Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#11

Post by pbreit » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 12:30 PM UTC

The best list I've seen: http://www.noupe.com/ajax/10-ajax-webmail-clients.html

But none really compare too favorably with Gmail. Zimbra was looking good before it went to yahoo and then VMware.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#12

Post by teyc » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

SquirrelMail (is open source) and has some nice paid themes http://nutsmail.com/

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#13

Post by nodata » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 12:41 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #11

The best list I've seen: http://www.noupe.com/ajax/10-ajax-webmail-clients.html But none really compare too favorably with Gmail. Zimbra was looking good before it went to yahoo and then VMware.

> Zimbra was looking good before it went to yahoo and then VMware.

Can you elaborate?

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#14

Post by Hoodoo » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 12:50 PM UTC

I have recently switched from Roundcube to Squirrelmail - the former worked annoyingly slow for me. I only had to tweak the source code a bit to get rid of these _ugly_ iframe borders.

I don't use web interface too much though.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#15

Post by nodata » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 12:57 PM UTC

Hoodoo wrote: post #14

I have recently switched from Roundcube to Squirrelmail - the former worked annoyingly slow for me. I only had to tweak the source code a bit to get rid of these _ugly_ iframe borders. I don't use web interface too much though.

I seriously cannot believe that something that looks like it was designed for Netscape Navigator still exists. There must be a need for it over everything else, I'd love to know where it's still used.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#16

Post by goodside » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 1:08 PM UTC

nodata wrote: post #15

Hoodoo wrote: post #14

I have recently switched from Roundcube to Squirrelmail - the former worked annoyingly slow for me. I only had to tweak the source code a bit to get rid of these _ugly_ iframe borders. I don't use web interface too much though.

I seriously cannot believe that something that looks like it was designed for Netscape Navigator still exists. There must be a need for it over everything else, I'd love to know where it's still used.

Or there's very little need for it, which is why nobody has made anything better since.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#17

Post by Hoodoo » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 1:15 PM UTC

nodata wrote: post #15

Hoodoo wrote: post #14

I have recently switched from Roundcube to Squirrelmail - the former worked annoyingly slow for me. I only had to tweak the source code a bit to get rid of these _ugly_ iframe borders. I don't use web interface too much though.

I seriously cannot believe that something that looks like it was designed for Netscape Navigator still exists. There must be a need for it over everything else, I'd love to know where it's still used.

It's my own hobby vps, so I could use telnet there if I felt like it. I think if I've made a screenshot of it it might make people's eyes bleed, since I've modified the minimal theme which came with it a little to fit my taste. :)

I don't see the web interface too often anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#18

Post by markokocic » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 1:23 PM UTC

nodata wrote: post #13

pbreit wrote: post #11

The best list I've seen: http://www.noupe.com/ajax/10-ajax-webmail-clients.html But none really compare too favorably with Gmail. Zimbra was looking good before it went to yahoo and then VMware.

> Zimbra was looking good before it went to yahoo and then VMware. Can you elaborate?

I can.

The problem with Zimbra is that it tries to mimick Outolook on the web, not to be actual webmail.

If you like Outlook, you'll feel at home, but compared with Gmail it just feels to old school.

And it is slow, even inside a LAN.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#19

Post by unicornporn » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 1:31 PM UTC

dochtman wrote: post #6

AFAICT the best alternative, interface-wise, is Roundcube, and it doesn't seem particularly exciting (it's also written in PHP... which doesn't necessarily have to count against it, but makes me a little wary). I've foolishly started to build my own, which at some point may become good enough to open source (I certainly don't want to commercialize it).

Roundcube it is. If one is looking for threading and the more advanced options available in Gmail there's not much of an alternative as it stands right now.

Re: Ask HN: Open-source alternatives of Gmail?

#20

Post by unicornporn » Thu, Oct 20, 2011, 1:34 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #8

I went looking for something suitable a while back, but I didn't find anything. The search is nice, but I'm really more interested in the mail interface. The features I use: Sending and receiving (duh) delayed mail (in case I make a mistake... And I will!) filtering (and tags/folders) keyboard shortcuts simple search, with folder/tag support browser-based, so I can access it anywhere

Google were smart when they implemented tags. I've used them immensely (several tags per e-mail). Most (?) IMAP servers doesn't support tags, that makes migrating from Gmail a hard decision for me right now.