eM Client

[NJW]

I use emClient as an intermediate stage for exporting from difficult (mail) clients to something more universal. I generally offer Thunderbird as first choice, falling back to emClient in case of user problems – I only have one client who needed that.

Out-of-the-box Thunderbird has lots of weird preference choices as default, but it's not difficult to make it work in a sane manner: default listing in reverse date order; open messages in windows instead of tabs; reuse existing windows; automatic folder compacting; etc. Using Thunderbird myself makes it much easier to support.

 

[Larry Sabo]

+1, from another TB aficionado. It just works perfectly for me.

 

[Diggs]

Thunderbird could sure improve its default configuration though. As I mentioned earlier, the pop-up asking to compact folders confuses all but a few. Also - What's with the crappy initial button selection? No delete, reply or forward button set as default? You have to dig them out and put them up on the toolbar yourself? We know to do that but most casual users don't. Mozilla hasn't shown much interest in Thunderbird lately but they also haven't been listening.

 

[NJW]

No delete, reply or forward button set as default?

Default installation, on Windows at least, has Reply, Reply All, Forward, Junk and Delete (plus More with all the rest) right there at the top of both the preview pane and a message window.

Mozilla hasn't shown much interest in Thunderbird lately but they also haven't been listening.

Mozilla has nothing to do with Thunderbird any more, beyond hosting its web presence and providing a legal home. All the development is community effort, afaik. Fortunately, there are some reasonably big players invested in Thunderbird and several core add-ons, so there is still quite a lot of love for it.

 

[kurros]

Just noticed they also have a re-seller program. Could be beneficial if you are considering this setup for several clients.

The reseller program is 35% margin for balance loads under $400 (they use a pre-load credits system). It's pretty good.