As my new computer will arrive coming week, I decided to look for a desktop application for reading my e-mail. Up until now, I’ve been reading my e-mail in the online webapp which is provided with my Gmail acount. I think it should be easier for me to check my e-mail. I’m sick of logging in every single time (as I don’t like letting my browser remember my passwords).

In my search I came across the dutch linux website called NedLinux. I remembered I had an account there, logged in and launched some search queries. After reading some topics about popular desktop apps and mail clients, I decided to give Mutt a try.

Mutt is a console-based e-mailclient which by most users is referred to as a user-friendly, responsive mail client. In the past, I’ve been using several desktop applications to check my e-mail. Back in the old days (on Windows), I was using Outlook mostly. As my appetite for Linux and open-source apps has been growing in the past couple of years, I’m using Mozilla Thunderbird at work. For my personal mail, I’ve installed Gmail Notify to notify me if any new mail arrives. When this occurs, I will just right click the icon in my tray bar and click ‘Go to Inbox’. Firefox opens the Gmail website and I login to read the e-mail.

The above procedure has to change. Only problem I always had with desktop mail clients, is that I can’t access my desktop mail client at work. I would like my mail client to act the same way, wherever I am. That would be one of the main reasons I would like to give Mutt a try: as soon as you have configured it the way you like it, you can access your Mutt by SSH.

Yesterday I found a great tutorial by Andrew Strong. I’m now receiving my mail using Mutt. I’ve configured a differrent console application called abook to work with Mutt. It allows me to keep track of e-mailaddresses and contact information. First impressions of Mutt are quite allright: you can do absolutely everything without ever using your mouse, you can choose which text-editor you would like to use to write your e-mails (I’m using vim) and the client works very fast.

Hope I can stick with Mutt! What are you guys using to read your e-mail?