Filed under: Software, Open Source
Correo 0.1
Correo is an open source mail app that aims to blend Camino with Thunderbird to create the best darn OS X email client out there. This 0.1 isn't exactly feature rich, but you can't expect lots of features from a 0.1 release. At the moment you can check both IMAP and POP email accounts, send email via SMTP, and choose a 2 pane view or a 3 pane view. Here's hoping that Correo really takes off, since OS X is really lacking a top notch email client.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
dalasv said 9:45PM on 2-02-2007
What's wrong with the standard OSX Mail app? I use it every day, all day, and I can't say that I feel like I'm lacking anything.
I'm not being sarcastic. Somebody please tell me what features I'm missing out on.
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Ben Kreeger said 9:45PM on 2-02-2007
My brother's the lead programmer on this project, and it's really looking up to be a great email client. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should.
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dylan said 10:11PM on 2-02-2007
@dalasv
I'm in the same boat. All Mac's already come with one of the best, if not the best, email clients out there. Why do we need this?
It's just going to be another app that all the hard-core geeks and recent switchers, wrongly, recommend to new users (like Firefox or Camino).
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notscenenough said 10:19PM on 2-02-2007
I agree. This is worthless. Firefox and this Camino stuff is for nerds and recent switchers.
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sduba2271 said 11:10PM on 2-02-2007
For nerds/geeks and recent switchers? Now I fit the first part of nerd/geek, but certainly not a "recent switcher". I'm 35 and have used Macs since before being a teen, so I'm not a recent switcher. However, I like, use and promote Firefox and Camino, as well as Thunderbird and now this project on Macs. It's not that there's anything wrong with the native Mac apps, it's just preference. Some of us like alternatives, and it's nothing more than that. Safari and Mail are two of the best apps out there, but I personally don't use them much. I like the extensions for Firefox which is why I use it more often.
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Nick said 1:28AM on 2-03-2007
I've been a long-time Mac user too, and although I recently had another look at Thunderbird after experiencing some IMAP issues in Mail.app, I quickly returned to Mail.app as I still run into some pretty annoying problems with TB. And the one thing that I simply can't live without is using the built in Address Book. If these guys resolve that one, then I'd happily give it a try.
As much as I like Safari, I do tend to use Firefox though, purely because of the extensions and the search plug-ins.
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Hiram said 3:58AM on 2-03-2007
Mail.app is the best mail app we have on Mac OS X, but frankly, it still sucks. IMAP is slow as molasses and time and again messages I already read, sometimes even replied to, will appear like new, unread messages again. I am certainly going to take a look at Correo.
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FamousPete said 6:06AM on 2-03-2007
@dalasv & dylan
Sorry guys. While I too use Mail.app each and every day, it still leaves much to be desired. Aside from crashing about once per day, it's hardly "one of the best, if not the best, email clients out there." Try creating a bulleted list in Mail.app. Doh! You can't. How the heck did *that* get missed?
The list goes on...
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eric said 6:18AM on 2-03-2007
Safari is gay, it doesn't support a lot of internet plug-ins and microsoft written AJAX. You can hate Microsoft, but it deosnt mean all mac users don't have the rite to use MS Live Spaces, Live Mail etc.
Also, Thunderbird can be easily sync between mac and PC, (just sync the e-mail profile foder), so basically if you have been using Thunder Bird on a pc for 3 years and you switched to mac, all you need to do is to copy the profile folder from PC and pasted to Mac, and Booom, all the settings and emails comes back.
Thunderbird has been handling 6000+ emails in my inbox and different folders everyday, can Mail.app do this. and I have to say the best mail app outthere is the MS Entourage, I will seriosuly think to convert my thunderbird database to the next generation Entourage when it goes UB. Mail.app? It doesnt even have calender.
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G said 8:28AM on 2-03-2007
Eric needs to grow up, but if you filter out the unnecessary remarks he has some points. Safari fails on many web sites where Firefox works fine, despite Apple's constant claims of standards.
On topic, Mail.app cannot handle the volume of email I process every day. Aside from bogging down from the volume, it lacks some VERY basic keyboard shortcuts, and doesn't even have the menu commands so I can make the shortcuts myself (display next unread message?).
Complaining that Mail.app doesn't have a calendar, however, is like saying my TV doesn't have a built-in DVD player. So what?
