seeking an email client

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I've been in the process of transitioning to a "new" computer (currently a ThinkPad using Win7, previously an ASUS EEE100HA using XP). I'm having trouble configuring the transfer of my email files to the new computer. Finally after 4 months I gave in and installed a new copy of Thunderbird so I could at least access my accounts, if not my previous email. The inability to access the old emails is a problem for me, but I can deal with it for a while. I'll figure that out eventually.

But I'm tired of dealing with email clients that give me headaches, and tired of email clients that use file formats that make it difficult to access my old correspondence. I think I'm done with Thunderbird, as soon as I find a replacement--I just need help selecting the replacement. I recognize I will probably have to maintain a legacy copy of Thunderbird to continue to access my old correspondence.

Using web-based email is not an option for me. I'd prefer a program that is not frequently changing things around just to be "new" and "different". I would prefer to see the emails in plain text rather than html, and prefer that the emails be saved in some format that is conveniently accessible using standard software. If it were not for the issue of character encoding, I'd seriously consider returning to Eudora. Before Qualcomm handed it over to Mozilla, it was about ideal for me.

Any suggestions as to clients I should consider would be appreciated.

If you would like to have a old-school email client, you could maybe try Claws-mail.

What it comes to the missing email history problem, it's probably because you are using POP3 to access your mail provider. That protocol deletes the mail on the server once they have been retrieved. If you use IMAP protocol, then it will access the messages on the server without deleting them.

To transfer old email from the old computer, you can for example upload the mail on the old computer to some email provider, like Gmail, using the IMAP protocol. Then you can retrieve the mail from the same provider on your new machine, see https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Install- ... ta-p/14714.

Cant figure out what you're talking about.

You must mean an "email provider". Not an "email client".

Outlook, Gmail, yahoo, etc, are all "providers".

The sad truth is there is no good option. Thunderbird has many issues as it sounds like you've discovered. Even the simplest mail clients have significant usability shortfalls. One of the simplest is Mutt. According to its Wikipedia article, the Mutt slogan is "All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.".

The nicest one I've used was Alpine but it's a terminal application and I don't know if it's available for Windows. I think Thunderbird is the best you can do for a mail client with a graphical interface.

If you've got good ideas on how to improve the situation perhaps you can help create something better?

Edit: Naturalplastic, no they definitely mean client, not provider. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_client for an explanation.

Thank you all for the replies.

LZ127, I am looking for software that I can use "as is" once configured. I've no desire to take up programming--on any level--as a hobby, or to use an essential tool. That takes Claws-mail out of the list of potential options for me.

POP3 does not necessarily delete email from the server, that is just one of the options to be selected during configuration. I choose to maintain my own archives because there have been a few occasions where my webmail provider ceased operations with little to no notice, and all mail on the server was lost. That, and that my email files extend back to the early '80s. But this means I have to maintain a number of legacy systems to access it all.

I had to go read the Mozilla help-file you linked to. The information there supports my suspicion that Mozilla is being run by naifs. The idea of uploading all of my personal and business correspondence to Gmail so it can be keyword mined for advertising purposes is the most ignorant idea I've heard in years.

Naturalplastic, I did indeed mean "client". What you refer to as "email providers"--Outlook, Gmail, yahoo, etc--are web applications. The "email client" I am seeking is email software to be run on my computer (rather than on a server somewhere, like Outlook etc).

Horse of course, I gave Mutt a fair chance. I wasted ten perfectly-good hours trying to get it set up to be even marginally functional, with no success. They claim it is cross-platform, but setting it up seems to require familiarity with Linux. Lacking that familiarity, it is unusable for me. Alpine, sadly, is now a "community development". It will soon be as bad as Mozilla, and I can see no reason to even consider adopting it knowing that it will soon be unusable.

I think I may just increase the amount I charge people for whom I do side-jobs, and save the money until I have enough to pay someone to re-write the necessary portions of Eudora or do a hack-job on some other software, to make it suit what I want and need. Not the best of solutions, but it looks like that may be my only choice. On the negative side, that likely means a couple more years of Crapzilla.

Thanks again to everyone for helping me consider this from some different perspectives.

I have looked high and low for what you are looking for but have not been able to find any.
I ended up going with MailBird in the end which requires $$$ if you plan to use it for more than one account.
Even if you only have one account, its display feels HTML-style, although it's very configurable.
The other client I historically used was Incredimail but it is definitely HTML-oriented. The other issue with Incredimail is that it is also prone to script-errors (and script-errors or loading time is one of the reasons why I refuse to use Word-Press to code any web-sites but another web-master details other reasons). I decided that there was no way to get what I want with computer-software unless I learned to do my own coding and did it myself but, before I could even get very far, the stupid police-state and NAZI Americans UNLAWFULLY interfered into my life and now force me to focus nearly all of my time on Legalese instead of my own life-progress.