[snip many posts about Evolution vs Thunderbird]
I've used four major e-mail programs over the last year or so: Thunderbird, Evolution, Mail.app, and mutt.
Mail.app (once you install the PGP addon) works very nicely under Mac OS X. Granted OS X isn't a Linux distro, but a look around any TriLUG meeting reveals the Mac as a serious alternative to Linux. It handles connecting to Exchange servers, IMAP, POP, spam filtering, local caching, thread listing... all the basic things you really expect from an e-mail client.
Thunderbird and Evolution are head to head alternatives to each other. Evolution is more integrated with calendaring built-in, Thunderbird is lighterweight. I prefer Evolution because a deleted message in Evolution has a strikeout through the entire line, subject, date, everything, whole line. Thunderbird only changes a little icon on the far left. It's easier to see which are deleted in Evolution. I know this is a very minor UI issue, but it's these little things that really do set one client apart from another.
Mutt is entirely text based. So, I loose the inline images when a friend of mine sends baby pictures or images of kittens with sniper rifles. HTML rendering is really basic, and not nearly as clean. No mouse and icons means it's not as click-and-drool simple as the other three. Such is the limitations of a text only interface. But, because mutt is entirely text based, it is really fast and doesn't bother with a mouse. This is the old "fingers never leaving the keyboard" argument. Mutt has fantastic filtering, integrates with spamassassin, does threaded lists, IMAP, POP, everything. I find myself able to manage far larger mailboxes with far more ease with mutt than with any of the three I've mentioned above. The downside is that it can't let you pause composing an e-mail and check your inbox without having to fully quit the editor and save it in the Drafts folder. Not a major problem since you usually finish writing an e-mail before you go back to browsing, but it is nonetheless a limitation.
I gotta say, even with the text-only limitations, if I had to choose only one e-mail client, I'd go with mutt.
jf -- John Franklin [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICBM: 38� 56' 32.6"N 77� 24' 47.7"W Z+62m
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