REVIEWS Suites

YOU’VEKMail, Evolution, Thunderbird, and Claws GOT MAIL Jürgen Acker, photocase.com

We examine the strengths and weaknesses of four popular mail clients: (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). BY MIRKO ALBRECHT KMail, Evolution, Thunderbird, and . The ability to communicate with a se- lected user group via mailing lists is also n early challenge of the Internet Whether you use mail at the office or useful. Mail clients should support this pioneers was to find a way to at home, spam is a major concern. In by providing appropriate functions. On a Asend small text across fact, the bulk of all mail traffic is unso- modern desktop, the ability of a system a network. Despite criticism that sending licited advertising, and important mes- to integrate seamlessly is a major usabil- snippets of text was “not an important sages easily disappear into the black ity factor, and an essential application motivation for a network of scientific hole of the spam filter. Current mail cli- like a mail should have intuitive ” [1], email quickly became ents need a simple, flexible, reliable way controls. Also, a full-fledged address one of the world’s most important forms to filter spam. book or the ability to integrate an exist- of communication. Some users also like to en- The simple console-based text pro- crypt messages to provide protection GLOSSARY grams used by those Internet pioneers against sniffing or to have a digital sig- would never work today. Modern email nature to validate the sender. PIM: Personal Information Manager. clients must contend with new irritants The increased volume of mail traffic that manages personal data and documents such as contacts, ap- such as spam, intrusion, and skyrocket- makes effective sorting mechanisms es- pointments, tasks, notes, email, and ing volumes of email traffic. sential. At the same time, most users the like. have more than one account and may Sweeter Suites : A storage format for email where use their accounts for completely differ- all messages are stored in a large file. Email clients have evolved into elaborate ent purposes, but they still might want : Directory structure for storing suites that fulfill the user’s every wish. to read the mail from the same interface. in which each message is stored This article compares four popular email Any measure of a mail client is its sup- in a separate file. tools for environments. port for popular mail protocols, such as

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Figure 2: The simple wizard takes most of the headaches out of setting up an email account in KMail.

vate). A dialog will prompt you to first enter a name and possibly the name of your organization, which it then adds to your email correspondence. The remaining tags are for configuring Figure 1: Freely selectable folder structures for managing multiple identities and intelligent your identity. For example, you can set filter rules keep KMail tidy. up an existing GPG key in to attach the key to your messages and ing address book makes life easier for program window. The wizard does not specify a valid signature for the identity the user. offer presets for popular providers such you are configuring. as GMX or Google Mail. KMail The Settings | Configure KMail entry Advanced KMail [2] is part of the popular KDE gives you access to the client’s compre- In the area below Advanced, you can de- desktop (Figure 1). The software has hensive configuration options. fine the storage location for the Sent, been assigned a new release number to Besides the ability to create accounts Templates, and Drafts folders, and this is match the new desktop version; the lat- with different providers, KMail also lets also where you modify message tem- est version when this issue went to print you set up various identities, which is plates in the Templates . Check the was 1.9.8 (on KDE 3.5.7). useful if you want to separate private Use Custom Templates box and modify The software is not just an integrated communications from business mail the text for Reply to Sender, for example. KDE system component, but also part of (Figure 3). The Insert command button helps you KDE’s PIM solution, , which also add field commands for these templates. includes a , an address book, Identify Yourself The Image tab includes a gimmick: a calendar, an RSS reader, and a task To add an identity, click Add in Identities KMail will transmit a monochrome manager, all with a standardized GUI. and enter a name for your new identity photo or logo of 48x48 pixels along with KMail is also available as a standalone (e.g., Google Mail business, GMX pri- the message. application. When you launch the program for the first time, a wizard pops up to help you set up a mail account (Figure 2). As a user, you simply supply your name, mail address, and provider’s addresses, and up comes the traditional three-panel

KMail Overview The score in the overview shows the rating out of a possible total of 5. Usability/ system integration AAAAA Configurability AAAAA Filtering AAAAA POP account management AAAAA Security GPG/HTML AAAAB Spam filter AAAAA Mailing lists AAAAA Address book/contacts AAAAA Figure 3: KMail gives users many options in configuration dialogs.

