Ever since I made the transition from Mac to Linux (with a short and torturous time with Windows in between), I’ve had email “problems”. When I was using a Mac, I used Apple’s own Mail.app program and was completely happy. I’ve certainly tried other email clients (Thunderbird, Power Mail and GyazMail, to name a few), but at the end of the day I’ve always agreed that Mail.app is the best for my needs and I’m happy to go back to using it.
This would have continued, I believe, if my Powerbook hadn’t died about the same time I got my Windows computer to work (home) and so I began my few months of using nothing but Windows. This time I “settled” on Thunderbirds, which is an excellent email client, but just not exactly to my taste. Then I found Linux, and the happy round-about of the client search continued after a year of e-mail.
What I want from the client is simplicity. I have two email addresses that I typically use, one for web content and one for personal email, and these two are POP3 accounts. You can find both a Gmail account and it can also be accessed through a POP3 protocol client. I don’t need IMAP, and I don’t really need an email client to even manage a notepad, to do list, reminder and calendar. I just want to make an email.
And I will admit that it is important to me. I spend a lot of time writing emails, and when the program “feels” I’m not right, it moves me. So when I found Columba, an email client for Windows, Mac and Linux (written in Java), I was excited. I looked at the screen shot and saw that it was perfect. It would be able to read and write the HTML of the email, so any form already present in the email I received would remain when I replied. It had a calendar function, but it was basic enough and could easily be kept out of sight. So I returned, but not without some trepidation.
Coming from a Mac background, I’d be used to the fact that Java programs are slow. That’s how it’s going to be. Not less on Windows and Linux, but in the back of my mind I was sure I didn’t want the email client to be heavy. But I still brought it back and installed it, and took it for a spin.
I was surprised, to be honest. Dove was actually fast to begin with, and between switching sentences or opening a new email (or replying to one), it didn’t seem to wait for a pause. It looked nice, was easy to set up, and had a lot of nice features.
Columba, it seemed, was the perfect client next to me.
Until the breakup began. Lots and lots of use up to memory. And my computer was completely hanging, requiring a complete reboot! So… it’s back in the dirt, and now I’m back to Thunder. But before I go on, I like the Dove;
Simple – The dove does not try to act on the whole system. I appreciate it. There are plenty of Linux software like this (Evolution and Kontact are good examples), and while the software is excellent, it’s not really what I’m looking for.
Fast – Despite Java, I had no idea about the speed of Columba.
Attractive – Although the theme was the look, “it was beautiful”. I don’t like the individual themes of the program, but at the end of the day the default Columb look fits how I like my desktop to look, so I was happy.
Of course, there were things I couldn’t handle about Columba, and which led me straight to installing another email address:
Inconstant – In the two days of the trial I lost three emails, which is unacceptable. No problems with the program crashing (every once in a while), but often and with something as important as the Dove address I could not excuse iron driver.
Memory Hog – After things started to go wrong, he started using Dove. more and more memory, considering the slowness of things on my computer, even before the crash begins.
Since there were only two of the Doves, they were enough for me to commute. I don’t like to give negative reviews, especially about a program I love! But Dove is there – at the moment – not really ready for first use, at least on Linux. Fix my screws above and I’ll give it another look. Still, I guess I’ll just keep looking.
