Live data from Hacker News

K-9 Mail is looking for funding

k9mail.app

11–20 of 142 posts

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#11

I'm surprised there's no work being done on the UI on the roadmap, K-9 looks like an app from the "Ice Cream Sandwich" days of Android. With that being said, K-9 is the best Android app I've seen for mail that isn't made by Google. edit: it seems the work has already been done, thanks for the correction.

No, do not touch the UI. If the UI is changed I don't pay! (half joking ;)

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#12

K9 used to feel like a great app, but I think it has been creaking around the edges for a while. I've thrown in a few quid. There isn't anything to rival it so I hope it gets some more developer time.

I've been using FairEmail (from F-Droid) and it works extremely well. Looks better and seems more reliable to me.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#13

I'm surprised there's no work being done on the UI on the roadmap, K-9 looks like an app from the "Ice Cream Sandwich" days of Android. With that being said, K-9 is the best Android app I've seen for mail that isn't made by Google. edit: it seems the work has already been done, thanks for the correction.

> I'm surprised there's no work being done on the UI on the roadmap, K-9 looks like an app from the "Ice Cream Sandwich" days of Android.

TBH, that's actually a good thing. Material Design was a mistake.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#14
post #5

I'm surprised there's no work being done on the UI on the roadmap, K-9 looks like an app from the "Ice Cream Sandwich" days of Android. With that being said, K-9 is the best Android app I've seen for mail that isn't made by Google. edit: it seems the work has already been done, thanks for the correction.

Have you looked at the beta versions yet? The UI was overhauled over basically the last 1.5 years and the points mentioned in the blog post are the bits missing to release that as a stable version (IMAP IDLE mostly): https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/releases I've been running the betas since more than a year without any problems whatsoever. (If you don't need push obviously)

Is UI any different from current stable version?

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#15
K-9 is one of these programs I use every day, several times per day. And among these programs, one of the (rare) ones that have never needed any care from me: it just works, and has kept working for years.

That being said, there are lots of things that could be improved upon the current release version (especially wrt search), and I understand that just keeping up with the Android ecosystem is not a small task.

I've just set up a small recurring donation. It's more than worth it.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#16
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at the beta versions yet? The UI was overhauled over basically the last 1.5 years and the points mentioned in the blog post are the bits missing to release that as a stable version (IMAP IDLE mostly): https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/releases I've been running the betas since more than a year without any problems whatsoever. (If you don't need push obviously)

Is UI any different from current stable version?

I tried it from the Github releases page. It has definitely been updated a lot from the Play Store version.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked at the beta versions yet? The UI was overhauled over basically the last 1.5 years and the points mentioned in the blog post are the bits missing to release that as a stable version (IMAP IDLE mostly): https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/releases I've been running the betas since more than a year without any problems whatsoever. (If you don't need push obviously)

Is UI any different from current stable version?

Yes. This blog post contains a few screenshots:

https://k9mail.app/2020/06/01/Whats-Up-With-K-9-Mail

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#18
post #5

I'm surprised there's no work being done on the UI on the roadmap, K-9 looks like an app from the "Ice Cream Sandwich" days of Android. With that being said, K-9 is the best Android app I've seen for mail that isn't made by Google. edit: it seems the work has already been done, thanks for the correction.

Have you looked at the beta versions yet? The UI was overhauled over basically the last 1.5 years and the points mentioned in the blog post are the bits missing to release that as a stable version (IMAP IDLE mostly): https://github.com/k9mail/k-9/releases I've been running the betas since more than a year without any problems whatsoever. (If you don't need push obviously)

I struggle to understand why there hasn't been a release for 1.5 years, especially with a ~full time dev.

I definitely struggle to udnerstand why IMAP IDLE is critical for a release.

Edit: Oh, probably a minSDK force - i.e. the cost of standing still in mobile development.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#19
post #2

K-9 is a really great mail app for android! In my opinion it's the best app if you want to use a custom SMTP/IMAP server instead of using a solution like hotmail/google/etc. It also has PGP support (with the help of OpenKeyChain to manage certificates) that works great! There are no other well known solutions for applications supporting PGP in Android; this is huge. People that either want to avoid walled gardens or…

> the best app if you want to use a custom SMTP/IMAP server instead of using a solution like hotmail/google/etc

IMHO, it's also the best if you're using Gmail: Google has been breaking its UIs for years (both on the app and on the web), especially for people like me who try to use proper quoting and signatures, or to send plain text emails. Apart from some glitches with reflow, K-9 does that very well even with Google as email provider.

I can't compare against Microsoft products since I've never used them on mobile, but seeing how horrible Outlook is on the desktop for plain text emails (and that's not an hyperbole), I bet K-9 is better as well.

Re: K-9 Mail is looking for funding

#20
If the developer is checking this thread: take a look at the Brave Creators program. If you have an account there I will gladly add you to my list of regular contributions. Brave userbase is growing in and millions of users are receiving BAT which can them be used to support developers and content creators.
Post reply on HN