Email client

I use thunderbird on the rare occasions I need more than just gmail

"Conversation view" is a setting in Gmail which you can turn off, has been for ages.

I haven't used a full-fat email client (other than for Exchange/M365 as you say) for over a decade.

The Outlook For Windows app from the Microsoft Store is free (may have adverts for non-subs) - it was recently updated and pretty much is Outlook now.

Thunderbird here across all of our PCs - it works...covers lots of accounts etc.

On PC … I’d probably pick Thunderbird.

Outlook is awful. One of the things I’m looking forward to when I eventually retire is never having to touch exchange/outlook again.

Thank you all

I thought this one was quite good if you want an old-school email client that isn't Outlook. They have a free tier that has the basics.

eM Client | The Best Email Client for Windows and Mac

https://www.emclient.com/

Outlook is awful. One of the things I’m looking forward to when I eventually retire is never having to touch exchange/outlook again.

Outlook is very good at what it's intended to be, a collaboration client for Exchange/M365. It is awful as a generic email client I agree, you're knocking screws in with a hammer.

I'm not actually seriously suggesting this*, but I tried Thunderbird on Linux recently and quickly ended up back using Mutt. All email clients suck, but Mutt sucks less.

* If you use tiling window managers and live in a console then knock yourself out, but if you're a normal person probably not...

if you’re a normal person

"Normal" people don't generally use Linux. 😁

Yes, I outed myself too soon in that post 🤣

Does Eudora still exist, always used to use that when Exchange let it connect...

I used Canary for a while - believe it has a windows client 

Can mutt be persuaded to integrate with the outlook calendar? That would be amazing with something like i3.

Edit: thinking about it I bet this is doomed to failure.

“Normal” people don’t generally use Linux. 😁

Unless its hidden and called ChromeOS or Android 😀

I use Postbox , which many years ago was the only program I could easily set up to route all the emails coming to my domain to the boxes I wanted them in (and I'm usually pretty good at getting computers/programs to do what I want them to). It's been simple, straightforward and reliable ever since. 30 day free trial, too.

I use Spark Mail:
https://sparkmailapp.com/
It handles all my various email accounts reliably. It has a great ‘snooze’ function, which is why I continue to use it.
There’s a paid version, but the free version does everything I need so I’ve never bothered investigating.

Outlook for Windows aka the app formerly known as Windows Mail.

It's better than the latter and more basic than the full fat version. Not used Thunderbird in a few years but I remember it having its own issues.

I also use free Outlook for Windows even though I subscribe to Microsoft 365, I prefer the simple layout.

You don't need a 365 sub to use Outlook, or even need a free Outlook/Hotmail account.

Microsoft are effectively killing the old desktop Outlook anyway and the new one is replacing Windows Mail built in app. If you have a 365 sub or corporate email you get a few more features, but it's the same app now really. The old Exchange integration is quietly dying too as they're attempting to kill Exchange server and make corprates use 365.

Just add any account you like, though it will use cloud services to cache your mail if you hook up an IMAP mail server.

Thunderbird was a PITA if you wanted to move bulk archived mail to another email client because of dissimilar file formats

Web-based mail is as simple as it gets

Another vote for emClient, I use it for windows machines that need to play nicely with Mac email and also for some friends who need a stand alone client and don't want to share their lives with Google or Microsoft (and by implication any US 3 letter agencies).

Can mutt be persuaded to integrate with the outlook calendar? That would be amazing with something like i3.

Yes/no/maybe.

Last time I looked at calendar stuff it was for my work one which is ics IIRC. There wasn't an obvious way to get mutt to do that directly so I ended up with a console calendar app combined with a FUSE WebDAV mount point to make it all work.

It's possible mutt is more capable now but I'm not sure.

I can confirm i3 is good tho.

Unless its hidden and called ChromeOS or Android 😀

Well, indeed. But I think the general point still stands 😂