Email Client for Linux

Hello to all my fellow Linux users! I wanted to ask what everyone uses for their email clients. I do use a mix of Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Fedora, but the two devices I daily use Ubuntu and Fedora.
Main goal is to integrate into one place to catch up and read all my emails, connect my Nextcloud Calendar and manage my address book.
Email providers used is ProtonMail and Gmail…which I’m in the process of phasing out over time.

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Thunderbird is probably the most popular. Works with gmail.

Sylpheed / CLAWS are good.

Evolution was always too slow.

Besides that, there’s KMail and console mail like mutt.

For ProtonMail, you probably need to download and run the “Proton Mail Bridge” locally as well.

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I do use Kmail on my Dell Laptop running Fedora and also have ProtonMail Bridge installed as well. I’m just looking for peoples opinions on everything before I seal the deal.

A little biased as I’m working for Thunderbird now, and using it… Good stuff so far for me :slight_smile:

Luckily you have the freedom to try out all the options.

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Thunderbird is the client I use for the past almost 2 years.

And I’m glad I’ve gotten away from Microsoft’s products!

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It has been years since I used Thunderbird, how has it been? Probably last used near 2012 if I remember correctly.

Coming from someone who uses ms outlook for years … different. Don’t think the ui is as polished as it could be but it’s a fair trade for a more open standard than office .pst files!

I’ve been using Thunderbird for the last couple years (again) as well. Really like it, especially appreciate the RSS reader built in.

I still like Evolution. The Fedora implementation has GNOME Contacts and GNOME Calendar reference Evolution, so it is well integrated into Fedora. I haven’t really felt its “slowness” as @rcxb has pointed out (are you on Ubuntu, perhaps?).

I tried Geary but I need more for my email client. I also don’t like how they handle my email as “threads”.

I want to like Thunderbird but somehow it is not growing on me. Maybe I like GNOME too much?

Thunderbird is a buggy behemoth I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to get away from. It’s dangerously bad, to the point that it occasionally stops fetching mail without notifying me, which leads to not seeing mail until it’s too late.

Unfortunately I haven’t found a good replacement yet. I’m looking for something GUI(not web)-based, modern, lightweight, not tightly integrated with the desktop environment and its services, with support for calendar and address book synced to Nextcloud. Claws Mail came closest, but fails at the latter requirement.

Frustrating :face_exhaling:

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I started with Thunderbird as it seems to be the most common for Linux and I had used it in the past. But after some issues with it I moved to Betterbird, which is basically a bugfixed version of Thunderbird

Provider is Fastmail for the last couple years and I have been happy with it.

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Most folks in your spot go with Thunderbird - it handles multiple accounts (including Proton via Bridge), hooks into system calendars, and works fine on Ubuntu/Fedora. Evolution’s another option if you’re deep in GNOME, but it’s heavier.

I’m using Thunderbird too. Trusty and barely changing just-works slim E-mail client.

I see the appeal in using web-based clients. But with changing providers and different addresses, I prefer simplicity and familiar and simple software for everything throughout multiple accounts and more than a decade by now.

I’ve used thunderbird for many years. Mostly happy.
But when I upgraded to Ubuntu 24.04 it broke. They went from an apt package to a snap package, and it wouldn’t import my address book, folders, or old email properly.

Had to resort to using the apt version from 22.04.

More on this here

This is the same issue I had years ago. It would stop receiving emails on accounts and make no notification of that. It largely was the reason I moved away from it over a decade ago.

Not that anyone asked this but the protonmail bridge is an effective intra-lan relay for e.g pfsense or truenas to email notifications to oneself.

It’s possible to configure thunderbird to be more or less like outlook, which I hate (stockholm syndrome), and just to note in general, that the plugin Owl for Office365 for 365 does work and makes it viable for what is in my case work email.

I should perhaps if setting up from new use the protonmail app, but I like KDE and realistically for personal email, just use a web browser in a VM.

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A very dull answer - the fastmail web UI.

If I used an app it would probably be within emacs (mu4e? gnus?). In the past I’ve used mutt which was quite good.

Thunderbird is a bit of a dubious choice for me, https://www.cvedetails.com/product/3678/Mozilla-Thunderbird.html?vendor_id=452 is a little too exciting for me to feel good about it, email seems to be where I get the bulk of malicious content (scams etc) and a very easy entry point into organisations.

The UI is gimped in webmail, but the security story is quite good. If I was contributing to any projects that involved emailing patches webmail would not be an option.

If you are looking for options. ( I am more of a terminal guy) I found this great little email client called aerc

I have been using it for a few months now. it may not be what you are looking for. but for a lightweight email client through terminal. it does get the job done.

Linky here for project if you want to read up on it.

https://aerc-mail.org/

That’s an interesting tip. I to use both TrueNAS and PFsense myself. I do want to try out Debian for my server stuff when I build my new server.

I want to use it similarly but I read someone online tried this and talked to Proton support - this is not a supported use case for some reason. I havent personally reached out to Proton support if they still have the same belief today.