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Hugo said 9:21AM on 2-03-2007
The vast majority of all Americans speak only English. It would appear as if the engineers at Apple are no different since Mail.app's support for foreign accented characters is just plain horrible. In a fictive world where 100% of all computer users are on macs Mail.app would work fine. Luckily that is not the case - an Apple monopoly would be far worse than Microsoft's OS monopoly. I digress, anyway, most people in the world use Microsoft Outlook and it is just incomprehensible that Apple's main mail-program is incompatible with Outlook. All accented characters such as the Scandinavian letters å, ä ö and common characters such as © and ® turn into garbage when viewed in Outlook. I like Mail.app but this longstanding problem makes it almost unusable to me. Furthermore if I put an attachment inline in a textblock that message comes through in outlook with the text before the attachment inline and the rest as an HTML-attachment with a cryptic name. The same things happens with the signature.
Why does Apple not do anything about these annoying bugs?
And do not say that it is Outlook's fault. Yes, Outlook may not be standards compliant and quite lacking, but all other e-mail applications in the world have learned to find work-arounds to Outlook's quirks.
And please do not tell me to force Mail.app to use UTF-8 by entering the command...
defaults write com.apple.mail NSPreferredMailCharset "UTF-8"...
into the Terminal because Mail keeps forgetting this setting and even more inconveniently when forcing UTF-8 the accented characters gets scrambled in Thunderbird. I would use Entourage if it was only Universal Binary. But I would really wish that Apple implemented HTML support in Mail.app and not RTF which is the reason for the diaeresis problems and that bulleted list do not work in Mail.app.
When Apple can build such fine apps as Keynote, iPhoto, Final Cut and Aperture, how did they manage to screw up Mail.app to such an extent? I just do not get it.
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Lori Olson said 1:05PM on 2-03-2007
I'm curious. I currently use Thunderbird as a newsgroup reader. Is Correo just a mail app, or does it include the newsgroup functionality of Thunderbird as well?
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Patmian212 said 3:21PM on 2-03-2007
Does this or Mail work with a free hotmail account? I tried the plugin in HTTPMAIL but it wont erase my mail from the otmail server after I click delete, it only deletes it from the program. I am looking for a client with full support for hotmail.
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Diego said 4:56PM on 2-03-2007
Gmail may be horrid at formatting, but it's not yet another app I have to feed and care for. I hear they have a calendar, too.
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theodorelee said 6:28PM on 2-03-2007
"Safari is gay"? Can we get a filter for 15 year old commentary please? Safari has some of the best html/css/javascript support in any browser. Apple can't be faulted for not implenting non documented features in IE.
Anyway... I don't really have many big issues with Mail.app (although the previous post that mentioned lack of list support is spot on - although you can compose in TextEdit and paste in to Mail). I use Thunderbird at work, and like it for the most part. The lack of integration with Address Book is a bit of a turn off. Correo looks like a great start, but they have a LOT to implement. I was looking for access to the SVN tree to see how the build is progressing, but couldn't find it (this is open source, right?).
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Lace said 7:35PM on 2-03-2007
During the first subversions of Tiger I had some serious problems with its IMAP support. Now it works fine and since last year I returned back to Mail.app after some month of Tunderbird usage.
Today Mail.app provides me all I need for my everyday usage:
SSL/TLS support for IMAP and SMTP
Support for Addressbook
S/MIME support (bravo for the perfect integration of keychain)
Spotlight support
I never saw another mail application with a similar ease of certificate installation. Everything related to certificates is done by keychain. perfect.
Despite its very funny display of IMAP folders within a seperated list away of the root mailbox, everything works just fine for me.
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Smokey Ardisson said 8:23PM on 2-03-2007
Choice is good. Competition is good. Both make the world better for everyone.
Why are Mac browsers the best in the world? Because there has been strong competition since the debut of Mac OS X (even with the demise of MacIE).
Why is the Mac mail client experience so miserable? Because Mail.app hasn't had any serious competition, Eudora stumbled on the road to Mac OS X; Entourage, though it seems well-liked, is only available to MS Office users; and Thunderbird, while powerful, is not very Mac-like.
Correo is following the formula proven by Camino: take the power of Gecko/Mozilla technology and wrap it in Cocoa goodness. The lead developer is also a Camino developer, and he has the support of the Camino team and community. I think you can expect a quality mail client in the end.
If a new app can shake up the moribund Mac email client world, it's a better day for all of us, no matter which client we use. And Correo seems off to a promising start :)
[Disclaimer: I'm a member of the Camino team, an early tester of Correo, and have a love/hate relationship with Eudora. But I hope the comments about competition improving everyone stand on their own merit.]
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