e-mail programs: Thunderbird vs Mail vs Entourage

[fjs08]

Hi,
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I ate too much, but what the heck.

Can anyone give me some opinions on e-mail programs: Thunderbird vs Mail vs Entourage. I use Entourage now, I like Mail for OSX, but for some reason many of my e-mails don't get to where they are supposed to go?? I use Safari most of the time, but do like Firefox. I'm curious about it's associated e-mail program Thunderbird.
Thanks.
Frank

 

[munkle]

Not to be contrary but the best thing you could do is download the app and give it a test run yourself. You will know best if it fits your needs

Personally I use mail.app but it requires a few plugins to get it acting how I want it too.

Or you could always wait for DXoverDY's upcoming mail masterpiece

 

[kretzy]

Can't say i've used Thunderbird, but I do use Entourage and Mail. I think Mail is a fantastic mail app, it does everything I need it to do and looks very streamlined and simple. The only reason I use Entourage is for my hotmail account, which can't be accessed with Mail (as far as I now). It does an ok job, but i find it a bit clunky looking (in other words, very Microsoftish) and it's alert sounds slightly irritating....it does the job though. I might give Thunderbird a go (just because it sounds cool)

 

[fjs08]

>>The only reason I use Entourage is for my hotmail account, which can't be accessed with Mail (as far as I now).<<

You can't receive your hotmail from it, and I even have problems sending to hotmail accounts. My wife and kids use it exclusively and lots of times it just doesn't go through. Real problem is that it Sends, never said it wasn't delivered, but it never gets to them.

I love Mail. It is very sleak. Entourage is cool. It changes lots of my spelling errors automatically, etc. And I use Office for so much it isn't funny. I love the Calendar, etc. I'll play with Thunderbird this weekend, just for the fun of it, but I always seem to drift back to Entourage.

Frank

 

[kretzy]

>>The only reason I use Entourage is for my hotmail account, which can't be accessed with Mail (as far as I now).<<

You can't receive your hotmail from it, and I even have problems sending to hotmail accounts. My wife and kids use it exclusively and lots of times it just doesn't go through. Real problem is that it Sends, never said it wasn't delivered, but it never gets to them.

I love Mail. It is very sleak. Entourage is cool. It changes lots of my spelling errors automatically, etc. And I use Office for so much it isn't funny. I love the Calendar, etc. I'll play with Thunderbird this weekend, just for the fun of it, but I always seem to drift back to Entourage.

Frank

Are you talking about Mail or Entourage in your first paragraph? If you're talking about Mail, then I understand it can't receive from your hotmail account, but i've never had any problems sending to hotmail accounts

 

[munkle]

For those wanting to use hotmail with mail.app, check out httpmail. It works fine for me, although some members have reported problems with trying to get it to work.

Of course a decent e-mail account would be the best solution

 

[fjs08]

>>Are you talking about Mail or Entourage in your first paragraph? If you're talking about Mail, then I understand it can't receive from your hotmail account, but i've never had any problems sending to hotmail<<

It's with Mail that I have problems sending hotmails. Not always, but enough to make it a pain. No problems either way, sending or receiving hotmail with Entourage, althought most of my e-mail is via .mac.
Frank

 

[DXoverDY]

If your users are not getting mail from Mail.app then either your ISP is some how on a spam list (it would either not go through at all, or it would show up in their junk folder) and other ISP's are actively blocking it. this isn't a mail.app issue, it sounds like an ISP issue to me. i would call them up or email and ask.

 

[fjs08]

>> your users are not getting mail from Mail.app then either your ISP is some how on a spam list (it would either not go through at all, or it would show up in their junk folder)<<

Strange thing is that 1) I never have problems from Entourage and both Mail and Entourage are from the same computer.

>>this isn't a mail.app issue, it sounds like an ISP issue to me. i would call them up or email and ask.<<

Never happens with Entourage. I had thought about your idea, but I doubt it's pure luck that it happens only when I use Mail. I haven't sent my wife an e-mail for 2 months now through Mail and she hasn't lost one that has been sent via Entourage. I may try again just to see what happens.

Frank

 

[AlBDamned]

I have to use entourage at work and I think it stinks. From UI to message alert to font capabilities to everything else.

Mail is a far superior and better looking program in every single respect,IMO, even with Mail 2.0's brash skin design (I really prefer Mail 1.0's look).

