Looking for specialists

When requirements become specialised, the list of candidates gets smaller and smaller. One day you will come to the point where you have to improvise because no software meets the criteria. Sometimes you just have to search... A very interesting program, mentioned only now and then as a tip-off in some mailing lists, is named Sylpheed. Its current version is 0.4.4 (or 0.4.5pre2 on 14.11.2000 for all those who are not afraid of CVS) and it is worth examining first of all for the number of interesting features aside from its minor grade of popularity:

• Multiple-Account-Handling:
  One who owns several mail addresses and wants to manage different POP3 and SMTP servers can do that with Sylpheed: The "active" account (that is used to send mail) can be selected from a list. New mail can be fetched from the server for only the active account or for all the defined ones. For simplification, the preferred mail identity can be defined as default for sending and downloading mail.
• Mail-Filtering:
  Similar to Mozilla-Mailer, the well-known XFMail and some other clients, Sylpheed provides an easy-to-use but very efficient definition of mail filters that are especially useful for readers of mailing lists, for sorting of incoming mail into existing folders or into the trash.
  

  When several accounts are defined, you can set filtering rules for every incoming server. You can even choose not to receive mail. It is remarkable that the program runs quite fast in spite of 40 defined filtering rules.

Efficient and user friendly GUI

The mailer's GUI integrates seamlessly into the GNOME-Desktop. It is structured logically and is provided with some interesting configuration opportunities. (Window-splitting, threading for newsgroups and mailing lists, coloured markups for read/unread mail, etc.) It can show image attachments without external software by using the gdk-pixbuf library, but also provides for the integration of external software to handle URLs and HTML attachments.

Of course, the exterior printing command is configurable (useful for all who prefer printing text mail by "enscript -Ma4 -U2 %s" instead of "lpr %s" ;) ) An optional editor can also be integrated by which one of the few weak points of Sylpheed - the lack of GPG/PGP support - can be repaired. IMAP4 and NNTP functionality, a simple but suitable address book, a send queue (for writing mail offline and sending it in one pass), a folder for unsent drafts, an importing function of mbox mail files (Sylpheed uses MH-mail folders) and moreover all mail standard functions like answering, forwarding, CC/BCC addresses, attachments and a search function across the stock of mail (that feature could be improved) has been implemented.

Sum up

If you are looking for a fast, tough and configurable mailer that can handle even high mail traffic and provides a clear and user friendly GUI, you can not go wrong with Sylpheed

Homepage: http://sylpheed.good-day ..net

Further Screenshots:

• Administration of Several Mail-Accounts (Screenshot)
• Editing Window / Answering Mail (Screenshot)
• The Mail Window (Screenshot)

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