The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

Are there any users that DON'T use Thunderbird as their portable email client and if not, what do you use instead?

There are some people who like nPop for its simplicity (its in this database, just search for it). I just use Gmail, there is no need for a portable client, Gmail is the best there is hands down. If you don't have an account, I can invite you if you want one.

I don't use Gmail regularly because of serious privacy concerns - see http://www.epic.org/privacy/gmail/faq.html and http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com/

Pegasus Mail version 4.31 - from http://www.pmail.com/v431.htm - is highly recommended because of its tiny footprint and facilities (eg all the SSL POP and IMAP options) which are among the most comprehensive of any client. For portable use you must load the program winpm-32.exe with the command line parameter '-roam'. This causes Pegasus to substitute the current drive in the paths to its data files.

Pegasus's interface is quite unusual, and could be modernized, but there are a huge number of options there to be uncovered. Much leaner than Thunderbird altogether. A mature and genuinely free internet classic!

Those "serious privacy concerns" are laughable. So they take some things out of your messages and use that to make text ads. Big deal. If you are using your mail for lawful purposes, you have nothing to worry about.

Laughable?

Storage of every Google search you've ever done + Storage of every Gmail you've ever sent + No guarantee about how the information is used = BIG privacy concerns

"If you are using your <bank account> for lawful purposes, you have nothing to worry about." - C'mon, let's see the details then!

I would also recommend looking at Pimmy, both the freeware version 3.5 and the new payware version 4.0. See:
http://www.geminisoft.com/en/pimmy/ and http://www.geminisoft.com/en/pimmy/defa ... n=03.05.00

It doesn't do absolutely everything, but for what it does it is small and beautifully formed!

The websites look like something someone that doesn't like Google put up to try to scare people away from using their wonderful services. It surprises me though, that someone would attack Google, Google is generally the darling of open-source projects, etc. Much better than Microsoft, wouldn't you say? I could find you a website attacking anything on the internet. I could even make something up myself and make it look authentic. What also makes me question its authenticity is the fact that I never hear this on any of the many tech websites that I read or the podcasts I listen to. Don't believe everything you read. Also, I would like to point out that we are having a very good discussion here, not attacking each other personally, yet still debating a topic we both have strong opinions about. I am grateful for that and think we should agree to disagree.

I'm a little confused by the whole Google is open source thing because it is a publicly listed company on the Nasdaq (Symbol: GOOG). I agree that Google have done good things for the Internet and certainly raised certain standards but Google are from from the White Knight against the reigning tyranny of Microsoft Corporation. Anyway, perhaps this is a discussion for another thread.

Back to the topic at hand. I have tried 'em all ladies and gents:

nPop - Fantastic little program, love it, only one small problem it doesn't support HTML email and, whether I like it or not, people still insist on sending me email in HTML format. I would like my email client to be self contained so that I can read HTML mails without the need to load a browser.

Pimmy - Yes, this is a very small and very capable client but I struggle to get to grips with the alternative interface. I certainly can't fault it though, it definately is a very efficient and effective little client.

Pegasus Mail - Has not impressed me, I don't think I've ever got it to work properly and it looks rather slow and methodical, which is not really what I'm looking for.

Gmail - I was under the impression that this is a webmail interface, which is definately not what I'm looking for because I like to be able to read and compose emails without the immediate need for an Internet connection.

Thanks for the suggestions people... keep 'em comin'!

@Justin:
Yes, folk should make up their own minds about Gmail and the level of risk to their privacy, but at least debate like this should let them make a more informed choice. There is more respected comment available such as: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24 ... vacy_poll/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4700002.stm

@Darkbee:
Sorry to hear you found Pegasus not so easy (I presume you used version 4.31 with the -roam command line parameter?). Like Pimmy, you have to invest quite a bit of effort to grasp the different interface, but there's a lot "under the hood" to discover.
PS: Did you compare the memory usage of Pegasus versus Thunderbird - wow, what a difference!

Well these seem to be more reputable sites, though I think that the headline on the BBC one misled you. It was talking about a new feature in Google Desktop (which I don't use) that allows you to search across multiple computers.

Well I've struck out on email clients. Are you adamant about not using Thunderbird?

justin wrote:Well I've struck out on email clients. Are you adamant about not using Thunderbird?

Well, in fairness, I've never used it but I have concerns that it will still end up being slow with lot's of features that I don't use. It's pretty big when compared with the likes of those clients mentioned above.

It is about 9 MB, not that big (but I guess big by the standards of the other email clients). I would recommend trying it though, I have never known Mozilla to make a bloated or slow piece of software.

Darkbee wrote:

justin wrote:Well I've struck out on email clients. Are you adamant about not using Thunderbird?

Well, in fairness, I've never used it but I have concerns that it will still end up being slow with lot's of features that I don't use. It's pretty big when compared with the likes of those clients mentioned above.

I use Thunderbird at home, and it's not slow. It's not exactly what I'm looking for either though. I do like all of the extensions, but I don't want something that writes to the profile folder, and I want something that works better with IMAP. This usually leads me to using SquirrelMail everywhere else though, which is a webmail interface for IMAP. I've tried out a few other w2k clients and none of them have impressed me as much as Thunderbird for IMAP, but I'm always willing to try a new one.

I used to use Eudora, back in the days. Nowadays, with a permanent connection to the internet, and after moving to FastMail with it's great webmail (it doesn't get more portable than that, I mean, web-based applications), I don't need an e-mailclient anymore.