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Preamble

A big thanks to Rick Moen's linux mafia MUAs list. Rick has explicitly granted permission to copy and modify his work.

I have gone through his list to not only absorb its contents but to check up on the links.

However, I have not checked up on the toolkit, language, license or features of any of these clients! I just did some surfing to learn if the project is alive or dead and I tried to update links.

Why bother to have a big list like this?

Well it does give an idea of just how much is actually out there, and the general life cycle of open source software. Just look at how many projects didn't made it to a 1.0 release. Ouch.

Also, programmers may want to check out the source for various programs to re-use or learn from existing code. That's why I re-listed the toolkit, language and features.

Tested

I'll eventually get around to adding my notes for these clients.

Tested but disliked clients are sent down to the bottom of this page.

Email clients to try

• [5] Alpine
  • Console
  • replaces Pine

• [6] Archimedes
  • Was XFMail
  • GTK
  • As of 2010-10-06, nothing has been released. Check back in later.

• [7] [8] Arrow
  • I'm not really sure what to make of this.

• [9] Balsa
  • Definitely one to test!
  • GTK+, C
  • Multiple character sets for reading/editing, spelling checker. Optional multi-threaded mail retrieval. Address book integrates with GnomeCard. Requires libESMTP, bonobo, GNOME libs. Supports POP3, IMAP (CRAM-MD5 and Kerberos/GSS), internal SMTP or local MTA, LDAP, SSL, GNOME features, mh, mbox, Maildir, nested mailboxes.
  • As of 2009-05-23, was balsa.gnome.org

• [10] Eudora OSE
  • XPToolkit, C++ - MPL
  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, S/MIME, filters, multiple identities, bayesian spam filters
  • [11] Penelope became this.

• [12] exmh / xmh
  • Tcl/Tk-based (exmh) or X toolkit (xmh), C - BSD-like licence
  • mh, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP, OpenPGP.
  • GNOME
  • Frontend for MH.

• [13] Mulberry
  • toolkit?, language? - license?
  • POP3, IMAP4, IMAP2bis, mbox, SMTP, OpenPGP, SSL
  • [14] Formerly from ISAMET, Inc., formerly Cyrusoft International, Inc., but bought back by author Cyrus Daboo, when that firm folded, and taken open source.

• [15] mutt
  • Console

• [16] rbmhshow
  • Ruby. Entangles nmh, less, gnupg, openssl, lynx, antiword and friends into a textual MIME mailreader with signature verification support.
  • MIME mail reader for the (N)MH mail environment system.

• [17] TkMail
  • Tcl/Tk
  • As of 2010-10-06 there is an old version and they're working on a rewrite to work with Tk4.0. Betas are supposedly available but the FTP referenced does not have a TkMail directory any longer.
  • This project may have died.

Disliked, Abandoned or Obsolete

• [?] Adora
  • Tcl/Tk - GNU GPL
  • SMTP, POP3, mbox
  • [18] was www.sover.net/~senecal/adora.html
  • [19] Unmaintained 2004-02-11 or earlier.

• [20] Aethera
  • Qt, C++ - GNU GPL
  • PIM (integrating with KOrganizer) and Personal Data Repository: e-mail, contacts, notes, tasks, TO-DOs, and journals. Does POP3, IMAP, SMS mail, SSL; supports multiple identities. Python-based scripting language. Plug-in interface: Optional proprietary Jabber and other plug-ins are available.
  • A big suite.
  • Aethera is the Kompany's fork of Magellan.

• [?] Aileron
  • WINGs, C - GNU GPL
  • POP, IMAP, mh
  • Formerly Aeleron
  • Inspired by (and closely emulates) NeXTStep's Mail.app
  • [21] Maintainer suggests using GNUMail.app instead of Aileron, since GNUStep is now sufficiently mature (rendering WINGs obsolescent).
  • was ucsu.colorado.edu/~nwanua/Aileron/

• [?] The AMC Mail Client
  • was faceprint.com/~axion/
  • GTK+, C++ - GNU GPL
  • Calls external POP3. Supports IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP software.
  • [22] This program never made it to 1.0.
  • [23] Abandoned between 2004-02-26 and 2004-03-20.

