Email client software

The following table lists popular email features in various client email software to see in which they are supported.

While this table is useful, it does not tell the whole story. It does not for instance indicate how well a given feature is implemented; although fairly rarely seen, a feature may be so full of bugs in a version of a software application that it is downright unusuable. Even when not buggy, a feature may be too much of a good thing such as automatically opening attachments when viewing a message. Microsoft Outlook, which is additionally targeted by viruses using its address book because it is widely used around the globe, is discouraged by LSCR.

Eudora, which has long been the default choice of client email software on campus and among LSCR users (and is also the preferred choice of this writer), is however not the only good email software in existence. Mozilla's Thunderbird and Apple's own Mail are fine applications as well. The downside to Mail though is that there is no version of it for Windows; this more often than not is not not an issue to the individual user who tends to use one platform only, but it matters to campus and to LSCR from an overall view of support.

When asked about why Coke and not Pepsi, Hertz and not Avis, ABC and not NBC, Ticketmaster and not TicketWeb, United and not American, Peet's and not Starbucks, people are often hardpressed to come up with an answer that settles the discussion. The latter, the brand of coffee, at least out of the two mentioned, may be the clear choice here in Berkeley, but why? Certainly, it is not purely a matter of taste or health.

As for the matter of taste, it tends to equate to the user interface concerning software. But what is a good user interface anyway? Apple, the king of user interface from the beginning to the present and no doubt beyond, is changing the looks of its Mail so dramatically with every major release of Mac OS X that it leaves most everyone baffled. The bottomline is that certain design elements are imperative while others are merely trendy.

What may very well matter more than anything else is simple human habit. You get used to something and stick with it because it works for you, and unless it goes awry, there it is. The tip here is to get used to what is good to begin with; the catch is that you may not know then; the upside may very well be what has been trusted for some time.