I hate to say this… but I think I am switching from Mutt… back to Pine. I hate doing it, as there is a lot of stuff I wish Pine did, that it doesn’t do. And I had spent so much time getting my Mutt configuration just the way I wanted it. The only problem is that Mutt does not handle IMAP very well at all. And I use IMAP for everything.
Of couse you can do ANYTHING in Mutt, if you hack with the configuration enough. The problem is, I am sick of hacking with the configuration files everytime I add a new IMAP folder. That is really the biggest problem I have. I have local folders, two sets of server folders, a local inbox, two server inboxes, a work inbox, a work set of “local” folders, and a work set of server folders.
All of this is a pain in the ass.
If I add a new folder to my local folders while at home, and then access my home local folders from work, I either have to type in the server name in order to get to the folders, or I have to add the folder to my list of mailboxes (which is what I currently do). This means that my list of mailboxes is HUGE. I have folders of folders of folders. I have some folders on some servers that are named the same thing as folders on other servers. This gets VERY confusing.
Pine lets me set up folder collections, which means that I simply see a list of all my collections (Work Folders, Exchange Folders, Home Folders, Inkshop Folders, Beaver Folders) and inside each of those are the folders contained on that server. If I add a new folder, the list reflects that immediately, with no configuration changes whatsoever.
I suppose I could make Mutt macros with all of my server names… and then memorize the macros so that I don’t have to type out the server names each time I want to change from one place to another.
I have started using Pine. I already miss the PGP features, the message threading, and my massive quantities of send-hooks that change from and to addresses like mad depending on who sent the mail to me, and to which address they sent it.
The only other feature I love about Pine, is the addressbook handling. Not only is LDAP support builtin, but stripping large quantities of email addresses out of messages and message headers is a breeze. The roles feature is also kind of nice, because that keeps me from having to write a billion rules to change my email address to whatever is appropriate. If I don’t like the email address my Roles setup chooses, I can simply pick a better one from a list. With Mutt, I have to actually type it in.
Mutt is certainly for power users, which I love… but it is NOT for power users with more than one email address, and more than one mail server, who wishes to access it all at the same time.