• [24] [25] Althea
  • GTK+, C++ - GNU GPL
  • IMAP, SSL
  • As of 2010-10-06, last updated 2002-01-22.

• [26] Applixware
  • This is a full suite that also has an email client.
  • Non-free.

• [27] [28] Chandler
  • GTK+/wxWidgets, Python - GNU GPL
  • Scheduling, Jabber instant messaging, RSS feeds, contact-management
  • A big fat suite.

• [29] CMC
  • GTK+, Perl - GNU GPL
  • mbox, fetchmail, SMTP via local MTA
  • Formerly Chaos Mail Checker
  • As of 2010-10-06 it's a pre-release alpha, last updated 2001-12-14. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] Columba
  • Java/AWT source and bytecode - GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP, mbox, SMTP, multiple accounts, filters, vFolders, multilanguage code, GNOME features
  • was columba.sourceforge.net and www.columbamail.org
  • [30] Abandoned some time after 2008-07-07.
  • [31] Definitely abandoned. This program never made it to 1.0.
  • See also http://www.ohloh.net/p/5616

• [32] Cronos II
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, APOP, SMTP, multiple accounts/mailboxes, filters, GNOME features, plug-ins
  • was www.cronosii.org
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2002-08-05. This program never made it to 1.0.

• CSCMail (CyberSpace Cowboy Mail)
  • GTK+, Perl/C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, mbox, Maildir, filters, multiple accounts, OpenPGP
  • [33] Died some time before 2006-04-04.

• [34] [35] EC
  • Tk, Perl - Perl Artistic Licence
  • POP3, filters. SMTP via smarthost
  • Supposedly as of 2007-12-18 it moved to http://pause.cpan.org but I can't find anything relevant there.

• [36] - ELM (Electronic Mail for UNIX)
  • C - Free-usage licence
  • mbox, SMTP
  • No longer maintained. ELM ME+ continues this project.

• [37] Eucalyptus
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, unlimited folders, addresses, filters. Can use internal or external viewer apps. Can use multiple POP servers
  • [38] As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2000-01-04. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [39] flap
  • Java source and bytecode - GNU GPL
  • IMAP, filters. Full-featured macro language (using BeanShell).
  • Requires proprietary Sun JRE 1.4 or above, or equivalent.
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2002-05-02. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [40] fruMailer
  • Versions for Perl and for Java/Swing - Perl Artistic Licence
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2002-04-11. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] gmail
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, GNOME addressbook, MySQL
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2003-09-12. This program never made it to 1.0.
  • Can be found at [41].
  • [42] No longer maintained.

• [43] GNUMail.app
  • GNUstep, Objective-C - GNU GPL
  • Reimplementation of NeXTStep's Mail.app.
  • Uses Pantomime Objective-C classes for mail-handling.
  • POP3, APOP, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, IMAP, mbox, OpenPGP, SSL, external calls to SpamAssassin and similar filters.
  • [44] As of 2010-10-08 the last release was 2007-02-05. Although there are release numbers past 1.0, everything after has been tagged "pre".. even though it's also listed as stable.

• [45] Grendel
  • Java/AWT-based - MPL
  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, LDAP, filters
  • Requires the proprietary Sun JRE 1.2 or later, or equivalent, and the proprietary Sun Javamail class library, JavaBeans Activation Framework, Java XML classes. Requires the NPLed Mozilla Java SDK, and the Apache-licensed ORO Matcher regex engine.
  • A rewrite of Netscape Mail/News.
  • As of 2005-05-04 maintained by R.J. Keller <rj.keller__beonex.com> and Kieran Maclean <kieran__eternal.undonet.com>.
  • I can't find any releases. This doesn't look active.
  • This program didn't make it to 1.0 as of the writing of (and according to): [46]

• [47] gtkmail
  • GTK+/gtkmm/gnomemm, C++
  • POP3, OpenPGP, SSL
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2001-08-20.

• [48] Harvester
  • GTK+, Perl
  • POP3, SMTP
  • A suite.
  • As of 2010-10-06 nothing has been released. The last project update was 1883 days before 2010-10-06, whenever the hell that was.