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As a genuine KDE program, KMail in- tegrates seamlessly with the system, as long as you have KDE. An icon in the will notify you of incoming mail, if so desired. Many major programs, in- cluding OpenOffice, offer to integrate KMail as the default and will pop up a message window with an address in it as needed. KAddressbook leaves little to be de- sired with respect to input options, and it also collaborates nicely with other low-level applications such as (IM) or (IRC client). Evolution Evolution [3] is to Gnome and other Gtk- based environments as KMail is to KDE. Figure 4: Evolution is not available as a single email client, but as a complete PIM suite. This said, Evolution is not part of a PIM suite – it is a PIM suite (Figure 4). Be- Unfortunately, most mail programs If you do not know what kind of secu- sides email functionality, Evolution of- just ignore the free gift. rity your provider offers, you can press fers contacts, appointments, tasks, and Check server capabilities. It makes sense notes. The program does not let you Configuring Access to take a closer look at the versatile con- switch off the additional features and The Accounts tab lets you set up your figuration dialogs in KMail at least once. just use the mail client. The application mail accounts. KMail can access local Many of the functions take you to intelli- is thus fairly cluttered from an overdose mailboxes, Mbox and Maildir boxes, gent tools that can help take the head- of menu entries. IMAP servers, and POP servers, which aches out of daily mail handling if you will be used by most users. As a user, get them set up right. Evolution Identity you can specify whether to keep mes- Creating an account in Evolution is just sages on the server or have KMail delete Security as easy as in KMail; although users only messages on the server after retrieving. From a security point of view, KMail is have one identity, they can set up multi- Also, you can specify how long to keep state of the art. Click on Security in the ple accounts for it. To compensate for messages on the POP server. setup dialog to integrate your GnuPG key this drawback, you can assign different You can define up front how often and use keys provided by other contacts, names and organizations to the same KMail will attempt to retrieve new mail, and you can specify whether to use a identity. The program does not let you which target folder messages for the ac- key automatically or on request only. use different templates for different ac- count will use, and what message size to Also, it is just as easy to set up how counts, however. reject. The Tools tab gives you access to KMail will handle suspicious HTML mail You can enter a signature, although secure access methods. in the Read tab. You can opt to view the the function is slightly hidden, in Edit | mail or download linked content off the Preferences | Composer preferences | Sig- TIP: KMail in web. Security-conscious users will want natures. If you enter multiple signatures To use KMail in Firefox for frequent to avoid “features” of this kind. for different situations, you need to se- mailto links, enter about:config in the lect the right signature on the right of the browser’s address box. Then right-click Antispam and Antivirus Compose window. Other settings for anywhere in the window to drop down KMail has two useful wizards for inte- email are fairly uncomplicated, although the menu and select New | String. In the grating antivirus and antispam pro- first dialog field, type network.proto- grams; both links are located in the Tools Evolution Overview col-handler.app.mailto and then menu. KMail will automatically search The score in the overview shows the kmailservice. The changes are applied for installed software, such as Spam- rating out of a possible total of 5. when you relaunch the browser. Assassin or Clam Antivirus, and set up Usability/ System integration AAAAB your preferred tool. Users decide what to Configurability AAABB GLOSSARY do with infected or cleaned messages. Filtering AAAAB SMTP-after-POP: Mail transmission KMail’s filtering technology is useful – POP account management AAAAB the drop-down menu that appears when security mechanism wherein the sender Security GPG/ HTML AAAAA transmits POP3 credentials to the mail you right-click a message lets you filter Spam filter AAAAB server. After doing so, the user has a messages quickly by subject, sender, and Mailing lists AAAAA predefined window of time in which to receiver, and the dialog that follows adds Address book/ contacts AAAAB use SMTP for sending messages. more rules.

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Fonts and color vate life (Figure 5). Evolution integrates highlighting in mail seamlessly with Gnome, but it lacks a can be set in a sepa- fast control via an icon in the kicker. In- rate menu. Just like coming mail is announced by a beep or KMail, Evolution has a sound file of your choice, and you will the dubious ability to need to install an add-on such as a compose HTML mail. Gkrellm plugin to count the number of You can remove incoming mail messages without shifting unsolicited mail by the focus to the program window. clicking the Junk button to tell Evolu- Collaboration tion to move the What Evolution can do is collaborate message to your junk with other popular Gnome applications, mail folder. such as or Planner, for advanced contact management. Evolution can also Filtering handle Usenet newsgroups. To set up a Evolution also inte- server, you need to access the fairly un- grates SpamAssassin intuitive-sounding Edit | Preferences | as a plugin. Filter Email accounts menu item, launch the Figure 5: Evolution’s contact management tool has a professional rules are easy to setup wizard, and select Usenet News feel. create via the drop- instead of a mail protocol. This sets up down menu for a a new folder in the folder bar on the they do not offer anything like the scope message, and you can set up mailing left of the program window. of KMail. For example, you can easily set lists in Messages | Mailing lists. up things like the keep-for duration on The address book is a useful compo- Thunderbird the server, SMTP-after-POP, HTML mail nent. The developers have integrated ev- The Thunderbird mail client [4], which handling, and many other things. erything you need for business and pri- is developed by the Mozilla project, feels N8EKKFBEFN N?8KÊJLGE

