Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Mail 3 (Leopard) v. Entourage 2008 v. Thunderbird 2

View Poll Results: Which is the best current e-mail client and why?
Poll Options:
Apple Mail 3 (Why? Please respond.) 24 votes (80.00%)
Microsoft Entourage 2008 (Why? Please respond.) 4 votes (13.33%)
Mozilla Thunderbird 2 (Why? Please respond.) 2 votes (6.67%)
Other (Of course, please specify) 0 votes (0%)
Voters: 30. You may not vote on this poll
Mail 3 (Leopard) v. Entourage 2008 v. Thunderbird 2
Thread Tools
NormPhillips
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Northbrook, IL
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 1, 2008, 05:13 PM
 
Well, I bought Microsoft Office 2008 the day it came out. For the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. On my Intel Mac, it is faster and more stable. It also now supports the Office 'X' (2007/2008) format (.docx, .xlcx, .pptx) and includes a bunch of other features. However, besides some of the interface 'improvements', Entourage was not improved much. I figure it may be time to switch my e-mail client, but I wanted everyone's feedback, what do you think?

Which is better? And why? Please list your reasons below.
     
Peter
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: England | San Francisco
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 1, 2008, 05:39 PM
 
Mail. It just works. Works nicely with ~50k emails in a mailbox.
we don't have time to stop for gas
     
angelmb
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Automatic
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 05:19 AM
 
Mail 3, it looks clean, polished and I like getting the RSS feeds there.
     
moonmonkey
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 08:32 AM
 
I like mail simply because it works correctly with time machine, needs no tweaking and does not look like Eudora (I spent much of my life tweaking this app to my specifications).

All other mail apps look like Eudora or Claris eMailer, and remind me of the dark days of Apple, so Mail.app wins.
     
analogika
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: 888500128
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 08:49 AM
 
Entourage is completely out of the question as long as Microsoft sticks with the monolithic database approach - makes it incompatible with Time Machine (that is, one new e-mail comes in and the entire multi-gigabyte database must be backed up *again* every time) and ensures that a problem with a single e-mail is capable of completely fucing up the entire database, losing *everything*.

I've been weaning customers and clients off Outlook derivates ever since one of my clients discovered the 2GB database file size limit the hard way - by losing ALL her business e-mail. (I believe this limit has since been lifted, but I ain't tryin' it out.)

Also, data detectors in Mail 3 ****ing ROCK - the integration with Address Book and iCal databases is extremely practical.
     
larrinski
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Canada... be nice, eh?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 01:35 PM
 
Mail.app works well with Gmail & IMAP. It is well integrated with Address Book, iCal etc...Thunderbird seemed slow using IMAP.
My Blog-pakos.me
     
Cold Warrior
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 01:36 PM
 
Like analogika said, I've seen plenty of people discover the 2GB Outlook 2000 limitation the hard way. Outlook 2003 w/ NTFS fixes this.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 04:44 PM
 
Thunderbird if you need advanced IMAP features and and textbook IMAP behavior, Mail if this isn't as important to you.
     
eggman
Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 07:36 PM
 
Like everyone says, Entourage's monolithic database is bad both from a stability point of view... and is undesirable if using Time Machine.

Sorry, Microsoft, I don't want to back up everything on my system using one mechanism (Time Machine) and my email messages using a different one.

I used Entourage for years and the only feature that I'm missing is the ability to run Rules on outgoing messages. Other than that, I like the modular Mail/iCal/Address Book approach.
     
Cold Warrior
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 08:33 PM
 
Despite Entourage's database, I've used it since the beta v.X and really like it. Using 2008 since it was released. I occasionally try others like Mail and Thunderbird (I love its smoothness with IMAP).
     
El Maestro
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 09:10 PM
 
I use Mail on my employer's Exchange server. I *LOVE* it. The data detectors and iCal integration are a great function for me. The addressing and LDAP features work very well also.

I'm actually most thrilled with Mail more than anything else since my upgrade to Leopard. I have Entourage 2008 and still prefer Mail. I was nervous about the Exchange support, but it's even better than Mail's IMAP, which was dismal and unusable (I know Mail's Exchange support is IMAP but it just seems to play better with the Exchange server since we moved to it).

I guess it depends on your needs. I miss out on our calendaring features because Entourage supports it and Mail doesn't. Since I use iCal, this is not an issue for me.
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 2, 2008, 09:22 PM
 
Even though Mail offers "Exchange support" (which, AFAIK, is really nothing), there have been some users on our network that have reported having problems with the latest version of Exchange server. Why this is, I'm not sure - probably MS taking liberties with standards compliance again.
     
El Maestro
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 12:10 AM
 
That is interesting. Mail might work for me because the university at which I work has been doing a steady migration over the last 3-4 years to the Exchange/Active Directory groupware. The Windows clients are Outlook 2003. My hunch is that they're also using an earlier version of the Exchange server and thus Mail works better.

Is there a way to find out what version the server software is without bugging a sysop?
     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 02:01 AM
 
Not that I know of, I'm not a Windows guy, sorry!

How many students/staff/faculty have email accounts on Exchange?
     
Mrjinglesusa
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Why do you care?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 10:08 AM
 
I voted for Apple mail because I like the integration with iCal and Address Book and "it just works". Never had a problem with it.
     
Cold Warrior
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Polwaristan
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 12:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by El Maestro View Post
Is there a way to find out what version the server software is without bugging a sysop?
Usually the Exchange webmail interface will key you in on what major version of Exchange is running. For example, webmail for 2003 looks substantially different (and newer) than for the previous version.



     
besson3c
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: yes
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 12:54 PM
 
It looks like Exchange will be around for a while. Zimbra has been doing well as an Exchange competitor/alternative, but it was bought by Yahoo, and there are talks now of Microsoft buying Yahoo. Part of Zimbra is open source, so this would live on regardless, but I'm sure that MS would do its part to keep the growth of Zimbra under its careful control.

It's a shame that Exchange has such a stranglehold on Enterprise Groupware...
     
0157988944
Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 3, 2008, 01:31 PM
 
Mail. Why? It's simple, elegant, and does everything I need.
     
El Maestro
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Feb 4, 2008, 02:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
Not that I know of, I'm not a Windows guy, sorry!

How many students/staff/faculty have email accounts on Exchange?
The Exchange accounts are for faculty and staff only. I would estimate that there are about 5,000 total accounts when all is said and done.

After looking at our web interface, we are clearly using a version from 2003 or thereabouts.
     
   
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:48 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,