Some just suck less than the others.

I have been alternating beetween Evolution and ThunderBird on Linux over a couple of month:

Thunderbird has the following issues:

  • When showing message header, you can't scroll. Bug 223132
  • Does not handle mailing lists: does not have "reply to mailing list" Bug 45715 and Bug 233417 as well as RFC 2369 conformancy.
  • Does not allow changing the SMTP server for outgoing messages, despite the UI Bug 161117
  • Expunging folders on IMAP is not easy (Evolution has Ctrl-E shortcut) Bug 127888
  • The lack of "quote using selection" Bug 23394
  • Still default sending HTML e-mails, which is bad, bad, bad.Bug 47140

Evolution has the following issues:

  • Does not allow specifying a global SMTP server for all mail accounts Bug 71145. I often send directly with my local postfix SMTP server, but some retarded ISP here block outgoing TCP/25 making impossible to send yourself your mail. And their SMTP is unreliable.
  • Heavy, slow and memory hungry. I still use a G3/400 PowerBook laptop.
  • Antispam really slow and CPU hog, unlike Thunderbird's. And less efficient. Bug 72411
  • Various editing issues, but probably relate to the fact that I run the development release, because Ubuntu pushes me to use it.

In short I'd say that I'd use Evolution more than Thunderbird.

Maybe I should try again Mutt, which I really like, but which was not convenient with multiple IMAP servers. Mutt made me love and require mail threading.

Update: note to Nat: I thread by default in Evolution. Otherwise I wouldn't even consider it.