Third time's a charm!
Aug. 7th, 2008 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuOr at least I hope it is.
For the last several years I've been using the Gemini email and newsreader program. I tried it for free, then bought it because I liked how it worked. I began using it after I migrated from Windows because Forte Agent, my email program of choice at the time, isn't supported in Linux. Gemini was a good second choice.
And it remained a good choice for years. I upgraded a couple of times when newer versions were released. Once when a new OS install wiped out my data, I lost my customer key. I wrote to the good folks at Intelligit who produce the software and told them I'd lost my key and gave them my email address. The next day I they'd provided me with it and I downloaded the paid version again. They were very helpful--and prompt.
Anyhow, I continued using the program for a long time with no complaints. Up until a few months ago when, all at once and for no good reason I could determine, my Gemini installation crashed and burned in a big way. When I tried to open it, it hung up with the little "working..." swirly icon. And it stayed that way. For HOURS, if I let it run. I had to CTRL-ALT-ESC* to close the program. After going into the file directory and rescuing all my saved emails and address book data, I reinstalled.
No change. I nuked the entire installation and reinstalled completely new in a different user directory. Still no dice. To this day I have no idea what happened or why. It's a mystery.
So I switched to Kmail, the integrated email and news program for the KDE desktop I use with my SuSE Linux installation. It worked...okay. But I noticed that it was painfully slow to download new mail. It could take two or three minutes to download a few messages--and I'm not talking about huge tomes either. Just average emails. Not all the time, but nine times out of ten. (The tenth time it would download a single email lickety-split. But two or more? Hit F9 to check for new mail and go make a sandwich.)
So tonight I downloaded Thunderbird. I use it at work for checking my personal email, so I'm familiar with it. And it doesn't take forever to determine that I've got mail, or to fetch it. So now that I've migrated all my saved emails and my address book (again!) I'm going to try Thunderbird and see how it works with Linux (Firefox works great, so I think it'll be fine--but you never know). Wish me luck!
*One of the glorious things about linux (as opposed to Windows) is that when you hit CTRL-ALT-ESC the mouse cursor changes to a little skull-and-crossbones icon. ANY application you click on with that icon is killed INSTANTLY. Not like Windows, where CTRL-ALT-DEL supposedly shuts down a program, but as often as not gets hung up as well, trying and failing to shut it down, or only doing so after some indefinite but lengthy period. Not, CTRL-ALT-ESC kills them dead instantly every time.
For the last several years I've been using the Gemini email and newsreader program. I tried it for free, then bought it because I liked how it worked. I began using it after I migrated from Windows because Forte Agent, my email program of choice at the time, isn't supported in Linux. Gemini was a good second choice.
And it remained a good choice for years. I upgraded a couple of times when newer versions were released. Once when a new OS install wiped out my data, I lost my customer key. I wrote to the good folks at Intelligit who produce the software and told them I'd lost my key and gave them my email address. The next day I they'd provided me with it and I downloaded the paid version again. They were very helpful--and prompt.
Anyhow, I continued using the program for a long time with no complaints. Up until a few months ago when, all at once and for no good reason I could determine, my Gemini installation crashed and burned in a big way. When I tried to open it, it hung up with the little "working..." swirly icon. And it stayed that way. For HOURS, if I let it run. I had to CTRL-ALT-ESC* to close the program. After going into the file directory and rescuing all my saved emails and address book data, I reinstalled.
No change. I nuked the entire installation and reinstalled completely new in a different user directory. Still no dice. To this day I have no idea what happened or why. It's a mystery.
So I switched to Kmail, the integrated email and news program for the KDE desktop I use with my SuSE Linux installation. It worked...okay. But I noticed that it was painfully slow to download new mail. It could take two or three minutes to download a few messages--and I'm not talking about huge tomes either. Just average emails. Not all the time, but nine times out of ten. (The tenth time it would download a single email lickety-split. But two or more? Hit F9 to check for new mail and go make a sandwich.)
So tonight I downloaded Thunderbird. I use it at work for checking my personal email, so I'm familiar with it. And it doesn't take forever to determine that I've got mail, or to fetch it. So now that I've migrated all my saved emails and my address book (again!) I'm going to try Thunderbird and see how it works with Linux (Firefox works great, so I think it'll be fine--but you never know). Wish me luck!
*One of the glorious things about linux (as opposed to Windows) is that when you hit CTRL-ALT-ESC the mouse cursor changes to a little skull-and-crossbones icon. ANY application you click on with that icon is killed INSTANTLY. Not like Windows, where CTRL-ALT-DEL supposedly shuts down a program, but as often as not gets hung up as well, trying and failing to shut it down, or only doing so after some indefinite but lengthy period. Not, CTRL-ALT-ESC kills them dead instantly every time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-08 04:35 pm (UTC)Thunderbird is nice if all you do is POP your email. It doesn't handle local MH accounts though (at least the version I can use on our outdated Fedora installation doesn't) which is the ONLY reason I'm not using it, too. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-08 04:57 pm (UTC)