to crash somewhat more than TB, and the user forums reveal other bugs > that people weren't happy about. TB is definitely fast. That's been one of its biggest assets for years. I can't tell yet how much slower Poco is, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. It's definitely not as fast as The Bat, though. I'm not sure if that is such a problem if I'm checking mail regularly throughout the day (unless its REALLY slow....) Can't say anything about crashing. TB has been pretty stable for me for a long time. > Since there's only one developer for Poco, that's understandable. > (Hats off to the guy for the singlehanded effort he's pulled off). Honestly, I think The Bat would be dead in the water were it not for this list. That's my opinion and could very well be completely wrong. But I find the community that is involved with a product is often just as (or more) important that the developer(s). People here have been very helpful and friendly. I don't know how the Poco forums are, but they are active. The problem, though, is that some issues that I may deem critical - if they aren't important to the list, they might just go unnoticed. I know that's very self-serving, but at the end of the day, I purchased The Bat for me to use. There have been a few issues with TB that I just can't comprehend. They go beyond idiosyncrasies. > I don't like several things about TB - the HTML rendering, attachment > handing and user interface primarily. But ultimately, I stuck with it > because it was just plain too much bother to switch, with all the > address book and other incompatibilities. It's interesting to see what people will go through to keep from changing. I'm convinced that a few of the "expert users" here would probably drop The Bat were it not for the hassle of switching, and their know-how and willingness to concoct elaborate work-arounds to problems the software itself should address. I think for me, the timing is right. I was irritated about The Bat's handling of the Memo field (and not being able to change the Subject line), and then experienced some weird, unexplainable behavior with attachments. I didn't get the answers I wanted and then there was a Poco vs. The Bat thread.... So I started looking. I may end up staying with The Bat. Who knows. But I would like to give Poco a good trial period and see if it will better meet my needs. I know there is no perfect app out there. It about finding one that suits my needs best. But that touches on some deeper issues, I believe. The available functionality of an app I like affects my needs. I don't like to admit that, but it's true. There are things about The Bat that I've hated for years, but I like it, so I've gradually "needed" those things less. Likewise, some of the more advanced features of TB turned into "necessary features" for me. Just my rambling thoughts.... ;) -- Ken Green Using The Bat! v1.62r on Windows 2000 5.0 Build 2195 Service Pack 4 ________________________________________________ Current version is 2.02.3 CE | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
