Re: Evolution honcho uses mutt for personal mail
* Bruce A. Mah <bmah@xxxxxxx> [2004-04-23 19:01:15 -0700]:
> > I am in the process of moving from Evolution to mutt. I find it interesting
> > that the guy who is pushing this big and fancy and pretty GUI-centric
> > program finds it necessary to use mutt to get a basic job accomplished.
> Not to sound flip, but so what?
> Programs are *tools*. You use the right tool for the job, and
> sometimes you need multiple tools.
> I used to be one of the exmh developers (now inactive, but I did a bunch
> of work on the PGP integration). I use both exmh and mutt on a daily
> basis. Sometimes I want a point and drool interface with pretty colors,
> sometimes I want something fast, with good threading. Use the right
> tool for the job.
> (As an aside, I'm trying out Evolution just for kicks. I think it's a
> bit too heavyweight for me...all of the calendering, contacts, etc.
> stuff kind of gets in my way. I'll give it some more time though.)
I don't know that I'd claim much more for this datum than I did originally.
Namely, it's interesting enough to mention. Apparently Javier had the same
response himself.
Of the GUI-based e-mail programs, I like Evolution the best. On the other
hand, I can appreciate my Linux-guru brother's enthusiasm for mutt. It was
his evangelism that convinced me to try mutt. Evolution is pretty, but I
was frustrated by its inability to handle what I thought should have been
simple tasks. For example, I fairly regularly had to paste large chunks of
text into its editing field, whereupon I discovered that the pasted text
behaved like HTML (which I think it was), making it difficult to edit and
manipulate. That used to drive me nuts. Not a problem in mutt (and in some
other gui-based e-mail programs as well).
Somebody else in this thread wondered what would happen if you had to train
a bunch of secretaries, I think it was, to move from Evolution to mutt. Or
maybe the example was Outlook Express to mutt, I forget. I agree this would
be difficult. I sympathize with secretaries, because I am closer to their
comfort level with programs like this than I am to my brother's (and the
other experts on this list, for whose knowledge and willingness to help I am
grateful).
But speaking as someone who has been trying to learn the program, I am
beginning to conclude that the fault in this regard isn't so much with mutt
itself but with its documentation. It is not especially friendly to
computer novices. Sources such as "My first mutt" at
http://mutt.blackfish.org.uk/
were the main reason I was able to get up and running with it, because much
of the man page and the documentation I found opaque.
An unexpected source of help has been commented .muttrc and other config
files. I have learned more from the comment lines in the config files of
certain users than I have from most of the other documentation combined.
That and the fast and courteous assistance from this group, which is easily
one of the best I've ever had the pleasure to read.
Seth Williamson
Daleville, VA
USA