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just like the other contenders. The pro- gram window (see Figure 7) displays links to the software’s main components when you click Local folder, for easy ac- cess to software configuration options. Multiple Identities Thunderbird allows users to set up mul- tiple identities, and the program stores all settings, such as the use of signatures and certificates, or storage paths, sepa- rately for each account. The features for processing and creat- ing filter rules are pretty much on a par with the other candidates. Although the drop-down menu does not have an entry for this, selecting a Figure 6: Numerous themes are available online that let users customize Thunderbird to message will enable the Message | Create reflect their own tastes. filter from message item. The dialog that then appears lets you filter by address, sender, subject , and other parame- ters, like the other candidates, as well as move messages to another folder, delete, or copy. Filtering Thunderbird’s filtering options are many and more granular than those offered by Evolution. Unfortunately, the program expects users to organize mailing lists by applying filter rules to identities. In our lab, we were unable to find a convenient solution like the one offered by KMail. Thunderbird on Linux also lacks the Figure 7: A tidy page welcomes Thunderbird users to critical configuration options. ability to iconize the program and pop it back up on screen when you need to at home on various platforms and Of course, it is debatable how true read or compose a message. also supports the Windows Linux fans would respond to Vista-style The email client will also work as the OS, unlike the other candidates. This window dressing (Figure 6), but the nu- default mail client on KDE by checking would allow admins to handle email merous extensions, which many users Use other email program: and entering communications in a standardized way will be familiar with from the Firefox thunderbird in the KDE control center’s on Linux and Windows. Thunderbird project [5], are definitely a good thing. Default programs | Email program sec- even gives you central profile data and One of the most popular extensions is tion. To let Firefox talk to Thunderbird, email management. The software also , which you has a special approach to extensibility can use to import PGP with themes and extensions. keys from key servers or to sign messages Thunderbird Overview with your own keys. The score in the overview shows the Other extensions rating out of a possible total of 5. add useful tools. For Usability/ System integration AAAAB example, one exten- Configurability AAABB sion retrieves new Filtering AAAAA messages while send- POP account management AAAAA ing messages waiting in the queue. Security GPG/HTML AAAAB Newcomers will be Spam filter AAAAA happy to hear that Mailing lists AAABB Thunderbird has a Figure 8: Thunderbird offers users a configuration tool in typical Address book/contacts AAABB friendly setup wizard, Firefox style…

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scheme with icons Yamamoto, continues to gain ground on and tabs, like the its competitors and attract fans. The de- one used with veloper’s is to create a lean and sta- Firefox. This said, ble mail client that still offers a sufficient the program itself feature scope. is fairly intuitive. The dubbed a separate What users really development branch with new features appreciate is the in- and plugins Claws. Claws tegrated, self-teach- forked off the main project and is now ing spam filter. The under separate development. settings in Tools | In November 2006, the developers Junk Filter are sim- renamed the software Claws Mail [7], ply used to tell the to prevent confusion between the pro- program what to do grams. Just as in Evolution, Claws Mail with any spam it is based on the Gtk toolkit and runs on detects. You can Linux and other Unix derivatives, Win- then start to sort in- dows, and Mac OS X systems. coming mail. Junk At first glance, Claws Mail doesn’t mail is tagged by se- offer anything unique. The email client Figure 9: …while retaining a legacy “table of contents” approach to lecting and clicking keeps the classical three-pane layout by setting up accounts. on the trash can default (see Figure 10), and like KMail, icon with the Junk it supports a three-column view, which if you haven’t already set this up, follow label. As the filter self-teaches, it will you can configure in View | Layout | the same procedure as in the TIP box for achieve an excellent spam-detection rate. 3 Columns. A glance at the program’s KMail, but type thunderbird instead of The integrated address-management configuration options reveals a flood of kmailservices this time. tool will store personal data reliably and options for what was originally rather Thunderbird is highly configurable, even create multiple addressbooks if lean software. but also slightly confusing. For example, needed, but KAddressbook is more ver- Besides the usual suspects that all four users will find configuration options in satile and professional. This said, Thun- email candidates offer, exemplary setup no less than three menu items Folder derbird’s offering is fine for private con- options for multiple mail accounts (with properties, Accounts, and Preferences, all tacts and more. Just like Evolution, separate options for each each account) of which reside below Edit and handle Thunderbird has newsreader capabilities are located in Configuration | Settings in different aspects (Figures 8 and 9). Ac- that are intuitive and sufficient for most Claws, along with a plethora of options counts are set up using a classical dialog Usenet applications. for composing, sending, and receiving in which you select topics on the left and mail messages. see the options on the right. In contrast The Mail Claw to this, the generic Preferences option Although it still seems slightly exotic, Powerful Filtering takes you to a horizontal selection Sylpheed [6], a mail client by Hiroyuki Numerous message view options and a superior overview for handling multiple accounts make the software more easily customizable. What we particularly liked were the powerful filter functions, al- though they were slightly tricky to use (see Figure 11). The Configuration | Filtering option takes you to the dialog. Enter a name for