Entourage also lags behind the latest versions of PC Outlook on features (a la MSN Messenger for Mac). It reminds me of email programs from 2-3 years ago.

Not tried Thunderbird though.

 

[mkrishnan]

It's with Mail that I have problems sending hotmails. Not always, but enough to make it a pain. No problems either way, sending or receiving hotmail with Entourage, althought most of my e-mail is via .mac.
Frank

Do you use an SMTP server from your ISP? The way most SMTP servers work, you should be able to send from pretty much any address you want, legitimate or otherwise. That's really strange.

 

[Project]

Use Cage Fighter to get rid of those nasty pill icons in Mail 2.

 

[MisterMe]

I have to use entourage at work and I think it stinks. From UI to message alert to font capabilities to everything else.

Mail is a far superior and better looking program in every single respect,IMO, even with Mail 2.0's brash skin design (I really prefer Mail 1.0's look).

Entourage also lags behind the latest versions of PC Outlook on features (a la MSN Messenger for Mac). It reminds me of email programs from 2-3 years ago.

Not tried Thunderbird though.

Agreed. Entourage is the worst email client that I have ever used on any platform.

 

[AlBDamned]

Use Cage Fighter to get rid of those nasty pill icons in Mail 2.

It's not the icons though, it's the whole skin. It just seems such an unnecessary change from Mail 1.0 which is probably my favorite mail app of all time.

Entourage has nothing to recommend it other than most people will be familiar with the [crappy] look and various limitations.

 

[Vinnie_vw]

Entourage also lags behind the latest versions of PC Outlook on features (a la MSN Messenger for Mac). It reminds me of email programs from 2-3 years ago.

You are talking about Entourage, as part of MS Office for Mac 2004 versus Outlook, Ms Office for Windows 2003? Personally I think Entourage looks and works a lot sleaker than it's older counterpart.

On the other hand, I've grown tired of trying to sync my mails between my Mac and my PC... Give me a web-based client like Gmail any day, no more hassle, just the mail, thanks!

Oh and T-bird works great on the PC, I would guess/hope it's the same for Mac.

 

[Project]

It's not the icons though, it's the whole skin. It just seems such an unnecessary change from Mail 1.0 which is probably my favorite mail app of all time.

Entourage has nothing to recommend it other than most people will be familiar with the [crappy] look and various limitations.

True. Mail 1 looked very sexy, but there are features in Mail 2 I like, GUI wise. The unified title bar for instance, gives much more for the cursor to 'grab' onto than the previous small titlebar. It just generally looks more sleek and cleaner, as iTunes now does. But honestly with the Cage Fighter removing those pills, it looks great.

 

[bousozoku]

Thunderbird is quite good and since it's deployed on multiple platforms, it gets the best testing of any of the 3. The new version, 1.5, is coming along nicely and should be ready any time now.

Like Firefox, you can add extensions to it, though I've not searched for any. Early on, they didn't have a combined inbox for all accounts but they do now. I'd always used Claris em@iler and Eudora that way, so it's good to know that they've done some work to make it easier to use. Of course, it's great at HTML e-mail, plus it handles newsreader chores and RSS feeds. The latest version has plenty of support for phishing and spam and is actually better as a release candidate than the current production version.

 

[prophet621]

"Agreed. Entourage is the worst email client that I have ever used on any platform"

Worse than Outlook Express?!?

I don't have much experience with any mail app for OSX yet and I haven't tried Entourage yet. I did try Thunderbird for Windows and I assume it's basically the same on OSX but I really didn't like it. I was suprised that the same people who made a great browser like Firefox had also released Thunderbird. I doubt I'll ever give it another shot unless I hear they completely revamped it from the ground up.

I just added two new accounts to mail and so far I'm not that impressed but I'm still figuring it out. I use Eudora on Windows and I'm seriously considering getting it for my ibook as well, I'll download the free version and decide how well it works and whether or not to buy the full version. It does a much better job of handling the spam.

 

[bousozoku]

"Agreed. Entourage is the worst email client that I have ever used on any platform"

Worse than Outlook Express?!?

I don't have much experience with any mail app for OSX yet and I haven't tried Entourage yet. I did try Thunderbird for Windows and I assume it's basically the same on OSX but I really didn't like it. I was suprised that the same people who made a great browser like Firefox had also released Thunderbird. I doubt I'll ever give it another shot unless I hear they completely revamped it from the ground up.

