Re: Emacs for email: Rmail v VM v Gnus

[harven <harven@free.fr>]

James Freer <jessejazza@gmail.com> writes:

> I'm just learning about emacs and currently use Alpine for mail.
> Mainly due to it's speed; i gave up with Thunderbird and Evolution as
> they're too slow for imap... Mutt i did get it set up but it's too
> configurable for my liking.
>
> As i'm only after something simple i was thinking about Rmail. Since i
> last read the wiki (a while back now) it would appear that Rmail has
> been improved for Emacs 23 & 24 being much better for imap and
> offering conversation threads.
>
> http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Rmail
>
> But reading the info i've got a bit confused - one place it says use
> MailMode and another use Fetchmail and Sendmail [also one's  got
> Postfix, Exim, Courier to choose from]. What is best?
>
> Instructions are a bit more straightforward for VM and Gnus.
>
> I'd be grateful if someone could put me right on setting up Rmail, and
> perhaps if someone has experimented with all three give their
> feedback. Basically i want to try each and decide which i'd prefer.
> Starting to use emacs as my editor it seems appropriate to use a mail
> client within it.

I have experimented with Gnus, and found it not so easy to set up.
It has a lot of features and does not behave like a standard mail reader
by default. If you have used alpine before and are willing to spend some time 
configuring gnus (say 1/2 hr), you may want to look at the emacs wiki
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusAndPine
where it is explained how to make gnus behave more like pine.

Sincerely,
--
Harven