• ICEMail
  • Java/Swing source and bytecode - GNU GPL
  • Using the proprietary Sun JRE 1.2 or later, or equivalent, Sun Javamail class libraries and several other proprietary libraries.
  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP, mbox, mh
  • was www.icemail.org
  • [49] The last release was 2003-06.

• [50] Infusion
  • Qt, C++ - BSD-type licence and GNU GPL
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2001-09-11. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [51] ishmail
  • Motif/Lesstif, C++ - GNU GPL
  • IMAP, POP3, OpenPGP, mbox, mh, MMDF, external editors, regex searching/filtering, multiple identities
  • Was www.ishmail.com
  • [52] 1999-05-?? the project closed down.
  • [53] 2002-04-?? became ishmail.sourceforge.net
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2001-07-31.

• [54] JMail - GNU GPL
  • Java source and bytecode - GNU GPL
  • Requires the proprietary Sun JRE 1.4 or later, or equivalent, and the proprietary Sun Javamail class library and Java Application Framework Java bean.
  • POP3, SMTP, LDAP
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2003-12-16. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [55] KDE Personal Information Management
  • Magellan was absorbed into this project.
  • Magellan was Qt, C++ - GNU GPL. Maybe KDE Personal Information Management is too.

• [56] Kiltdown
  • Qt, C++ - GNU GPL
  • POP3, mbox, and SMTP
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last release was 2001-05-13. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [57] kmail
  • Qt, C++ - GNU GPL
  • POP3 (with various authentication mechanisms including CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5), APOP, IMAP, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, SSL/TLS, mbox, Maildir, OpenPGP, filters, multiple identities
  • Part of the KDE suite. Found within Kontact. Not available separately. Unimaginable bloat!

• [58] Liamail
  • Qt, C++ - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP
  • [59] Died between Jan 01, 2004-01-01 and 2004-04-02
  • The last release was 2002-08-07. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [60] Mahogany
  • GTK+/wxWidgets, C++/Python - GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP, mbox, mh, NNTP, PalmOS conduits, external editors, filters, incoming fax files
  • As of 2010-10-08 the last update was 2008-08-04 and the last release was 2006-08-01.
  • This program hasn't made it to 1.0.

• [?] Mailliam
  • Qt, C++ - GNU GPL
  • was www.mailliam.org and project.mailliam.org
  • [61] Went down between Apr 04, 2005 and Jun 06, 2005.
  • [62] [63] ~2005-04-04 it was a sourceforge project, but I cannot find it on SourceForge.

• [?] Pyne
  • GTK+, Python -- GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP4, mbox, mh, SMTP, NNTP, filtering, news and mail expiry, full news threading
  • was at www.moretom.net/pyne
  • Cached: [64]
  • This program never made it to 1.0.
  • Note that there is a port for maemo [65] (cell phones)

• [?] Sandmail
  • GTK+, C -- GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP
  • Cached: [66]
  • This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] Soapy Mailer
  • GTK+/wxPerl/wxGTK, Perl - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, multiple identities
  • was coding.soapy.ch, I'm unable to pull up an archive for it: [67]
  • This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] Soma (Stefan's Own Mail App)
  • XView, C - GNU GPL
  • mbox, SMTP
  • Can be found at [68]
  • [69] Unmaintained. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [70] Mama Mua
  • Tkinter, Python - Free-usage licence
  • IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2002-09-10. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] ML
  • Motif, C - BSD-like licence
  • POP3, IMAP, NNTP, mbox, local MTA
  • was smi-web.stanford.edu/projects/imap/ml/ and ftp.rge.com/pub/mail/ml/
  • [71] Unmaintained since 1996-03-30.
  • [72] Moved to home.netscape.com/people/max/ml/ which is also dead.

• [73] [74] MMC (My Mail Client)
  • GTK+, C++ - GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP
  • [75] As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2001-01-28. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [76] [77] nmh
  • This is a simple set of programs, generally meant to be used with frontends or scripts.

• [78] Oberon Mailtool
  • Linz V4 Oberon - Oberon License (BSD-ish)
  • SMTP, POP3. Hook for mail filters
  • [79] Looking at the FTP site, it doesn't look like it's been updated recently.