I just added two new accounts to mail and so far I'm not that impressed but I'm still figuring it out. I use Eudora on Windows and I'm seriously considering getting it for my ibook as well, I'll download the free version and decide how well it works and whether or not to buy the full version. It does a much better job of handling the spam.

I got so tired of trying to read HTML e-mails in Eudora that I was glad when Eudora screwed up all my imported e-mail from years past and that I could just move to another client.

While Eudora is pretty much the same on any platform, the development staff spends more time whining about Apple than making the product work on Mac OS X. Thunderbird seems so much better to me.

 

[kwajo.com]

i never liked Thunderbird much, just something seemed unpolished about it that I didn't trust it with m y mail. I use Mail now, and I like now it is fast and simple, Entourage used to get used but I never installed it on my G5 and don't miss it at all

 

[AlBDamned]

You are talking about Entourage, as part of MS Office for Mac 2004 versus Outlook, Ms Office for Windows 2003? Personally I think Entourage looks and works a lot sleaker than it's older counterpart.

Yup. I know it's just twee features that Windows 2003 has over Mac:Office 2004, but, well - we're nearly in 2006... go figure.

Agreed. Entourage is the worst email client that I have ever used on any platform"

Worse than Outlook Express?!?

I don't have much experience with any mail app for OSX yet and I haven't tried Entourage yet.

Sort of. Mac Office obviously doesn't suffer from viruses and so on, but it still looks rubbish, feels rubbish (responses to mouse inputs etc etc).

True. Mail 1 looked very sexy, but there are features in Mail 2 I like, GUI wise. The unified title bar for instance, gives much more for the cursor to 'grab' onto than the previous small titlebar. It just generally looks more sleek and cleaner, as iTunes now does. But honestly with the Cage Fighter removing those pills, it looks great.

It does look a lot like iTunes. Same skin I guess. It's bold and sets the new standard for some Mac apps so of course it's trendsetting, but for general easy on the eye UI, I liked Mail App 1.0 and whatever iTunes it was before the current look (4.9?)

 

[fjs08]

Does anyone think that Apple will ever put iCal, Address Book, and Mail in one program. I'd love to use native Apple apps, and Mail is a great program. I do think iCal needs a lot more polish and I'd love to see it all within the framework of one program.

Frank

 

[prophet621]

I got so tired of trying to read HTML e-mails in Eudora that I was glad when Eudora screwed up all my imported e-mail from years past and that I could just move to another client.

While Eudora is pretty much the same on any platform, the development staff spends more time whining about Apple than making the product work on Mac OS X. Thunderbird seems so much better to me.

Is the HTML problem with OS X only because I don't have any problems with HTML in Windows. I haven't put it on my ibook yet, still giving mail a chance but Eudora does better with junk handling than any other mail app I've tried so far and I like the layout better than most. From my understanding, the developers are trying to get Eudora to really shine on OS X with the features of Tiger and converting the code to Cocoa.

My problems with Thunderbird was that it is just plain ugly, much like the Netscape mail client and it did a piss poor job with spam.

 

[bousozoku]

Is the HTML problem with OS X only because I don't have any problems with HTML in Windows. I haven't put it on my ibook yet, still giving mail a chance but Eudora does better with junk handling than any other mail app I've tried so far and I like the layout better than most. From my understanding, the developers are trying to get Eudora to really shine on OS X with the features of Tiger and converting the code to Cocoa.

My problems with Thunderbird was that it is just plain ugly, much like the Netscape mail client and it did a piss poor job with spam.

The HTML problem existed in Mac OS 8 and 9 for Eudora on Macintosh, as well. The people in tech support gave me some internal variables to change but it never worked properly for most of the e-mail. Even changing the size of the message window never helped--it just made it more interesting looking. Did Picasso do e-mail?

I can't imagine that you think that Eudora looks better than Thunderbird but, to each his own. I don't have a problem with the way it handles spam and the anti-phishing support is good although it's a little over-zealous at times. Training helps.

 

[MisterMe]

Does anyone think that Apple will ever put iCal, Address Book, and Mail in one program. I'd love to use native Apple apps, and Mail is a great program. I do think iCal needs a lot more polish and I'd love to see it all within the framework of one program.

Frank

The monolithic application paradigm is an artifact of a bygone era. There is simply no need to create a monolithic app with the functionality of iCal, Address Book, and Mail. You can leave all three apps open if you like. They work flawlessly together as it is. However, just because I want to add an address to Address Book doesn't mean that I want to schedule a meeting or email anyone.