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Switching to the Mutt Email Client

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Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#201

Post by preek »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #164
preek wrote: post #5

Interestingly, I went the other way. I used to have mutt for years, then went through a dark phase (macOS Mail.app, Evernote and Things) and finally concluded to Emacs with mu4e. Integrating mail with Emacs was the best idea ever, because Emails include either todos or serve as reference in projects. Creating todos from Mails as well as linking to them from org-mode is only a shortcut away. I have never had a more ea…

Do you use GMail? If so, how much pain is was to configure your setup to connect to it reliably? And handle multiple e-mail accounts? I ask, because in the past I toyed with switching to using Emacs as my e-mail client, but aways got stuck on configuring the whole setup to work reliably and seamlessly.

OP here. I'm not using Gmail (anymore), but not because it was hard to set up(;

I'm using Mu4e with 4 different mail accounts, though and it's completely seamless and easy to compose.

If you're interested, you can check out my configuration (which is written in literate org-mode so it's actually easy to read^^): https://github.com/munen/emacs.d/blob/master/configuration.o...

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#202

Post by preek »

nextos wrote: post #144
preek wrote: post #5

Interestingly, I went the other way. I used to have mutt for years, then went through a dark phase (macOS Mail.app, Evernote and Things) and finally concluded to Emacs with mu4e. Integrating mail with Emacs was the best idea ever, because Emails include either todos or serve as reference in projects. Creating todos from Mails as well as linking to them from org-mode is only a shortcut away. I have never had a more ea…

Same here. I am a long time mutt user, but recently switched to gnus. Have you considered gnus instead of mu4e? Gnus is notoriously hard to set up, but I found it has some remarkable features.

I did look into Gnus and saw some amazing features there.

However, mu4e is pretty straight forward and has a strong search engine included which means that I can use my setup on both Linux and the Mac. As I understand, I would need to set up a local mail server for Gnus if I wanted reasonably fast search. Having multiple (and sometimes changing) mail accounts that I would need to configure on multiple OSs kept me from doing that.

So to me, mu4e is easier, though Gnus might be simpler in the true sense of the word.

Not saying that Gnus doesn't have merit, though. It's a fascinating piece of engineering. And when I get older (already old^^), and only have one business running in parallel and no more need for the Mac, I'll probably switch(;

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#203

Post by daxorid »

oblio wrote: post #25
joshka wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, I'm starting to think people that work in big companies need this the most. Outlook's filtering configuration is fairly limited compared to what you can do with a well setup procmail system.

True, but good luck working without an operational calendar system.

Prior to circa 2005, people managed to get by just fine without companywide calendars clogged with irrelevant PTO days, etc.

Modern shared calendars arguably provide negative value versus simply keeping a private calendar.

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#204

Post by TeMPOraL »

preek wrote: post #201
TeMPOraL wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use GMail? If so, how much pain is was to configure your setup to connect to it reliably? And handle multiple e-mail accounts? I ask, because in the past I toyed with switching to using Emacs as my e-mail client, but aways got stuck on configuring the whole setup to work reliably and seamlessly.

OP here. I'm not using Gmail (anymore), but not because it was hard to set up(; I'm using Mu4e with 4 different mail accounts, though and it's completely seamless and easy to compose. If you're interested, you can check out my configuration (which is written in literate org-mode so it's actually easy to read^^): https://github.com/munen/emacs.d/blob/master/configuration.o...

Thanks for the config. I'll be getting to setting up mu4e after the OfflineIMAP sync finishes (some time this week, hopefully ;)).

How's your experience with literate config, in terms of managing it? I've been meaning to switch from my mess of individual files to something like this for a time now.

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#205

Post by daphreak »

I use alot (to view and send mail) + notmuch (to index) + mbsync/isync (to retrieve mail). It was painful to configure, mostly due to needing scripts for syncing up tags with IMAP folders.

So far its been worth it. Instantaneous search of all my email ever. With a properly configured mailcap file HTML emails are rendered ok (still have problems with links) and attachments open in external programs as well.