• [80] Paranox
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, SSL, OpenPGP, encrypted mailboxes and other files, multiple identities
  • "note that paranoy isn't yet usable!"
  • Last updated "02/04/2005" (whenever that was). This program never made it to 1.0.

• [81] Pine (Program for Internet News & Email)
  • The project has closed. It has been replaced by Alpine.

• [?] PMC
  • GTK+, Perl -- GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, filters, multiple identities, OpenPGP, MySQL
  • Was prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pmc and www.irs-net.com. Note that the name has been taken by another project on sourceforge.
  • [82] Looks like it was abandoned some time in early 2002. I can't tell if this program made it to 1.0, I doubt it.
  • [83] Was taken down between 2005-03-04 and 2005-12-04.

• [84] Polarbar Mailer (formerly J Street Mailer)
  • Java source and bytecode - Free-usage licence
  • POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, filters, OpenPGP, LDAP
  • As of 2010-10-06 it was last updated 2003-03-22.

• [85] Postilion
  • Tcl/Tk
  • POP3, IMAP, mh, OpenPGP -- GNU GPL, 3-clause BSD, and OpenContent licences
  • a clone of the NeXT Mail.app -- based on TkRat without multiple-language support.
  • Never had a 1.0 release. Last updated ~2000-02-05, no longer maintained.

• [86] Post Office
  • FLTK, C++
  • POP3, IMAP4, NNTP, GDBM database
  • Was maintained by Pim van Riezen, <pi__vuurwerk.nl> www.tarball.net/postoffice and ftp.vuurwerk.nl/pub/postoffice/
  • Mirrored here: [87]
  • Last updated 2000-06-03. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [88] Pronto!
  • GTK+, Perl - GNU GPL
  • POP3, APOP, mbox, Maildir, SMTP, vFolders (MySQL), multiple identities, OpenPGP, themes
  • [89] Last updated 2001-04-18.

• [90] Pygmy
  • GTK+, Python - GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP, multiple identities, external editors
  • As of 2010-10-06 the last update was 2002-07-12. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [91] [92] RAND MH Message Handling System
  • MH was originally developed by Bruce S. Borden at RAND Corporation
  • Then Marshall T. Rose and John L. Romine at the University of California, Irvine, Information and Computer Sciences department maintained it until 1997 when version 6.8.5 was released.
  • Was http://www.ics.uci.edu/~mh/ and I'm unable to retrieve an archive at [93]
  • Has been replaced by nmh, the "new MH" and GNU mailutils.

• [?] Sandmail
  • GTK+
  • [94] ~1998-10-25 maintained by Kemal 'Disq' Hadimli <disq__iname.com>
    • [95] artemis.efes.net/disq/sandmail
  • [96] [97] then disq.bir.net.tr/sandmail ~2000-10-02.
  • [98] ~2000-06-03 maintained by Jens Askengren <jensus__ebox.tninet.se>
    • [99] user.tninet.se/~wlj948f/sandmail/
  • [100] ~2001-06-08 maintained by Jens Askengren <dat98jas__ludat.lth.se>
  • [101] Apparently abandoned 2001-06-08 or earlier.

• [102] Spruce
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, IMAP, mbox, external mail utilities, OpenPGP, filters
  • As of 2010-10-06, last updated 2002-02-25.

• [103] SQmail
  • Gnome, Python, MySQL - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, vFolders, single-click reporting to Spamcop. Requires gnome-python and the mail-lock and mail-unlock utilities
  • As of 2010-10-10 the last release was 2001-04-19. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [104]? Stuphead
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, NNTP AUTH. Good multilanguage and character set support, but primarily of interest to Russian language speakers, as much of the docs are in Russian.
  • Forked from the Sylpheed project.
  • As of 2010-10-10 I was unable to verify the website. Their servers were down.
  • [105] Looks like the last update was 2001-06-19. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [106] Sylpheed
  • GTK+, C - GNU GPL
  • POP3, APOP, IMAP4rev1, mh, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, NNTP, SSL/TLS, OpenPGP, external editors, filtering, muliple identities. Good multilanguage and character set support.
  • Essentially replaced by Claws Mail.