Sylpheed Claws Overview The score in the overview shows the rating out of a possible total of 5. Usability/System integration AAABB Configurability AAAAB Filtering AAAAB POP account management AAAAB Security GPG/HTML AABBB Spam filter AAABB Mailing lists AAABB Address book/contacts ABBBB Figure 10: Claws Mail provides a lean alternative to the three Linux mail global players.

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Figure 12: Claws Mail has much ground to gain. The current version has only rudimentary functionality.

Unfortunately, usable address book, simple integration Claws Mail does of GPG, and a spam filter; however, Figure 11: The powerful filtering tool in Claws Mail lets users set up not integrate well, remember that Claws also is the only rules based on numerous presets. which is probably project that does not have massive due to the number corporate support. the filter rule and specify the action in of platforms it supports. As for the other three candidates, the dialog that then follows. The client also lacks a couple of func- there’s no clear winner and your choice Just as in KMail, right-clicking a mes- tions, such as a tray icon (which you can is likely to be driven by your mail re- sage lets users filter on the basis of the download as a plugin.) quirements and personal preferences. data in the message. The difference be- Also, there are plugins for integrating Above all, the high level of system in- tween the Create Filter Rule and Create SpamAssassin and for managing GPG tegration provided by KMail and Evolu- Processing Rule in the drop-down list is keys. After loading a plugin, the options tion on KDE or Gnome, respectively, not entirely apparent. Both take you to become available in the generic settings gives both of these programs an advan- the same dialog. below Plugins. tage on their home desktops. Gnome The address book is currently fairly users are hardly likely to choose KMail, Plugins and Tools spartan (Figure 12); it has fields for a and vice versa, although users do have Features Claws Mail doesn’t offer out of name, a nickname, and the mail address, the option. the box can be added as plugins or tools although you can add more information Thunderbird takes the lead on exten- ( scripts); this lets users set up an in the Name and Value fields. sibility, themes, and cross-platform import filter for KAddressbook or a PDF support. I viewer for mail attachments, for exam- Conclusions ple. Plugins are loaded via Configuration All four mail clients fulfill the require- INFO | Plugins and clicking on Load Plugin. ments for a modern mail program, al- [1] Email history: The green link get more opens a browser though Claws Mail lags a bit behind the http:// en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ showing the online repository [8]. other three options. Claws Mail lacks a Email#Origin [2] KMail: http:// kontact. . org/ kmail/ Installation and Versions [3] Evolution: Distribution packages are available for for packages. Besides the claws-mail http:// www. . org/ projects/ all four programs. KMail is a KDE com- package, you will also need to install evolution/ ponent and will be pre-installed on most claws-mail-extra-plugins. The deve- [4] Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.com/ KDE-based distributions, and the same lopers currently have version 3.0.1 up en-US/thunderbird/ applies to Evolution on Gnome. The PIM for grabs, although the packages with [5] Thunderbird add-ons: application is the default mail client on some distributions may not be at this https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/ Ubuntu, for example. The program ver- level. thunderbird sions depend on how recent your desk- You can download a packed binary [6] Sylpheed: top is. KDE has currently reached version of Thunderbird from the project website http:// sylpheed. sraoss. jp/ en/ number 3.5.7, while Gnome is at 2.20. [5] or use your distribution’s package The last stable Evolution release is ver- management system. Current Linux [7] Claws Mail: sion 2.10.3. distributions are unlikely to do without http:// www. claws-mail. org When looking for Claws Mail packages, Thunderbird and Firefox packages. [8] Plugins for Claws Mail: make sure you do not confuse them Thunderbird is currently at version http:// www. claws-mail. org/ plugins. with Sylpheed packages. Current 2.0.0.3. Users of the desktop php versions of both forks are available for search engine can set up beagle-thun- [9] Claws Mail from Packman: most major distributions. For example, derbird, which lets them sniff through http:// packman. links2linux. de/ SUSE users can turn to Packman [9] their mailboxes for information. package/ claws-mail

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