Since `alot` is written in Python and can be extended with Python hooks for almost any event it has been easier for me to customize than emacs.

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#206

Post by JdeBP »

erikb wrote: post #192
uberchet wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Literally zero reason?" Seriously? I submit your understanding of how email works for most people in 2017 is outdated. Email with inline images is common, useful, and not going anywhere.

Over the last 10 years I have worked with 4 digits worth of people. Managers, sales people, engineers, family members, locals, Western foreigners, Arab foreigners, Asian foreigners. I can't remember a single communication where direct insertion of images was a desired feature. If at all images were in emails because the email clients interpreted adding attachments in image format as part of the emails content (gmail…

A fair amount of other people would I suspect argue that your idea of images as external content in mail messages is a regression to the bad old days.

* http://jdebp.eu./Proposals/gnksoa-mua.html#NoAutoFetchExtern...

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#208

Post by scbrg »

CPLX wrote: post #188
torrent-of-ions wrote: post #18

I started using emacs for email back in my uni days. I used Dovecot to run an IMAP server locally which would get my mail when it could. This made it very quick in emacs because it wouldn't have to wait for any remote server. But, unfortunately, I had to go back to Thunderbird. With the exception of free software mailing lists, people simply do not know how to use email. Bottom quoting is the default. We can thank Mi…

> My message to you is right there in the same thread in my client. Don't send it back to me. Dozens of times a day I add someone to the cc list when I'm replying to an email. I suspect most people that have an assistant (or are one, or collaborate with others in general) do this constantly. It's an incredibly common use case. Should we all abandon this very common behavior in order to avoid your scorn?

> Dozens of times a day I add someone to the cc list

Incidentally, your daily dosage coincides with the amount of times I've had to do the same thing at all since I started using email some twenty five years ago.

> It's an incredibly common use case

For some, perhaps. On the other hand, I'd suggest that another, at least for me more common use case is to know exactly what is being replied to. Which is possible with proper quoting, rather than the let's-just-slap-on-your-entire-message-at-the-bottom-and-hope-you're-a-mind-reader nonsense.

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#209

Post by szastupov »

_jal wrote: post #140
szastupov wrote: post #78

I spent quiet some time setting up mutt or trying to make a real IDE out of vim or Emacs, but in the end it's just cargo cult and waste of time. There a modern email clients, IDEs, polished operating systems, etc., all built in this century. There is absolutely no need in wasting time scoring nerd points.

I'm sorry it didn't work for you, but your hostility about it gives me the impression you became frustrated configuring advanced stuff that perhaps you don't understand or need. If you never, say, want to select a group of messages based on a regular expression, absolutely, stick with Outlook or whatever. If you never need different contextual handling (say, signing mail only from a particular account, add particular…

Sorry, I didn't mean it to be hostile. But you're right, I'm expressing my frustration, perhaps a bit sarcastically. Of course everyone's needs and preference are different, I'm not trying to say I am the source of wisdom, just sharing my thoughts, you know ;)

Re: Switching to the Mutt Email Client

#210

Post by szastupov »

_jal wrote: post #142
szastupov wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the point about Emacs being a OS, but don't you think it's kind of a dated clunky OS? Like "Mac OS 9" was, lacking memory protection and pre-emptive multitasking. Why would anyone want to be limited by technology when the rest of the world is moving forward?

It isn't uncommon to mistake 'new' with 'better'. But, just as it is a mistake to blindly cling to the old and comfortable, neophilia is a trap in itself. And it is a bit amusing to watch, for instance, new crops of editors repeat the same mistakes old ones got through in whatever GUI drag is trendy is this week. For your Mac OS comparison to make any sense, you'd have to point to something comparable to lacking memo…

> But, just as it is a mistake to blindly cling to the old and comfortable, neophilia is a trap in itself.

Agree, there is always must bee a meedle path.

To answer your question about MacOS 9 comparisons, I meant technical limitations, like single threading issues, ui capabilities, you know. I may be wrong, though, I haven't paid attention to Emacs intervals for a while. Modern web-based platforms are far from perfect, but they are reacher.

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