There are so many options when it comes to email for a mac user. Having used a few of those options for an extended period of time, I wanted to share my thoughts. My email options are limited by a few factors. Server Side email is the way I roll. I’m on the move so often that I need access to my email anywhere, no matter what machine I gain internet access on. For a long time I have used Dreamhost as my web wost and email provider. However in the last few months I have moved all my email to another location, I will talk more about this later. Since email is such a large topic, I thought that I would break this post into parts.
So the most obvious email client to use as a mac user to use is Mail.app. So I wanted to start there. First I feel the need to clarify something. That is email clients have a similar expectation to internet browsers. There are so many “required” features, if I was to focus on every feature or failure this would be a 100 page post. I want to list of few things I enjoy and a few things I have issues with Mail.
What I enjoy about Mail.app
- True Mac Application
- Look and Feel of OS X
- AddressBook Integration
True Mac Application:
Cocoa applications are awesome. There are some many little features that come with using Cocoa that this can be easily forgotten. Features like spell check, drop and drag to attached files, move text from across applications, Spotlight Search, and more. I could try to come up with a complete list, but I would forget something. All of this though makes Mail a better experience.
Look and Feel of OS X:
I probably could have combined this with the above point, but I felt it deserved a point all on its own. Mac applications have a familiar interface. Mail has a slightly different look with the icons on the tool bar. Other than that it’s much like other mac applications. The way Mail works is exactly how you would expect it too, and I like that. I don’t want to learn an interface if I don’t have too. I can just use the application, with little learning curve required.
AddressBook Integration:
I use AddressBook for many different applications. AddressBook syncs with my phone from iSync, it can be used in Pages to fill fields, and used in iChat to show names of people instead of screen names. Having everyones emails in AddressBook is also very convenient. I don’t what to manage multiple address lists. If I have to add or change a contact, I would have to do it in multiple locations. With Mail having AddressBook intergrated into the application, it makes life easy.
Issues I have with Mail.app
- Speed, slow downs when changing folders and fetching email from server
- Lack of built in horizontal/widescreen view
- No Shortcut keys to move mail from inbox to folders
- Junk Mail Filter doesn’t work well
- Can’t Add Email Aliases that you don’t have create an inbox for
- Doesn’t work well with Gmail IMAP Service
Speed:
Mail is not very fast when using IMAP. I did a rough benchmark to prove my point. So I cleared the cache in Mail and relaunched the application. As soon as Mail became visible I started the timer. Then stopped the timer as soon as 6000+ message folder became filled with messages. The time came to 3 minutes and 6 seconds. This is just the headers to the email in the folder too. Emails are still being completely cached to Mail at this point. A second test I did was with my inbox. It is bout 200 messages and it took about 17 seconds to load. Most the time, all I want to do is read my new messages in inbox. Waiting 17 seconds when in a hurry can seem like forever.
To give a little more information about the benchmark. I’m using a DSL connection where I can download files via http at a rate around 400 kilobits per second. To preform this benchmark I had all the settings in place in Mail.app. Then closed the application. While Mail was closed, I deleted all the cache files under ~/Library/Mail/. From there I launched Mail and the folders begin to repopulate from the server. I will admit that the Mail client does have to download some extra information from the server that in normal use, it would not have to do. However, if the times are doubled because of this, it’s still slow.
Widescreen:
Wide pane view is a fixable problem with a plugin. However this is not a built in feature of Mail. The Mail plugin system is not officially supported and The fix comes in the form of a unofficial mail plugin called WideMail. It’s not the most elegant solution, but it does work. Every so often, like when upgrading to Leopard, I had to wait for this plugin to work for Mail’s newest version. With no official API, Mail plugins are not reliable.
Shortcut Keys:
If you have used gmail before and learned many of the shortcut keys it’s really hard to find a client that compares to that. I also think that Netnewswire has given me a similar experience. I’m a keyboard guy, the mouse has its purpose, but not here. When using email your hands should remain on the keyboard as you replay and write new messages. Why would I want to move my hands to the mouse or trackpad. In gmail you can select, move, label, and delete messages with out ever leaving the comfort of your keyboard.
Mail.app does have some good shortcut keys like “Get Mail”, but in the best situation, there shouldn’t even be a “Get Mail” button. With IMAP IDLE protocol email is pushed to the client. Mail also allows you to tab through the mail panes from folder view to message list to individual messages. Reading email is a small part of actually “doing” email. Reading is the easy part. I need to categorize and sort through email so I can actually figure out who I need to get back to. Mail keyboard shortcuts do exist but they are very limited.
Junk Mail:
I have used the built in junk mail filter for at least 6 months, and spent lots of time training it. There where so many false positives and junk that slipped through the built in filter. It made the situation worse some times. I would spend 15 minutes going through junk mail to see if it’s really junk or not. The best alternative I have seen is SpamSieve. It isn’t a perfect solution. It’s similar to WideMail since it is a plugin and has very little official support. SpamSieve is really amazing though. It takes time to train, but it works extremely well. SpamSieve also cost $30 dollars.
Email Aliases:
In mail the only way to send email from an alternative address is to add a second incoming inbox to the mix (aka New Account). Unlike in Gmail’s web service where you can add alternative Email addresses without adding a POP3 or IMAP incoming email server. I don’t understand why Mail doesn’t have this kind of option. It would be really nice feature to have.
Doesn’t Work well with Gmail:
Finally, I use Gmail as my email host for a few reasons, but Mail doesn’t play well Gmail’s IMAP server. There are a few ways that Gmail doesn’t play nice. People have hints all over the place to attempt to make Mail.app with GMail usable. However there are still many problems that just can’t be addressed. I’m not going to bother going into detail about these problems.
In conclusion there are so many issues with Mail.app that I don’t use it anymore. I’m always wishing there was a better email client out there. Well, this is part 1 of more to come …