claws-mail OS X
Mac OSX and Claws Mail
When I started to use Mac OS X, I didn't want to use another email client than I used under freebsd. It's name is claws-mail which is a wonderful, feature rich client (imho). That's why I wanted to continue to use it under MacOSX.
So I searched for an easy way to install claws-mail. The fink project doesn't have this application in its repository, but macports has it. This is the first of two option to install claws-mail. You habe to install macports and X11 and then just type
port install claws-mail
and wait an hour or mybe less un till everything is compiled. The main disadventage is that you need X11 and the application doesn't integrated that nice into the Mac OS X interface. But everything works and you only have to remember to use X11 shortcuts. I have never expierenced any crahes with this installation. And here a screenshot of claws-mail via mac ports:
I used Platypus to create a nice icon for the start-bar.
The second option to install claws-mail is to use a dmg-install package from http://damien.krotkine.com/claws/ . The advantage of this option is that claws-mail is linked aginst gtk for mac and therefore you won't need X11. At the moment I use this version of claws-mail for OS X, because it’s integration into Mac OS X is better than the X11 integration, but it ain’t perfect yet. A small disadventage of this package is that claws-mail seems to be a little unstable. I’ve experienced a few crashes with this version. I don’t know if it’s because of the new version of claws.mail (3.5.0) or because of gtk+ for mac. And here a screenshot of claws-mail compiled against gtk/mac:
In Conclusion you can say that claws-mail works retty good under Mac OS X. What „version“ of claws-mail you want to use, depends on if you preferr X11 apllication and/or macports or if you want to use a „native“ OS X application!