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Old May 13th 20, 12:04 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
VanguardLH[_2_]
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Posts: 1,453
Default Why is this folder so slow? (follow-up)

Frank Slootweg wrote:

Why did it take you *that* long [to abandon the trial of Tbird]! :-)


I had trialed Tbird several times, like perhaps once per year for
several years. I would also trial other e-mail clients (I did not need
nor want a combo email+newsgroups client). Often those lasted less than
a month for when I got ****ed with Tbird enough to look elsewhere. For
the last trial, I was determined to use it long enough to get more
educated on how to use and configure it. After 6 months, I couldn't
stand it anymore.

Out of interest: What are you using now (for e-mail)?


I've used Outlook for a couple decades. I went to Office 365 for 3
years, but decided to quit the subscriptionware. Money was tighter back
then when I had to decide to renew or not. Although I switched to
LibreOffice, it has no e-mail program. I trialed a few candidates, but
eventually settled on eM Client. It has lots of bugs most of which are
with its GUI, so nothing critical if not essential you tweak its GUI to
your likes.

I use the free version which limits me to only 2 accounts; however, it
will let you define more than 2 accounts, and then later you run into
problems polling those accounts, like ActiveSync stops working with
Hotmail forcing you to delete and recreate the account. The free
version does not restrict you from defining more than 2 accounts, but it
won't support it, and not only doesn't it support more than 2 accounts
but lets you define more and then ****s them up, even for IMAP accounts.
I got around the 2-account limitation in the free version by having one
of the monitored accounts poll other accounts, like configuring the
server-side options in Gmail and Hotmail to poll other accounts, so I
merged some accounts. If I needed more than 2 accounts in eM Client,
I'd buy it. I've found their developers/support do NOT visit their
forums, and peer support there pretty much devolves to just 1 attendant
there (who has no ability to escalate reported bugs to Dev). The author
refuses to communicate with freeloaders on reporting bugs. You have to
buy to get any real support.

For a short time (a couple months), I trialed EssentialPIM. It also has
a 2-account limit for its free version, but I could work around that.
As I recall, back then they would watermark any printouts, but I think
they stopped that. However, to get ActiveSync (Exchange) support or
even CalDAV or other cloud-sync features meant having to buy it ($40 for
1-year support, $80 for lifetime license w/support). It's not
subscriptionware, but what you pay dictates for how long you get
support. I do remember getting support from them despite I was using
their free version. https://www.essentialpim.com/pc-version/pro-vs-free
shows the differences. I remember I was close to buying ePIM, but don't
recall why I chose not. I do remember liking their Notes features in
the Pro version which made it similar to Microsoft's OneNote; however,
later Microsoft made OneNote free to everyone (and what I use), so that
lure fizzled.

At this point, and after using eM Client for just under 5 months (in
this latest trial since I trialed it a few times before), I might bite
the bullet and go back to the Office 365 subscriptionware to get Outlook
(plus LibreOffice Writer and Calc have been a little disappointing).
Rather than pay Microsoft's high subscription price of $99/year, I only
paid $33/year when I last used Office 365. So, I got 3 years for the
price of 1, and registering each subscription added it to the total
subscription period, so I had 3 years of subscription before deciding
not to continue.

So, I'm on the fence right now. Do I continue using eM Client for free
with its buggy GUI with the 2-account limitation (which isn't enforced
but causes problems if you create more than 2 accounts)? Do I pay for
eM Client ($50 for a lifetime license, not subscriptionware), so I can
report the bugs to Dev (and not futilely in their forums) and hope they
get addressed? Do I get EssentialPIM Pro for $80 lifetime? Or do I buy
1-year licenses for Microsoft Office 365 (and cheaper from a reseller
instead of direct from Microsoft)?

I know some folks that just use the webmail client from the e-mail
provider (hotmail.com/outlook.com, gmail.com, comcast.net, etc). If you
want a local e-mail alert tool, there are lots of those (using POP or
IMAP). However, I do like the e-mail + calendar + contact integration
of eM Client, ePIM, and Outlook to allow the same local UI access to all
of those components across multiple hosts. You can get Google Chrome to
alert you to, of course, only Gmail new mails, but I don't leave the web
browsers loaded all the time (I use them, and then exit them), plus
Chrome is my backup web browser while Firefox is my primary web browser.

I even tried the Mail, Calendar, and People apps from Microsoft that
comes bundled in Windows 10. To save my keyboard from repeated fist
banging, I quit using those.

I'm still old school in using local clients mostly because the web
clients are so dismally anemic. I want more than the majority of boobs,
er, users that are satisfied with less ... much less.