I've used Eudora for years and the most compelling reason is that the mail is stored in text files. This, in my opinion, lessens the likelihood of data loss due to corruption, which is more common in apps that use (proprietary) databases. As a Eudora user, I have never lost email due to corruption or due to anything other than user error. The fact that I can open the files in a text editor, if needed, provides some assurance that I am not locked out of my data by a proprietary file format. Eudora, while not perfect, is the only logical choice for me. :-)

-- Rob

eudora...

I've just updated from 9.2 to OSX Panther...
 

I've just updated from 9.2 to OSX Panther.
I have been using Outlook Express up until now but it doesn't seem to be available for OSX.

So what should I use?
Mail? Eudora? Outlook Express in OS9?

Here are my requirements:
* I've got around 5 email accounts from different providers
* I like the way that OE allows me to check my Hotmail acconts rather than signing in to hotmail.com
* I am getting a huge ammount of junk mail to some of these accounts which I'd like to filter/block
* I'd like to write emails in HTML - i.e coloured text, bold, etc [nothing more than that]
* I've got a load of old emails & addresses in OE that I would like to transfer to the new program

That's all I can think of for now - there will probably some other things

Any advice would be really appreciated.

thanks
Rich;)

I would suggest MS Entourage. It’s part of the MS Office package. I’ve been using it for years and am rather satisfied with it.

Best regards,
ArcticStones

Is it a free download?

I have to Agree Entourage in General but.....
 

You gave us scant info beyond your general email needs information...

1) Do you have MS Office X already???
2) Do you need your your different email accounts to remain separte. That is do you need Entourages/Expresses Multiple Account feature where you log in and out of different email users with Separte In, Out, Sent mail boxes etc??
3) Do you have any Friends or are or your self in Education (Office SuiteX is like $129 vs. regular $300+ Depending which version and discounts)??

4) Do you want to spend money at all assuming you do not already own office X??
5) What OSX version are you using of 10.3x e.g. 10.32?
The Best way to avoid spam is to have even more mail accounts. One Should have:
1) A real internernet mail ordering account for all the stuff ones orders on the internet e.g. orderstuff@yourisp.com (this account is semidisposable as it will get spammed more then others)
2) A billing email account yourbills@yourisp.com
3) A cooresponence email for trusted folk yourname@yourIsp.com
etc. You might want to have a separte account too, for software registration Or you might use the order account.
4) An email account for your spouse? etc.

1) Apple Mail offeres Even Better Spam filtering then Entourage and HTML. Coupled with Shareware/Freeware Box of Rocks Mail Switch it not only supports the multiple email accounts but gains the Abilty to use Multiple Users.

I should point out that with JAg and Pather (eaiser still with fast user switching) you could sign in and out as different users (yuck, I know). Multiple Desktops, Multiple Prefs etc.

2) NetScape Mail is Also Decent

3) Eudora is wonderful but No HTML savvy

4) There are many other fine email programs people may tell you about.

Also a reminder back up your whole system, as well as your email. It is possible for your mail prefs read mail and addresses to get corrupt.

Good Luck.

In case anyone was looging for mail switch

http://www.hawkwood.com/mailswitch/

Entourage is the only reliable solution on an exchange server.
 

If you are on an exchange server, Entourage is the way to go. I don't know if it is best to discuss the best mail program when you have to consider calendaring and scheduling as part of any professional package. In fact, Entourage is not just a mail program, that is a misconception. It has mail, calendar, task, notes, address book, projects all wrap in one and they all work together. For interacting with people in the Windows world on an exchange server, Entourage is the way to go. The other added benefit with Entourage is that it is completely scriptable.

If you don't need to work on an exchange server, then one of the others programs may suit your mail needs. In this case, I prefer Apple Mail. Apple Mail is also completely scriptable.

In regards to the other email clients, are they scriptable?

thx
RLC

There is one very essential feature that is missing in Entourage, which I otherwise consider an excellent Microsoft application.

Ron, do you think that it will be searchable by means of Spotlight anytime soon? It’s a real hassle that it is not. To me Spotlight is by far the most valuable feature in Tiger – it has changed the way I work and improved my productivity.

So: Spotlight + Entourage = true search?

???

The use of a non-documented message-store by an email-client disqualifies the software in my view.

I'm not willing to make extra backup provisions just because they want to lock me in by making it hard to export mail.

It is unfortunate Apple didn't go for the widely adopted maildir format, but the plist-based stuff they cooked up can at least be easily understood and salvaged even when a bunch of bits gets flipped by accident.

This may be difficult with the current mail format. But you never know.
 

Disclaimer, I would not be using Entourage if a better choice was available on an exchange server. As I stated before, for me, it is not only the mail program. It is the mail, calendaring, tasks, etc... that I have to rely on in a professional environment. When I accept and invitation from Mail, it goes into my Entourage calendar. I can schedule meeting through Entourage calendar and other will receive it without issues.

I think the Entourage database makes it difficult to implement spotlight anytime soon that would be efficient. Microsoft Entourage is a closed vault.

That being said, Microsoft does provide a way to search the mail database via criteria searching, but you will have to do this without spotlight for now.

My work around, although not elegant, is to set up an exchange account on both Apple Mail and Entourage. That way I can search Apple Mail via spotlight if I have the need to do it. I use Entourage for all other Exchange related activities such as calendaring, tasks, and address book and mail.

thx
RLC

I would never even remotely for a moment consider Entourage. Count the number of recent threads about people's Entourage mail file becoming corrupted and/or Entourage greeting them with a brand-new "Welcome" message and a totally empty set of mailboxes.

Roncross@cox.net: Yeah, I hear you. But long after you've moved on from your current job, and the job after that, I'll be using Eudora, and I'll have all the email from my current job, and the job after that, and the job before any of those, and from my university days, and all my AOL-era email, and all my latter-day personal email from the various email accounts I've maintained, right there in Eudora.

True, but they aren't as sophisticated as those in Eudora, and nowhere near as fast, especially once you've got more than a decade's worth of email to search through.

Eudora doesn't do calendars and whiteboards and other stuff that Entourage may do. But it sure does POP email like nothing else can. And the file format, as others have said, is industry-standard, and plain text under the hood for that matter. When I had a really rude MacOS 8.6 system crash a handful of years ago and had to salvage missing emails from a raw-text file-fragment search of the hard drive, I got back pretty much all the text from a month and a half's correspondence. Not only that, I massaged the raw text so as to format it appropriately to paste it back into the Eudora mailboxes and have Eudora recognize them all as separate email messages. (Some of the complex header info such as the Received-from trail is phony and/or missing, but aside from that it's as if I never lost it). It put me on the straight-and-narrow about doing more regular backups, too, to be sure, but do you think you could do any of that if you were in Outlook or Entourage?

Never thought of the exchange account work around that you indicate here. Sounds interesting! but I don’t think I will implement it.

I essentially use Entourage (Office X, 2000) as my logue – and am currently having problems with that. I am constantly told that I am close to exceeding my size constraints. It’s a hassle to have to keep finding more attachments that I can delete.

I’ve used the Search feature in Entourage many a time, but I do wish for something more powerful.

AHunter: I’ve heard many good things about Eudora, too, and know people who swear by it. But I’ve really gotten used to Entourage and it works great for me.

With best reagards,
ArcticStones

Look up the free program, MailbackupX 1.4, over at Versiontracker. It parses Entourage mail into text files that can be searched via Spotlight. You have to run it manually, but at least it's a solution for now.

If you run a business, and/or are heavily into GTD, my vote is for Entourage. I think it's the most heavy duty mail app out there.