• [107] Teak
  • GTK+, PHP (no, seriously) - GNU GPL
  • IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, multiple identities.
  • As of 2010-10-10 the last update was 2002-07-24. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] tkmr
  • Tcl/Tk/C
  • Read-only mail browser only. - Free-usage licence.
  • [108] Very old, unmaintained.
  • Can be found at [109]

• [110] TkRat
  • Tcl/Tk/C - Free-usage licence
  • POP3, APOP, IMAP, mbox, mh, filters event notifiers virtual folders, OpenPGP, multilanguage code.
  • Simple and ugly.
  • Last release was 2006-01-18. This program has made it past 1.0, but the TkRat mailing list is gone: www.tkrat.org/pipermail/tkrat/
  • Formerly named Ratatosk.

• [111] TradeClient
  • GTK+, C - GNU LGPL
  • POP3, IMAP, mbox, SMTP, LDAP, filters, multiple identities. Includes calendar/PIM.
  • As of 2010-10-10 the last release was 2001-03-22. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [112] [113] VM (View Mail)
  • Emacs

• [114] Wanderlust
  • Emacs

• [115] XCmail
  • Xclasses, C++ - GNU GPL
  • POP3, mbox, SMTP, filters/vfolders, OpenPGP, multiple identities
  • [116] As of 2010-10-06, last updated 2002-09-29.
  • [117] As of 2010-10-06, CVS was last updated 2004-09-30.

• [?] XFMail
  • XForms, C++/C - GNU GPL and GNU LGPL
  • was www.xfmail.org
  • Possibly became xfmail.slappy.org
  • POP3, IMAP, mbox, mh, SMTP, SMTP AUTH, LDAP, OpenPGP, filters, external editors.
  • [118] Misfeatures: setting X-Priority header on sent mail, failing to override Reply-To address when forwarding.
  • This project has been closed and it's code has been ported to Archimedes.

• [119] Ximian
  • Some odd suite.
  • Was from Helixcode, Inc. then Ximian, Inc. and now it has been absorbed into SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

• xmail
  • X toolkit, C - BSD-like licence with advertising clause.
  • mbox, SMTP
  • Simple X11 front-end to the system "mail" primitive.
  • [120] Unmaintained.
  • Can be found at [121] and [122]

• YAMM (Yet Another Mail Manager)
  • Not to be confused with the Amiga program YAM.
  • Java/AWT source and bytecode - GNU GPL
  • Requires proprietary Sun JRE 1.3 or above (or compatible)
  • POP3, SMTP, multiple identities.
  • was www.gjt.org/%7Efredde/yamm/
  • [123] The last release was 2003-10-01. This program never made it to 1.0.

• YPMail.app
  • WINGs, C - GNU GPL
  • [124] The website was abandoned between 2007-01-11 and 2007-02-07
  • [125] The last release was 2000-03-26. This program never made it to 1.0.

• [?] zmail
  • text/tty or curses or Motif/Lesstif, written in C - Apache Public License 2.0
  • POP3, SMTP, mbox
  • [126] Was originally proprietary code from from NetManage, Inc., which permitted author Dan Heller to re-release it.
  • For integration with Eclipse
  • [127] and [128]
  • [129] Was www.zclipse.org/projects/zmail/, but after 2007-06-10 it disappeared.
  • [130] Never made it past alpha.

Linux Usenet Newsreaders

• [131] Canto

• [132] Agile RSS

• [133] Blam!

• [134] Feed'N'Read

• [135] Feedisto

• [136] gfeed

• [137] Grr.app

• mutt

• [138] Newsbeuter

• [139] Newsfeed

• [140] MH-E
  • Emacs frontend to MH.

• [141] Raggle

• [142] RSS Mix Tape

• [143] rss2email

• [144] rsstail
  • Console utility. Could be really cool!

• [145] Snownews

• [146] Straw

• [147] Syndigator

• Thunderbird
  • Doesn't do it natively but it ought to have a plugin somewhere..

Notes

#!/bin/sh
footstart="_______________________________________________________________"
footend="REMOVE THIS FOOTER FROM YOUR QUOTES"
sed -e "/$footstart/,/$footend/d"